Charting Our Lives: Possibilities, Constraints, and Decisions
Program and Schedule
Institute on Religion in an Age of Science 40th Annual Star Island Conference, July 31 to August 7, 1993
This conference focuses on our contemporary quest for ethical patterns that promote meaningful living for ourselves and others--in a world where new possibilities present themselves almost too rapidly to be integrated. We approach this quest from a particular perspective: How do we discern whether emerging new options are life giving or life destroying? How do we nourish the constraining elements from our past that are necessary for life and transform those elements that are destructive?
Emerging possibilities touch every area of life. We think of life-sustaining and life-terminating options; new possibilities for women, men, and family structure; the increasingly global scope of economic and cultural life; information technology and its impact on our work. The need to assimilate such changes has evoked such responses as warring ethnic factions, the "electronic cottage," medical ethics dialogues, and the current "family values" debate.
The sciences cannot tell us how we should deal with these changes, but they can contribute to our understanding of the possibilities available to us, the costs and benefits of various options, and the constraints that limit our options. Important among those constraints are our human behavioral propensities--social, emotional, and moral; our values, ways of doing things, existing institutional arrangements, and material infrastructures. Some of these constraints can be altered; others cannot.
Many of these struggles raise old issues concerning the rights and requirements of the individual and the community. Religions for millennia have wrestled with these issues, and their contributions are integral to the discussion.
Some presentations will focus on new developments in medicine, family, work, globalization, and popular culture; others on resources from the sciences and from religious and cultural heritages. Participants will have the opportunity to approach the theme through case studies.
SATURDAY EVENING KEYNOTE LECTURE
Ervin Laszlo, "Responsible Life on a Small Planet"
Life on this planet is threatened as never before. The responsibility, it is often assumed, rests with leaders and persons of power and influence. This, however, leaves out of account the vast majority of humanity--and ignores the fact that in times of chaos and turbulence the smallest impacts can explode into major changes. It is important to consider what we could do, you and I, and others like us to improve the odds that the human family, and our own families will survive into, and prosper in, the 21st century, There are simple rules of thumb for us to consider: (1) Think globally; (2) Act morally; (3) Live responsibly. These proposals offer the best hope for personal and species development into the next century.
Ervin Laszlo, who comes to Star from his home in Italy, is founder and head of the General Evolution Research Group, Science Adviser to the DirectorGeneral of UNESCO, Rector of the Vienna Academy, and Editor of World Futures, the Journal of General Evolution. He has been associated with the Club of Rome studies. He has been professor at a number of universities in the United States, and has published widely, including basic books on systems theory and philosophy. He has been a long-time friend of IRAS and Zygon. He participated in the 1972
Zygon/CASIRAS symposium on human purpose and contributed a chapter to the Zygon book from that event.
SUNDAY MORNING
William Irons, "Evolution, Human Nature, and the Future"
Human beings are products of a long evolutionary history which many biologists and anthropologists believe has laid down in our nervous system certain basic behavioral dispositions. Careful research on the exact nature of these behavioral propensities is still in its infancy. This means that it is not possible to say with certainty what human beings can and cannot do to meet the challenges of the future. The imperfect knowledge that we do have, however, suggests reason for concern. According to current theories in behavioral ecology and sociobiology, human beings evolved to be selfish and deceptive. Further human beings evolved to deceive themselves in order to better deceive others. To the extent that they evolved to rise above selfishness, they have been limited to a concern
first of all for close relatives, and second for other members of a small community. The future will demand a genuine concern for a much larger, global community. On the other hand there is ground for hope. Human beings evolved to be flexible in their behavior and they have survived a number of great social and cultural transformations such as the origins of agriculture and the origins of cities and states. This presentation reviews biological theories about human nature and outlines the difficulties these theories suggest for meeting future challenges. It also suggests ways that knowledge of human nature might be helpful in meeting future challenges.
William Irons grew up in Port Huron, Michigan, a small town on the Canadian border. He was educated at the University of Michigan where he received his B.A. and a Ph.D in anthropology. For purposes of studying the Turkmen nomads of Iran, he made three trips to Iran and spent a total of four years in that country. As a result of this experience, he speaks both Persian and Turkmen. Starting in 1975, his research has focused on the use of evolutionary theory to understand human nature. He is currently Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. He is married and has two daughters. He and his family are all active in the Unitarian Church of Evanston.
