23rd International Interdisciplinary Seminar
Science and Society
By: Theo McKeever and Antoine Suarez (IIS)
Online event, January 2nd, 2021.
Organized by: The Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (IIS)
Can religion be explained by means of evolutionary scientific categories?
Did the monotheistic Religions based on the Biblical Revelation evolve from primitive “religious beliefs” like animism and shamanism?
Are Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences producing a new species that will supersede Homo sapiens?
Will the Data Religion become the next link in the evolutionary chain of religions?
The religious belief that the human person shares rights that are inviolable is at the core of the liberal constitutional state and democracy. Will this belief disappear with the arrival of a new “God-like species” Homo Deus?
These burning questions meet challenges by Yuval Noah Harari in the two books:
Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Harari’s proposals can be considered a contribution to the emergent field of “Evolutionary Religious Studies”. One important representative of this area of research is Robin Dunbar in Oxford, from whom Harari borrows a number of ideas.
In this online event we aim to start a discussion that may help to understand why these questions are becoming relevant and find satisfactory answers.
Program:
Registration:
Please send an e-mail to suarez.antoine@gmail.com with a short description of your motivation and academic background, and giving the name of the person who recommended you this meeting.
As the number of participants is limited, we might not be able to accept all applications for this meeting.
Zoom-meeting IIS-2021: