Department of Religious Studies, Florida
International University
Professor Nathan Katz, Professor and Chair
The Shul of Bal
Harbour and The Aleph Institute of Miami, Florida
Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar
B’Or
Ha’Torah Journal of Science, Art & Modern Life in the Light of the Torah
Professor Herman Branover, Editor-in-Chief; Ilana Attia, Managing Editor
The Sixth Miami International
Conference
on Torah & Science
For information contact
Miriam Gitman, The Shul, 9540 Collins Av, Surfside FL 33154
Tel (305) 868-1411
ext. 7319 Fax: (305) 861-2426 E-mail:
miriam@theshul.org
PRESS RELEASE
Unity, Duality, Multiplicity, and Intelligent Design to be Discussed
at The Sixth Miami International Torah & Science Conference
Eight rabbis (among them a kabbalistic healer, a hospital HIV
specialist, an oncologist, and a fertility counselor), a neurologist, an
anesthesiologist, four biologists, four physicists, two mechanical
engineers, a mathematician, a sociologist, and an accountant (all of
them Torah observant Jews) will be joined by Dr. William A. Demski,
Southern Baptist Seminary professor of theology and science and an
expert and leading authority on the Intelligent Design theory, at the
Sixth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science to be held at
Florida International University on December 13-15, 2005. The theme of
the conference is “Unity, Duality, and Multiplicity.”
Some of the most contentious issues of our day will be discussed during
the two-and-a-half day conference. In the inaugural keynote address,
Rabbi Professor Moshe Tendler, arguably orthodox Judaism’s best known
medical ethicist, will define the beginning and end of life and explain
why he sees Intelligent Design as a tool that Jews should use.
The second day of the conference will be devoted mainly to the question
“How Should We Teach the Origin and Diversity of Species?” High school
teachers from Miami and throughout North America are being invited to
interact with Dr. Dembski, Rabbi Tendler (who is also a biology
professor at Yeshiva University), UCLA biology professor Eduardo Zeigler
(CEO of the Torah Science Foundation), physicists Dr. Jack Hanoka (who
has found fallacies in the major methods used to date the age of the
Earth) and Dr. Lee Spetner (author of Not by Chance, who uses
information theory to calculate that the largest cosmological age of the
universe does not give enough time for the mutations required by
evolutionary theory to have taken place, and who with Fred Hoyle and
others in 1985 exposed that the archaeopteryx fossil at the British
Museum was a hoax).
William Demski,
who is considered the most articulate advocate of Intelligent Design,
earned a master’s in statistics and a doctorate in philosophy from the
University of Illinois, a doctorate in mathematics from the University
of Chicago, and an M. Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Among
his books are The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small
Probabilities (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Uncommon
Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing (ISI Books,
2004), and Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA (Cambridge
University Press, 2004).
”This is the first time to my knowledge that evangelical Christians and
orthodox Jews will come together around this cutting-edge issue,” says
conference organizer Professor Nathan Katz, who is an expert at bringing
different religious groups together to discuss the benefits of
spirituality.
Some orthodox Jewish
scientists coming to the conference to present evidence against
evolutionary theory do not think that Intelligent Design should be
included in the science curriculum of Jewish schools. Professor Eduardo
Zeiger maintains that Jews do not need Intelligent Design. Zeiger says
that abundant scientific evidence supports the work of evolution at the
micro-level, but there is virtually no evidence for the postulated
principles of macro-evolution. Zeiger believes that the hot public
debate on Intelligent Design needs to be enriched by Torah knowledge.
Dr. Lee Spetner favors teaching evolution in a critical manner, “not as
indoctrination,” in science classes and teaching Intelligent Design in
religion classes.
Other topics to be addressed include the role of DNA testing in
establishing Jewish identity among marginal communities, how halakhah
(Jewish law) would have ruled on the tragic case of Terry Schiavo,
halakhic questions raised by developments in food technology,
kabbalistic writings on the historic progression of the feminine from
diminishment to full stature, and whether the mind and soul are a unity
or a multiplicity.
A young woman who
attended the last Torah and science conference in 2003 said the
experience was amazing: “Listening and interacting with such brilliant
minds is a privilege. One often thinks of science and religion as being
in opposing camps, but the conference gives you a whole new
perspective.” This in fact is the aim of the conference: exploring the
interface between Torah and science. And although the lecturers rank
among the greatest scientists of our day, their presentations are
accessible to the lay public. The previous two conferences, in 2001 and
2003, drew over 1,000 attendants. Participants came from different
parts of the country and the world.
Conference organizers
are Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar, spiritual leader and founder of The Shul
and the Aleph Institute (a national outreach program for prisoners and
their families providing
faith-based
rehabilitation and
preventive ethics
education); Professor Nathan Katz, director of the
Center for the Study of Spirituality at FIU; and Professor Herman
Branover of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and
editor-in-chief of the B’Or Ha’Torah Journal of Science, Art, and
Modern Life. Branover is a world pioneer in the alternative energy
field of magnetohydrodynamics.
Coordinating the
conference are Ilana Attia, Managing Editor of the B’Or Ha’Torah
Journal, and Miriam Gitman, Special Projects Coordinator at The
Shul.
