Invitation Why? Meeting Topics and Notes
Six Liminal Subjects in Natural Philosophy i.e. Science.
The plan is we explore new ideas at the frontier of understanding and relate them to our sense and practice of religion. Behind the frontier, scientific teaching is backed by considerable evidence and confirmation. On the frontier however, everyone is still learning – even the experts. You don’t have to be an expert to explore. Pretend it is the Victorian Age before overspecialization. Dive in. For now, there are 6 areas to consider.
(1) Religion and Science (presented May 11, 2026)
Our goal in the initial meeting is to get to know each other and our interests. Both Science and Religion are mentioned in the name of this series of study units. It may surprise many to know that both require faith in the unproveable. We begin this study unit discussing an illustrated essay entitled “Astrophysics finds Religion – Can You”. In the essay, we learn that most astrophysicists prefer to believe in something (the multiverse) without any empirical support in order not to deal with observations of our universe. Then, we pose a transgressive question to be answered in the final meeting.
Finally, the title of this series uses the term “frontiers” in a way that requires explanation. Our explanation will take the form of a short review of how science has been understood differently over history. Today part of the scientific community works opportunistically with a variety of methods – a frontier approach from which we derive our title: Science Frontiers and Religion.
For the agenda and material from this unit, please click here.
(2) Emergence – please believe your eyes (presented June 8, 2026)
Emergence is a new frontier of science that is relatively unknown although it engages with the well-known and well-supported study of Biology. The twist is that Biology discusses what exists as if it is just here as a simple obvious fact while emergence strives to understand how matter came alive. This unit begins a three-part discussion related to emergence. The resources for this unit contain references to YouTube video lectures, books and recent magazine articles. You can look forward to European Starlings and Conway’s Game of Life.
For the agenda and material from this unit, please click here.
(3) Things – where subjective and objective merge (planned for July 13, 2026)
I’ve noticed that one obstacle to thinking about new science is that it is hard to reimagine what it is to be a thing. Some things act as agents. Are they deterministic or not? In this unit we kick around some ideas. There is a video prepared already and many books address determinism.
(4) The Second Arrow of Time (planned for August 10, 2026)
The title of the unit is taken from a new book that views weak and strong emergence as an intrinsic property the material universe placing it on a par with the second law of thermodynamics. That second law is thought by some to define the first arrow of time.
Either here or in Unit 5, we will review the mechanisms of emergence at least as they are understood today. This will include: Stuart Kaufmann’s approach, functional information, assembly theory, etc. This will be mostly an inventory but some of the ideas are sticky – you will remember them and use them.
(5) The Evolution of Natural Selection (planned for September 14, 2026)
The content of this unit depends on how much gets covered in Unit 4. The basic idea, however, is that emergent phenomena are subject to selection, as I hope has already been explained at this point. This unit probes what that means for higher levels of organization like community, culture, nation states, and – of course – religion. The religion of the future must have success now. What are the selection pressures? Where do they act?
(6) Ethics/Religion (planned for October 12, 2026)
In closing, we fold together the previous ideas to explore their connection with ethics and religion. Also, there will be a controversial answer to the transgressive question, “Why”, asked during the first session.
Just as a guess, we will be talking about religion as an explanation for change and call for moral responsibility for the direction of change. All inputs are welcome for this closing session.
Religious issues:
Was the first moment intentional?
Can we have faith in the creativity evident in reality?
What might a conjectured god of creation expect to gain by having a universe?
Does moral fiber matter?
Knowing where we come from, what do we owe the future?
Is our soul a thing? Do we have free will?
Paul Baker 6/2026