Religion & Science: The DSR in Conversation with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Religion and science are deeply interconnected in ways that matter for everyone, regardless of their convictions or expertise. So often pitched against each other as “religion vs. science,” the story of their intersection is considerably more interesting than a narrative of battle suggests. In the study of religion, when we study “science,” we situate it as a way of knowing within historical, social, and political contexts; we do the same for “religion.” In our presentation, we will reflect briefly on four questions:

1. What is the “secular” and why does it matter for the intersection of religion and science in our contemporary moment?
2. How does the social context of debates about religion and science change the significance of the questions addressed, including debates about evolution and evolutionary thought?
3. As scholars of religion who have taught courses on “religion and science”, what have we learned about and from science students who are eager for critical conversations about the intersection of religion and science, in which they can reflect on their own social location?
4. How does thinking about the intersection of religion and science make space for thinking about questions of equity, decolonization, and anti-racism?

If you would like to attend, please email religion.comms@utoronto.ca for details.