Covalence for April 2021
Covalence for April: Pseudoscience is not new, but it is still making news
Fear and anger generally are the precursors to conspiracy theories, which have plagued so much of social media these days. Pseudoscience too has only been amplified in recent years, but chances are you have never heard of Immanuel Velikovsky. This month, our...
Science, pseudoscience, and tendentious science
Before there was hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, before there was climate change denial or Intelligent Design, there was Immanuel Velikovsky. I first encountered “pseudoscience” in the 1950s when my brother got Martin Gardner’s Fad’s...
Global church needs to support science now more than ever
Whether it is promoting vaccination uptake or thoughtful climate action, the public church is at a unique crossroads as the tragic circumstances that have spilled over into 2021. Not all denominations or even congregations are created equal when it comes to...
Lutheran World Federation highlights efforts to combat climate change
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) estimates that 44% of its constituency or 33 million people are living in the countries facing the greatest ecological challenges requiring urgent action. “The [climate] crisis is real,” LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Martin...
E.T. and the doctrine of atonement topic for April 20 talk
Theologian Junghyung Kim will be presenting his findings around extraterrestrial life and what the challenges are to Christian faith at a free Zoom-based event on April 20 hosted by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and the Graduate Theological...
Faith and science community mourns Polkinghorne, known for his ‘binocular’ vision of truth
“I’m a very passionate believer in the unity of knowledge. There is only one world of reality -- one world of our experience that we are seeking to describe,” the Reverend Canon Dr. John Charlton Polkinghorne is often quoted as saying. Polkinghorne, who died at the...