Schedule for the November meeting, “Fifty years of science/faith interaction: A Tribute to Bob Newman”

To register for this event, go to this link.

Friday night, November 5. Dinner for full and contributing members. Contact the organizers for details.

Saturday, November 6.

Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville, Virginia. (For directions see this page.) The event will also be webcast to members of the CSS (in all categories) who register in advance.

10:00 AM. Plenary talk: Michael Behe, Lehigh University. “Relentless Science, Fathomless Design”

In the past fifty years, science has made stupendous progress in elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms undergirding life. In this talk I will discuss the paramount lesson of that work: The more science learns, the deeper into life purposeful, intelligent design is seen to extend.

Bio: Michael J. Behe was awarded the Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and is currently a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University. He is the author of four books: Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (1996); The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism (2007); Darwin Devolves: The New Science of DNA That Challenges Evolution (2019); and A Mousetrap for Darwin: Michael J. Behe Answers His Critics (2020). The books have been reviewed by the New York Times, Nature, Philosophy of Science, Christianity Today, and many other periodicals.

11:00 AM. Invited talk: Hugh Ross, Reasons to Believe. (by video link) “More Than Myth: The Science of Genesis”

Most Christian scholars have abandoned Genesis 1 as a literal historical account of material reality because they see hopeless conflicts between its claims and those of established science. These conflicts arise out of a failure to apply the biblical testing method (aka scientific method) to both Genesis 1 and scientific findings. When applied, the biblical testing method transforms Genesis 1 into the strongest scientific case for the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. Since most non-Christians view Genesis 1 as Christianity’s Achilles heel, Christians need to become equipped to use it as one of their primary witnessing tools.

Bio: Astrophysicist Hugh Ross is the founder and president of Reasons to Believe (RTB), an organization dedicated to demonstrating the compatibility of science and the Christian faith. He completed his BSc in physics at the University of British Columbia and MS and PhD in astronomy at the University of Toronto. For postdoctoral studies, the National Research Council of Canada sent him to the California Institute of Technology, where he researched galaxies and quasars. In 2012, Ross, together with Dr. Gerald Schroeder, received the Ide P. Trotter Prize presented by Texas A&M University in recognition of his work in demonstrating connections between science and religion.

12:00 PM. Lunch

1:00 PM. Invited talk: Perry Phillips, “Does Astronomy Point to Design?”

Life on earth has existed for more than three billion years. Of course, earth’s location-not too far from, not to near the sun-has a lot to do with a stable temperature that makes life possible. But is this all it takes? Other factors such as a large, nearby moon and large planets in the outer solar system heavily influence the stability of life on our planet. Add to this our special location in the galaxy and our long-lived star, and we have a number of disparate factors contributing to the maintaining of life on earth. Does all this point to the truth of Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament his handiwork?”

Bio: Perry Phillips is a graduate of Beloit College (BA in physics), Cornell University (Ph.D. in astrophysics) and Jerusalem University (MA in Hebrew). He taught at the college level over 15 years and lately has been a senior quality assurance engineer with Comverse, a high-tech firm in the Boston area. He is the director of the Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute (IBRI) and has published numerous articles, some of which are available at www.ibri.org. He is a coauthor of the classic book, Genesis One and the Origin of the Earth with Bob Newman and Herman Eckelmann.

2:00 PM. President’s review: David Snoke, “When Should We Trust Scientists?”

Trust in science has all but broken down in our society, on issues as wide-ranging as COVID and other vaccines, global warming, evolution and creation, child rearing, sexual identity, life in the womb, and so on. As a society of scientists, we want people to trust good science, but we also know of areas where we have significant differences with claims made in the name of science. How should the “layman” make decisions about what claims to trust in the area of science? I will present some general principles for how to approach the problem of credibility in science.

Bio: David Snoke is Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Pittsburgh. His undergraduate degree in physics is from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in physics is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the early 1990’s, he was an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, after which he worked briefly at The Aerospace Corporation before coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. He is the author of two textbooks, on electronics and solid state physics, as well as an editor of several other scientific books. He is the president of the Christian Scientific Society, and has published A Biblical Case for an Old Earth (Baker, 2006) and several other articles on science and faith topics.

2:45 PM.  Contributed talk: Claudia C. Cotca, “Judeo-Christian Principles Impact Clinical and Scientific Research Potential”

The scope of this presentation is to highlight aetiologic diagnosis as separate from and superior to differential diagnosis, as it is written in the ancient scrolls, “separating the pure from impure.” The inherent superiority of aetiologic sequence reveals resulting vectors with optimal therapeutic index and minimal toxicity index. Hence, the acknowledgement of the established sequence of creation and intended inherent physiological function cannot be ignored, circumvented nor mitigated as it reflects on healing or creating healing. This at core reflects the Biblical scrolls’ concept of evidence-based theoretics and standards of practice for attaining expected healing results and for recognizing scientific discoveries.

Bio: Dr. Claudia C Cotca received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Cellular Molecular Biology, Master of Public Health in Toxicology, and Doctor of Dental Surgery all from the University of Michigan. She is an international lecturer and aesthetic restorative dentist, and founded the Washington Institute for Dentistry & Laser Surgery in the DC Metro area, a private practice Institute and C3 Think Tank, where she develops real time oral systemic aesthetic advanced clinical protocols. She is a subject matter expert in dentistry, lasers, toxicology, environmental sciences and public health with ADA SCDP, AAMI, and ANSI standards, and USA Delegate to ISO and IEC, among others. She is Fellow of the American Academy of Oral Medicine, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, International College of Dentists and a member of the International College of Prosthodontists. She has testified before United States Congress and has contributed on ABC, NBC and other media.

3:15 PM. Break

3:45 PM. An interview with Robert (Bob) Newman. Interviewer: Dr. John Bloom.

Bio: John A. Bloom is the director of the MA, Science and Religion Program and Professor of Physics at Biola University in La Mirada, CA, where he has taught for 28 years. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the Annenberg Research Institute (formerly Dropsie College, now part of the University of Pennsylvania). He has an M.Div. from Biblical Theological Seminary and was a student of Robert Newman there. While at Cornell, he attended the Faith Bible Church, as Robert Newman did when he attended Cornell. Bloom published The Natural Sciences: A Student’s Guide with Crossway in 2015, and has numerous other articles and book chapters relating to apologetics, and Christianity and science topics.

4:30 PM. Robert Newman, “The Landscape of the Origins Question”

A quick look at the common views of origins, namely secular evolution, theistic evolution, old-earth creation, and young-earth creation: their prevailing features, their biblical hermeneutics, and their scientific hermeneutics, Can the data tell us anything?

Bio: Robert C. Newman is Emeritus Professor of New Testament and Christian Evidences at Biblical Theological Seminary, Hatfield, Pennsylvania, and Emeritus Director of the Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute. His doctorate is in theoretical astrophysics from Cornell University; he has an M.Div. from Faith Theological Seminary, and an S.T.M. in Old Testament from Biblical Theological Seminary. He is a past President of the Evangelical Theological Society, a professional society of nearly 3000 theologians. He is coauthor of Genesis One and the Origin of the Earth (InterVarsity Press, 1977; IBRI, 2007), and editor and contributor to many other books on science and faith issues and articles in The Astrophysical Journal, Planetary and Space Science, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, The Westminster Theological Journal, and many others.He is a frequent speaker at churches and colleges on evidences for the truth of Christianity and on the interaction between science and the Bible. He has been on TV on several occasions, including guest appearances on the programs “700 Club,” “100 Huntley Street” and the A&E network program “Mysteries of the Bible.”