Is evolution impossible to reconcile with God’s work? A process based on competition, violence, and selfishness seems an odd way for the God of love to create the world. The objection I hear raised most commonly about evolutionary creation is whether God could really have subjected countless generations of innocent animals to the sort of suffering that the natural world as we find it entails. No good God could do that. And so, people look for theological alternatives. They look in particular to theories of fallenness. For the reformers, like John Calvin, it was human fallenness that was to blame. …
Project Wrap-Up Newsletter
Our three-year Local Chapters Project ends with 2018. Read our newsletter PDF here!
November Prairie Tour with Darrel Falk
Winnipeg, MB • Steinbach, MB • Saskatoon, SK • Edmonton, AB • Calgary, AB In November, the Canadian prairies will witness a lecture tour featuring Vancouver native Darrel Falk speaking on “Evolution, Creation, and the God Who is Love.” Darrel Falk is well known for his ability to hold a clear position while maintaining peaceful dialogue in the face of criticism and controversy. He thus superbly embodies the ethos of CSCA, which seeks to maintain an attitude of respect, civility, and grace, an approach which carefully listens to opposing voices, while robustly puts forward one’s own arguments and responses to …
Regent College “Interface” Series Live-Streamed at TWU
“Science, Faith, & Human Flourishing” at TWU and the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation present a series of FREE PUBLIC LIVE-STREAMS hosted at Trinity Western University. These lectures will be live-streamed from Regent College in Vancouver. Note! With refreshments! Location: Northwest Auditorium, Trinity Western University, 7600 Glover Road, Langley, BC Six lectures live streamed at TWU from Regent: Professor McGrath, a leading authority in the field, will speak of his own perception of science and religious faith, reflecting on his progression from atheism to Christianity. The lecture will focus on two central ways of understanding the relation of science and religious faith: the …
Purposeful Randomness in God’s Creation
As part of our 3-year Local Chapters Project, CSCA is producing a series of pamphlets on matters of science and faith. These “Faith and Science, Eh?” pamphlets are provided as a courtesy to help Canadians explore intersections of science and Christian faith in a variety of areas. These pamphlets may be downloaded, printed, and distributed free of charge. This blog post reproduces the full text of this pamphlet. Adapted from Chapter 2 of Christian J. Barrigar, Freedom All The Way Up: God and the Meaning of Life in a Scientific Age (Friesen, 2017). Randomness in Creation? Is there genuine randomness …
ASA 2018 Live-Streams
Unable to join us for the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation (and CSCA)? Watch the live stream this weekend here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/DCBnnuBfpyz Events scheduled for live-streaming: (all times are Eastern Daylight Time) Friday, July 27: 7:00 PM – Opening Session Friday, July 27: 7:30 PM – Douglas Lauffenburger, “Humanizing Therapeutics Discovery” Saturday, July 28: 8:45 AM – Nigel M. De S. Cameron, “A Human Century?” Saturday, July 28: 7:30 PM – Francis S. Collins “The Joyful Complementarity of Science and Faith” Sunday, July 29: 11:00 AM – Noreen Herzfeld, “Cybernetic Enhancement and the Problem of the Self” Sunday, July 29: 8:15 PM – State of the ASA …
Looking forward to Janet Danielson’s Six Pieces of a Reverberant Cosmos
[pullquote]Single-day Saturday admission ($125 until Apr 27) includes: – all conference sessions that day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner – PLUS admission our special evening “Sky Gala” with Katharine Hayhoe, live music, and a reception with hors d’oeuvres. Register now[/pullquote] I first met Janet Danielson at a satellite conference of the 2014 Annual Meeting of the ASA/CSCA, entitled Academy Regained. The main conference was held at Hamilton’s McMaster University, and part of the satellite was held “up the mountain” at Redeemer University College. Janet’s talk on “Music as Science and Art” revealed to me the depth and breadth of her awareness of …
Astronomy, Life, and Our Cosmic Creator
S. D. Benecchi (PhD, MIT) is a senior astronomer at the Planetary Science Institute. Her research focuses on small bodies, often binaries, in the outer solar system. That work has included being part of the Deep Ecliptic Survey (DES), a program to discover and dynamically characterize ~500 Kuiper belt objects (KBOs), and the Outer Solar System Origins Survey. Indeed there is a minor planet, 21458 Susank, named for her. Active in educational outreach, she recently completed with two co-authors, a curriculum entitled The Crossroads of Science and Faith: Astronomy Through a Christian Worldview. On the ASA and CSCA web sites, …
Looking Forward to Venema at CSCA 2018
[pullquote]Single-day Saturday admission ($125 until Apr 27) includes: – all conference sessions that day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner – PLUS admission our special evening “Sky Gala” with Katharine Hayhoe, live music, and a reception with hors d’oeuvres. Register now[/pullquote] I am really excited about hearing Dennis Venema speak at the upcoming conference on May 11th-14th. He has a particular talent for explaining complicated topics in the areas of genetics and biology in an engaging and informative way. I have personally benefited from listening to his talks on the biological evidence for evolution and cannot recommend his recent book enough. Co-authored with …
Looking Forward to Santa Ono at TWU
[pullquote]Single-day Saturday admission ($125 until Apr 27) includes: – all conference sessions that day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner – PLUS admission our special evening “Sky Gala” with Katharine Hayhoe, live music, and a reception with hors d’oeuvres. Register now[/pullquote] Perhaps not many Christians in BC’s Lower Mainland are aware that the President of UBC, Santa J. Ono, is himself an evangelical Christian. As a professor of medicine and biology, Ono has worked at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University College London, and Emory, where he served as faculty advisor for several InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapters. Prior to his appointment at UBC, he was …