Churches Start Dialogue on Science and Theology | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff - EN

Churches Start Dialogue on Science and Theology [Excerpts]

A new program called Scientists in Congregations, created by an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, is in full swing this year to help other pastors start conversations about science and religion.

The Rev. Greg Cootsona [said] that the project is “designed to catalyze the dialogue of science and theology in local congregations.” There are no set guidelines except to engage with the “highest level of science.”

The initiative is a grant program funded by the John Templeton Foundation and its mission calls for “sustained, creative collaboration between practitioners in the fields of science (scientists or science educators) and theology/faith practice (pastors) who are already engaged with one another through shared participation in the life of a congregation.”

Churches around the country applied for grants ranging from $10,000 up to $30,000 so that they could have funding for resources to work with scientists and science educators in their congregations or community.

Hope Lutheran Church of Maryland was one of the churches that received a grant this year. Because the congregation is close to the campus of the University of Maryland they have many scientists in their congregation, including Ida Hakkarinen, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a steering committee member for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology.

The grants will last until 2013, but Cootsona said the hope is that congregations would continue their work after as well. The program directors want churches to make the discussion of science an ongoing part of their congregation.

He said it’s an “important issue for the church to pick up because God created the world, and scientists give us deeper insight into [that] world.”

http://www.christianpost.com/news/churches-start-dialogue-on-science-and-theology-66522/

[TBC: TBC: We have reported on the Templeton Prize (and recipients) on a number of occasions. New ager John Marks Templeton was uncompromisingly hostile to Scripture. Consequently, any “insights” received by these congregations will only push them further along the apostate path adopted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.]