Sept. 9, 2003
CONTACT:
Gordon Ovenshine (724) 738-4854; e-mail: gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu
PUBLIC INVITED
TO EXPLORE ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS --
PRESTIGIOUS GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR TO LECTURE
AT SRU
SLIPPERY
ROCK, Pa. – Exploding populations. Diminishing water supply.
Global epidemics. An overriding challenge in the 21st
century: Does everyone have the moral obligation to care for the
environment? Does science provide compelling reasons to do so? Do
ethics or
religion?
The
public is invited to explore these profound questions when Slippery
Rock University hosts a Sept. 18 lecture by Dr. John Haught,
director of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion at
Georgetown University. His talk, “Science and the Question
for Cosmic Purpose,” is free and open to the public. It is
scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at SRU’s Spotts World Culture
Building.
The
gulf between science and religion has had a particularly serious
impact on whether people feel a moral responsibility for the
environment. The aim of Haught’s lecture is to further a
“new understanding of ‘stewardship’ of the
earth, one that corresponds to an experience of our lives as an
ongoing journey, in a dynamic, evolving and restless
universe.”
A
Landegger distinguished professor of theology, Haught has written a
number of books pertaining to the idea of cosmic purpose,
“Nature and Purpose” (1980), “The
Cosmic Adventure” (1984), “The Promise of Nature:
Ecology and Cosmic Purpose” (1993)), and, “God After
Darwin: A Theology of Evolution”
(2000).
His
visit is sponsored by SRU’s philosophy department’s
Center for Applied and Professional Ethics.
Support
for the lecture comes also from the biology department, the Master
of Science in Sustainable Systems Program and the College of
Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts.
#PN, PgN,
PR
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