Science and Religion in Dynamic Interplay

This presentation and discussion explore some of the themes addressed in the paper “Science and Religion in Dynamic Interplay," which begins by considering legitimate concerns many thinkers have with religion. It then describes how it may be fruitful to think about both science and religion as viable sources of knowledge in their own right. The balance of the paper focuses on three ways in which science and religion can be understood to complement each other—how they supplement each other, correspond to each other, and cultivate each other—and the implications for the generation of knowledge.

  • Todd Smith

    Todd Smith holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto where he focused on the development of a consultative epistemology as it pertains to health and illness. He has since published articles on epistemology, the harmony of science and religion, freedom, and historical consciousness. He was recently the coordinator of the Research Department at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, and now serves on the Executive Committee of the Association for Bahá’í Studies in North America.

  • Tara Raam

    Tara Raam is a post-doctoral fellow in Neurobiology at UCLA. Her research uses simultaneous recordings of brain activity in groups of mice in combination with machine learning approaches to generate models of individual and collective behavior. She is interested in discourses on consciousness, evolution, human nature, and harmony of science and religion.

  • Whitney White Kazemipour

    Whitney White Kazemipour earned a PhD and an MA in Anthropology from UCLA, specializing in psychocultural anthropology, and an AB in Intellectual and Cultural History from Princeton. As a Wilmette Institute faculty member, she co-teaches “Science, Religion, and the Bahá’í Faith.” Her article, “Even as the Waves of One Sea: Bahá’í Consultation’s Implicit Cultural Support for the Clash of Differing Opinions,” was recently published in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies.

  • Stephen Friberg

    Stephen R. Friberg is a physicist with a research background in quantum and nonlinear optics. His Ph.D. is from the University of Rochester for an early demonstration of quantum entanglement. After a postdoc at Bell Labs, he worked a decade at NTT Basic Research Labs in Tokyo, at a start-up in Silicon Valley, and in the semiconductor industry. A founding member of ABS Japan, and a past member of the Executive Committee of ABS North America, he is a teaching lead for the Wilmette Institute.

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45th Annual Conference

In the Footsteps of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá: Contributing to the Discourses of Our Time

3,000

The views expressed in this recording are those of the presenters and do not necessarily represent the views of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, nor the authoritative explications of Bahá’í writings.