Category Archives: Theology

Philosophy, Theology

Bridging science and religion

That’s something that I just read in the DHV newsletter 11/2010 – teaching science in the church :-)

Studierende der Universität Kassel lernen auch auf Kirchenbänken. 20.616 Studierende sind derzeit eingeschrieben. Das sind 1.000 mehr als zu Beginn des vergangenen Wintersemesters und damit mehr als je zuvor. Hörsäle, Mensen und Seminarräume platzen aus den Nähten. Die Hochschulleitung hat daher zusätzliche Räume im Stadtgebiet angemietet. Hierzu gehören ein Hörsaal im Klinikum, Räume in Schulen und zwei Kirchen.

 

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Joke, Theology, Vitamins

Hallelujah

Two new exciting papers about Jewish ancestry in the AJHG and Nature probably missed some of the background. As another blogger noted

It is remarkable that Jews have maintained a tangible cultural identity through those 26 centuries of dispersion, and perhaps even more remarkable that genetic studies now show they have maintained a substantial genetic identity as well.

Here is the answer – sharing faith and music. Continue reading Hallelujah →

 

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Philosophy, Theology

If I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge

and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2
Yesterday’s farewell sermon of Joachim Funk in Gröbenzell reminded me to the chapter that I once learned by heart (in Greek) and let me today go for some pictures of Kapuzinergasse in Munich, where the walls of St. Anton hold this inscription in big letters (Schmerzhafte Kapelle und Kapuzinerkloste, St. Anton).

 

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Theology

The science market bubble

Wikipedia describes the last year’ financial crisis as “an economic bubble (sometimes referred to as a speculative bubble, a market bubble, a price bubble, a financial bubble, or a speculative mania) as a “trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values”. A new and excellent Embo Report (thanks to WK) arrives at the same description of current science, a

dangerous cocktail of short-term gains prevailing over long-term interests, herding, increasing pressure to deliver results, the absence of effective oversight, and blind trust that the system would regulate itself Continue reading The science market bubble →

 

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Genetics, Theology

Numbering the hairs on our head

Funny to see this title at PNAS “Numbering the hairs on our head”

Evolution and medicine share a dependence on the genotype–phenotype map. Although genotypes exist and are inherited in a discrete space convenient for many sorts of analyses, the causation of key phenomena such as natural selection and disease takes place in a continuous phenotype space whose relationship to the genotype space is only dimly grasped.

The author was aware of the association to Continue reading Numbering the hairs on our head →

 

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Philosophy, Theology

Supra/Super/In Excelsis science

Yes, again some thoughts about the limits of science and the horizon of religion, triggered by The Mermaid who writes about cause and effect and is itself

triggered in part by watching a video of a BBC television series called The Impressionists. It is a very fine dramatization of the 19th century French impressionism movement in art: Degas, Manet, Monet, Cezanne and others. At the same time these painters were working, realist painters were working as well (and there was conflict between the two groups, of course). So why did impressionism arise? Why is impressionist art so impressive (to some, at least)?

There are different ways to describe reality – and clearly the impressionist’s painters have developed their own way – neither better nor worse, just different.
But why are there so many materialistic scientists who want us to show that all religion is either caused by genes (VMAT2 – the “god gene”), by neuro-anatomy (Ramachandran’s god modul) by psychology (Freud’s “phantasy structure”) or just politics (“Opium des Volkes”). Why is it unacceptable that religion may be just the “impressionistic” way that may be even advantageous in some if not many situations?

 

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Theology

Tobe, Welt und springe

Bach cantatas are at a nice page of cs.ualberta.ca incuding my favorite BWV 227

Trotz dem alten Drachen,
Trotz des Todes Rachen,
Trotz der Furcht darzu!
Tobe, Welt, und springe,
Ich steh hier und singe
In gar sichrer Ruh.
Gottes Macht hält mich in acht;
Erd und Abgrund muss verstummen,
Ob sie noch so brummen.

 

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Genetics, Philosophy, Theology

Unscientific World

A review of “Unscientific America” on p 678 in Science Magazine 7 Aug 2009 finds

According to Mooney and Kirshenbaum, atheistic scientists such as Richard Dawkins and P. Z. Myers [who runs the immensely popular science blog Pharyngula] drive people away from science by forcing them to choose between the facts and their faith.

 

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Philosophy, Theology

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

I have just discovered that the book of Helmut Kiene”Komplementäre Methodenlehre der klinischen Forschung. Cognition-based Medicine. Berlin – Heidelberg – New York: Springer; 2001, 193 S. ISBN 3-540-41022-8 is now being online available as PDF – a must read for all clinical researchers.

Addendum 26 Feb 2021

Sorry for the title that involuntarily replicated a title from paper published already 14 years before  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7647644/

 

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Philosophy, Theology

What discriminates science journalists and science bloggers?

A recent opinion article in Nature may serve as my diving board here. Althoug texts are much better edited by professional journalists, the content isn’t better (driven mainly by press release). And of course, journalists must write about topics outside of their knowledge zone. Funny, they resemble

more that of a priest, taking information from a source of authority and communicating it to the congregation.

Journalists don’t have enough time for the details while bloggers can restrict themselves to their main expertise ;-) raising also a large amount of public awareness.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 24.11.2025