hat is ultimate reality and how can science shed light on it? That is the challenging question being addressed by the program “Science and Theology Advanced Research Series (STARS)” run by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) with the help of Templeton funding.
“The goal of STARS is to sponsor research by small teams of scientists and humanities scholars on the ways science, in light of philosophical and theological reflection, points towards the nature, character and meaning of ultimate reality. The overall approach is to bring together world-class scientists who are also willing to look beyond the limits of their own discipline to ask such big questions as these: Is the universe eternal or did it have a beginning? Is there purpose to life and mind in the universe? Where do our values come from in light of biological evolution?” says STARS Principal Investigator Robert John Russell, the Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science in Residence at the Graduate Theological Union. “The ‘big questions’ that STARS raises are based on science, but they go beyond what science alone can answer.”
The program first brought together around 150 scientists and humanities scholars for a series of conferences in Cancun, Mexico. Dozens of small teams of between two to six scholars, carefully balanced between science and humanities, then competed aggressively for twenty $20,000 planning grants for initial research over a six-month period. From among these, five winning teams were selected in November 2007 to receive grants of $100,000 for more intensive research. Two renewal grants of $200,000 will be available for continuing research by the most successful teams.
Since the project runs at least until mid-2009, it is too early to predict major outcomes. But Russell has high hopes for the research already being undertaken by the five STARS teams. He believes that the teams are examining some really interesting questions whose solution might enable scientists to throw off the reductionist claim that science alone describes everything of important in the world. “If we want to gain genuine knowledge about what really characterizes ultimate reality, we need more research like that currently supported by STARS.”