Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno at FUMC Boulder!
Starts: Wednesday, February 29th 2012 at 7:30 pm
Ends: Wednesday, February 29th 2012 at 9:00 pm
Astronomer to the Vatican, Guy Consolmagno, to speak on –
God’s Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion
First United Methodist Church of Boulder invites the community to enjoy a presentation by Guy Consolmagno, Wednesday February 29th at 7:30pm. This event is free. Parking is free.
Brother Guy Consolmagno believes in the need for science and religion to work alongside one another rather than as competing ideologies. In 2006, he said, “Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism– it’s turning God into a nature God.”
Brother Guy Consolmagno
Consolmagno was born in Detroit, Michigan. He earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT, and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona, was a researcher at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps (Kenya), and taught university physics at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, before entering the Jesuits in 1989.
At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, his research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies. He observes asteroids, moons, and Kuiper Belt comets with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and curates the Vatican meteorite collection in Castel Gandolfo. Along with more than 100 scientific publications, he is the author of a number of popular books including Turn Left at Orion (with Dan Davis), Worlds Apart (with Martha Schaefer), Brother Astronomer, and God’s Mechanics, and for the International Year of Astronomy he edited The Heavens Proclaim.
Dr. Consolmagno has served on the governing board of a number of international scientific organizations, including the International Astronomical Union, the Meteoritical Society and the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. He served as chair of the DPS in 2006-2007, is past president of IAU Commission 16 (Planets and Satellites) and past secretary of IAU Division III (Planetary Systems Sciences) as currently serves on the IAU Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature. He has held chairs as a visiting Jesuit scholar at St. Joseph’s University (Philadelphia), Fordham University (New York), and LeMoyne College (New York).
We believe that human beings experience longing for meaning, purpose, connection to others and a desire for transcendence beyond oneself. From early in the history of humanity, religions emerged and evolved in response to that longing. But we also know that while the institutions spawned by religion have had many positive influences, they also at times have inflicted great pain...