ISFiT: Beyond Reason

Throughout human history, humans have strived to understand the world around them, and even today with our extremely sophisticated technological innovations and discoveries, the truth about how everything works is still a big mystery that great thinkers aim to understand. Throughout history, religion and science has had an ambivalent relationship, which has raised the question as to whether they can co-exist in the pursuit of certain types of knowledge, such as the questions as to how the universe came into being, its laws, as well as what grounds our moral values. This classical debate is still as relevant as ever and in this plenary session we want to explore the relationship between science and religion in the creation (or discovery) of knowledge, the types of questions they ask, their justification, and the compatibility between them.

Joining to discuss this are:

Katarina Pajchel
St. Katarina Pajchel is a dominican sister and member of catholic dominican order. Before and after entering a religious lifestyle Katarina studied and worked with research in experimental particle physics related to the experiments at CERN. Around seven years ago she started teaching and doing research in science education at the Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education at OsloMet, and has spoken in the public sphere about science and religion as two different ways of apprehending the world.

A. C. Grayling
Anthony Grayling is a professor of philosophy and author, having written over 30 books on the history of ideas, ethics, philosophy, biography and much more. Specializing in epistemology, logic and metaphysics, Grayling is a fellow of the Royal Society of Art and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is also Vice President of Humanists UK and an Honorary Associate of the Secular Society. In his book The God Argument: The Case against Religion and for Humanism, he argues that science competes with religion in attaining certain bodies of knowledge. He has appeared frequently in the British media in which he discusses philosophy and public affairs, including atheism and religiosity.

Varadaraja V. Raman
Varadaraja V. Raman is a theoretical physicist working as a professor at RiT. Recognized as one of the most prolific authors on Hinduism and science, he has frequently appeared as a guest on PBS’ television series Closer to Truth where he often speaks about the intersection of science and hinduism. Seeking to establish harmony between them, Raman stands in the middle by defending the acceptance of evolutionary theory by religions and argues that both religion and science tries to answer the same questions.

Moderator: Halvor Kvandal
Halvor Kvandal is a university lecturer at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where he teaches philosophy. Kvandal has written about epistemology evolution and the cognitive science of belief, as well as its normative implications for theist religions.