On April 16^th, 2005, our guest from Italy, from the University of Venice, Prof. Dr. Vittorio Possenti presented a paper Faith and Reason in the Contemporary Research: The Problem of the Human Being (with the transalation from Iralian by Dr. Yuri Romashov). Prof. Possenti is also the editor of Seconda navigazione. Annuario di filosofia  (Mondadori, Milano), Per la filosofia; La società Senso Comune, and is a member of the Italian National Committee for bioethics of the Papal Academy of Political Sciences; the author of more than 20 books, some of which are translated into foreign languages. Among them are: Filosofia e Rivelazione, Città Nuova 2000, 2ed; La filosofia dopo il nichilismo, Rubbettino 2001; Religione e vita civile Armando 2002, 2ed, Città Nuova 2003. We publish here one of the many questions posed during the discussion after the presentation.

Question by Dr. Alexei Chernyakov:

You have criticized the reductionist’s attitude of the contemporary science from the point of view of the metaphysical tradition. What sort of argument can metaphysics oppose to this project?  

Prof. Possenti: The task of the contemporary metaphysics is to present a systematic overview of the ontological concepts including those that are descendant from theology and to prove on this  basis that the reductionist project is ontologically inconsistent, for it does not take into account different meanings and dimension of being.

SPECRS is planning a series of broadcasts for “Radio Russia”. Three of them have been held already by Prof. A.G. Chernyakov on “Radio Russia” dedicated to the science-religion interface in the context of contemporary Russian culture. According to the format, these were live broadcasts under the general title “The Priest’s Hour”, carried out by journalist Olga Afanasyeva, with the participation of an Orthodox Priest, the head of the Missionary Department, St. Petersburg Eparchy (Diocese), the priest Rev. Georgy Joffe. The audience of “Radio Russia” numbers up to 1,000,000 people.

 The interactive regime of the broadcasts (live questions and answers) allows discussions on a wide spectrum of views and beliefs, voiced by representatives of different social groups, concerning the dialogue between science and faith and their coexistence within contemporary Russian culture. The questions range from: “Are there some scientific methods that allow us to calculate the exact date of Christ’s Birth?” (The broadcast on the eve of Nativity) to “Why do the scientist (A.G. Ch.) and the priest (Father Georgy) agree with one another on main points concerning the relationship between science and faith while it has been proven that the scientific picture of the world entirely contradicts the religious one?”. Some listeners want to know more about the activities of the world scientific community directed towards new forms of dialogue with world religions: do such activities and collaborative conversations exist? What are their goals, forms and institutional structures?

 This forum is an excellent way to build rapport between scientists, clergy and the general public. It promotes further learning about the ideas and beliefs that divide us and also discussion about those things which bring us closer together as human beings. 

The St. Petersburg Educational Center for Science and Religion (SPECRS) the St. Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy (SRPh)together with St.Petersburg Association of Scientists and Scholars, are pleased to announce a conference on the topic of "SCIENCE, IDEOLOGY and RELIGION", scheduled for March 30th - April 2nd, 2005,  in St. Petersburg, Russia.  For participation, please, send us to office@srph.spb.ru  the following file with your personal data.

Dr. Vladimir Vasilik, SPECRS Organizing group member,  took part in the section “The Turin Shroud” held in the framework of a conference “XIII International Christian Readings” in Moscow, 26 January 2005. The theme of his paper was “The History of the Shroud in the first millennium A.D.”  The main idea of the presentation claims that for the most part of the first millennium the Shroud was in Jerusalem Church and only in the IX century it was brought to Constantinople. The judgment is based on analyses of various Greek, Latin, Georgian and Ethiopian sources.

 Other main paper presenters at the conference:

1.    Dr. Alexander Belyakov - “The origin of the image on the Shroud”

2.      Andrey Ivanov (Dr. of Physics) - “The problem of radio-carbonate dating of the Shroud and alternative ways of physical dating”

3.      Dr. Fr. Cyril Kopeikin (Dr. of Physics) - “The theological significance of the hypothesis about the fiery body of Christ”

4.      Irina Vishnevskaya (Dr. of Arts) - “The shrouds of the Moscow Kremlin”

 This conference took place in the Sretensky monastery under supervision of its abbot Tichon Shevkunov, who is also a rector of Sretensky Theological Seminary.

October 26th, 2004 at SPECRS seminar there was a presentation "Beauty and the
Theory of Mathematical Intellect" by Dr. Leonid Perlovsky (Boston, USA). Dr. Leonid Perlovsky is Principal Research Physicist and Technical Advisor at the Air Force Research Laboratory. In his presentation Dr.Perlovsly talked about interactions among concepts and emotions, conscious and unconscious, language and mind, and how these interactions determine the evolution of languages and cultures. Initial theories of mathematical intelligence were based on logic. We know today that logic is a result of the working mind, and also that the mechanisms of the mind are more complex than previously imagined. The mind uses concepts and emotions. The mind is governed by special instincts for knowledge, which drive us to understand the surrounding world. Contemporary mathematical theories of the intellect come close to suggesting a scientific understanding of the nature of beauty and the spiritually sublime.

Metanexus Conference June 5th - 9th, "Science and Religion in Context", University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (see more at http://www.metanexus.net/conference2004/) For SPECRS/LSI ("Local Societies Initiative") Dr.Pecherskaya and Dr.Chernyakov gave a presentation: "The Nature of the Science and Religion Dialogue in Russia and its Basic Ground(s)": "...At the start of this new millennium we are aware that the notion of 'truth' presents many more aspects than the traditional adaequatio intellectus et rei takes into account. We know that searching for truth, knowing truth and remaining in truth have a bearing not only on the norms and canons of theoretical and empirical knowledge, but also on the creative activity and behaviour, religious life, and even culture as a whole. That is, truth has (or should we say, truths have) various manifestations, which involve all aspects of human life on this Earth. However, the idea of a liberation from the universal claims of science at the beginning of the 20th century, which is currently under way, must not mean giving up attempts at responsible and, in a certain sense, rigorous thinking. It is such a personally-involved world view that has at all times determined the norms of existence of the scientific community and also supported the Church's belief that it is possible to live according to a greater truth that encompasses and guides the whole of human existence.
Although Russian philosophy has always maintained the thesis according to which the human intellect is fundamentally whole and that all the energies of a man's soul should be united in an ascension to an innermost core (or perhaps precisely because of this circumstance), the problem of 'science vs. religion' in Russian culture has not had the tension and importance which allow us to speak of it as one of the major factors determining the history of Western thought. Because of that the discussion of this most important dualistic problem goes on rather languidly in Russia, the outlines of related problems remain unclear, and the manner of posing questions and the strategy of thinking about them are more often than not completely irresponsible"...

21 June - SPERCS meeting with the representatives of the new Templeton Program 'Global Perspectives on Science and Spirituality' (http://www.uip.edu-GPSS) with Prof. Pranab Das, Principal Investigator, Dr. Alexei Nesteruk, GPSS Expert, Dr. Tom Mackenzie, Project Manager.
 

On the 6th April 2004 the Round Table meeting "Religion and Science as Two Ways of Interpreting the World: Community of the Hermeneutical Problem" with the post-graduate (doctoral) students of St. Petersburg research institutions belonging to the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) took place at the Conference Hall of the St. Petersburg Scientific Center of RAS. The meeting had been organized by St. Petersburg Educational Center "Religion and Science" with the assistance of St. Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy, St. Petersburg Chair of Philosophy (RAS) and St. Petersburg Association of Scientists and Scholars (SPASS). Additional information...