2006 EMERGENCE CONFERENCE SUMMARY REPORT

Guests for Thursday's public lecture listen attentively to Dr. King's presentation.

On September 28-30, 2006, Zygon Center for Religion and Science welcomed over 50 professors, graduate students, and ministers from around the United States and from as far as Estonia and Pakistan to participate in “Emergence: A Better Vision of Nature, Science, and Religion?”

The research conference kicked off Thursday evening with a public lecture by Barbara King, Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. King's lecture, entitled “Beyond Genes and Memes: Evolutionary Science and the Origins of Religion” drew almost a hundred guests to the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago's Augustana Chapel.

The next morning, registered participants continued the conversation begun by King's lecture. In sessions throughout the weekend, lecturers from the disciplines of philosophy, physics, ecology, computer science, psychology and theology explored the concept of emergence as it arises in their respective fields of study.

Dr. Robert Ulanowicz gives his lecture on Friday.

Lively discussion followed each lecture, as participants challenged the speakers and one another to understand the phenomenon in various disciplinary contexts, clarify definitions of the term, and gain insights in its significance for the understanding of processes on various scales.

After introductory remarks from ZCRS Director Antje Jackelén and Jim Proctor, director of the New Visions project at conference co-sponsor University of California Santa Barbara, philosopher Greg Peterson, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at South Dakota State University, led off the day's research presentations with a talk entitled “Species of Emergence.” Participants were also treated to lectures by Leo Kadanoff,

Professor Emeritus of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Chicago; Robert Ulanowicz, Professor of Theoretical Ecology at University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory; Anne Foerst, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at St. Bonaventure University; Warren Brown, Professor of Psychology at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary and a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute; Antje Jackelén, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; and Philip Hefner, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Senior Fellow at ZCRS.

Dr. Leo Kadanoff responds to a question.

For the full conference program, click here.