The First Sunset: The First Meeting

The discussion group I’ve organized involving faculty in religion, philosophy and biology met for the first time today (at a theological discussion center not far from campus) to discuss ancient and modern ideas of creation, divine action and causality as well as their relation (or not) to the natural sciences. Our jumping-off point for discussion was John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One. Some fascinating discussions ensued, as well as interesting opportunities to compare what issues come up or fail to come up in different classes.

Next we’ll be discussing Mark Smith’s book The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 next (as well as Genesis 2-3 to complement our focus on Genesis 1), followed by Richard Grigg’s Beyond the God Delusion: How Radical Theology Harmonizes Science and Religion. We’ll continue to the end of the academic year and finish off with a lunchtime panel discussion featuring the members of the group.

I’m already thinking it would be good to follow up with a sequel series on Revelation and end-times fascination. We could call it “The Last Sunset” (since the current group is called “The First Sunset”) and the fact that it would run into 2012 makes the topic seem particularly timely.

In the mean time, I’m thinking about ways to adapt a poster from the movie 2010 for my religion and sci-fi class…