Tonight and tomorrow, I will be at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute attending this event: "The Legacy of Galileo," which kicks off with the following panel discussion:
What Would Galileo Think? 7:30PM Franklin Theater Hear four distinguished scholars talk about Galileo's struggle to reconcile science and religion during the Renaissance. Today our modern context of science and religion affect thinking about topics such as stem cell research, evolution and climate change. How might the controversies of Galileo's time be relevant to today's conflicts between science and cultural institutions? Panelists:
Mario Biagioli, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University;
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Janice and Julian Bers Professor of the History & Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania;
Maurice Finocchiaro, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas;
Joel Primack, Professor of Physics, University of California Santa Cruz
I'm looking forward to the panel and hope to report back as much as possible. There is plenty more science/religion blogging to do, and with the Galileo theme, perhaps I can bring in a historical perspective (so often woefully lacking in these discussions). To that end, let's start with a fun, if unanswerable, question: If Galileo were with us today and consumed with the science-religion question, would he argue like Jerry Coyne, or like Kenneth Miller?
