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Science Talks: Science and Faith

14 Dec 2022

The fourth of LMU’s Science Talks, titled “Between Ambiguity and Certainty,” explores the relationship between science and faith.

In times when people feel beset by crisis on all sides, many look for certainty and meaning. Science and faith can provide direction in different ways. But are the answers from the two domains necessarily in contradiction, as religious fundamentalism and esotericism would suggest? Or do scientific and religious perspectives each ensure that the other does not carry all of the burden? And in an increasingly divided society, can they forge new kinds of communication and foster peace? It is a common feature of both, after all, that tension between ambiguity and certainty characterizes their attempts to answer many questions.

Panel discussion

“Science and Faith: Between Ambiguity and Certainty”

Tuesday, 20 December 2022

7:00 – 8:30 p.m.

at the Great Aula, LMU main building and as a livestream

To attend the event in person, registration is not required.

Registration for livestream

Further information on the Science Talks

Contact: ringvorlesung@lmu.de

The Science Talks are being held in German. A recording with English subtitles will be published on YouTube a week after the event date.

Panelists

Prof. Winfried Haunerland | © privat

Professor Winfried Haunerland

“If we take science to mean primarily the natural sciences, then the answers of science and religious-spiritual convictions are on different planes. Yet they can critically complement each other nonetheless. Many branches of the humanities, whether consciously or unconsciously, have underpinnings that are influenced by religious and philosophical thought. Theology as an academic discipline gives an account of its premise – faith – and enquires into its internal coherence and rationality. The Christian faith is open to such scholarly inquiry, although such investigations cannot prove its truth."

Professor Winfried Haunerland is former Chair of Liturgical Studies at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at LMU Munich and former Director of the Ducal Georgianum, the second-oldest Catholic seminary in the world.

Prof. Thomas Bauer | © Natalie Kraneiß

Professor Thomas Bauer

“The Christian who is unsettled by the results of science,” wrote Colombian philosopher Gómez Dávila, “knows neither what Christianity is nor what science is.” Science and faith are both in search of existential truths, albeit in different domains and by different means. And both will always remain incomplete. Just as science will not obtain perfect knowledge of the world, so faith will not ascertain the meaning of our existence with final certainty. Both have to contend with the inescapable ambiguity of human life, and in this they are companions, not rivals.”

Thomas Bauer is Professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies and Executive Director of the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Münster.

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