SUNDAY EVENING
Michael Ruse, "Genetic Determinism: Constraint or Opportunity?"
I believe strongly that the key to understanding human nature lies in our evolutionary past. In particular I argue that our moral understanding is a function of our biology, being put into place by natural selection because it is in our reproductive interests to be good cooperators. This means that, in an important sense, I am a genetic determinist. But does this mean that one is a helpless puppet of biological fate, a marionette controlled by strings attached to the double helix? I argue, not. I claim that once we see the true
relationship of humankind to its biology--and only once we see this relationship--we have hope of tackling some of the major problems brought on by our failure to mesh adequately the technology of the future with the genetic heritage of the past. Overpopulation, war, pollution, and more, these are the threats of today. I am not convinced that we can triumph. I am convinced that we cannot triumph without taking biology seriously.
Michael Ruse, Professor of Philosophy and Zoology at the University of Guelph, is the author of books on the
history and philosophy of evolutionary biology. He has written and spoken extensively on Darwinism and its relationship to religion and to morality. A sometime witness for ACLU, he has been much involved in the fight against Creationism. He is at present writing a book on the concept of progress in evolutionary biology, as a case study on the place of values in science. He is just at the end of a sobering stint of firstyear undergraduate French, prior to a year's sabbatical, when he hopes to extend his studies to a cross-cultural analysis of evolutionary biology and its history in Britain and France.
MONDAY MORNING
Hazel Barnes, "Creating an Ethics: An Existential Choice" "God is dead," we are told. So is Jean-Paul Sartre, and some Postmodernists claim that with him was buried the notion that human individuals are free agents responsible for what they do with their lives. Still in most of us, the idea persists that one can and should seek a life that is the best that one can make it. Each of us does in fact create a value system to live by, whatever its sources and whether it is articulate and consistent or haphazard and never clearly formulated. Some systems are at least pragmatically valid, others self-defeating. In asking what kind of ethics is commensurate with what our human condition appears to be, I try to show that one may profitably draw from the individualistic ethics of authenticity suggested by early existentialism and complement this material with ideas found in the social philosophy of Sartre's later writings. It is possible for a thoroughly humanistic ethics to respond to the impulse toward selftranscendence and the need for faith which have traditionally been associated with religion.
Hazel Barnes is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of Colorado, where she has taught since 1953. At that university she has served as professor of classics and as chair of the department, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and also as a professor of philosophy. The recipient of many awards and fellowships, she has published a dozen books and been featured in educational television. Although her research covers the entire breadth of western thought, one of her chief interests has been Existentialism, particularly Jean Paul Sartre and Simon de Beauvoir.
MONDAY EVENING
Ward H. Goodenough, "Moral Outrage: Territoriality in Human Guise"
Moral outrage is a response to the behavior of others, never one's own. It is a response to infringements or transgressions on what people perceive to be the immunities they, or others with whom they identify, can
expect from their rights and privileges and from what they understand to be their reasonable expectations regarding social behavior. A person's culturally defined social identities and the rights and privileges that go with them in the various relationships to which those identities can be party constitute the contents of that person's social territory. Infringements of rights and privileges in the social and symbolic worlds in which humans live are the equivalent of encroachments on territory among animals, and moral outrage can be understood as the human expression of what we perceive as territorial behavior in animals. As emotion, outrage is affected by such clinical processes as displacement, rationalization, projection, and reaction formation. Outrage has an essential role in the maintenance of social groups, but also exacerbates conflict among people who perceive one another as "others."
Ward Goodenough is Emeritus University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, on whose faculty he served from 1949 to 1989. He is a past president of IRAS and has been at several IRAS conferences. His research has been in Micronesia in the Western Pacific and has dealt primarily with social organization, religion, and linguistics. He is the author of several books and has been an occasional contributor to Zygon. He has been elected to membership in the
National Academy of Science, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
TUESDAY MORNING
Ingrid Shafer, "Popular Culture and the Good Life"
I plan to elaborate on the ambivalence of the relationship of the "good life" and "popular culture," as they intersect with science/technology and religion. I will develop my paradigm around the perennial Faust motif that has given rise to diverse creative works-popular and elite--including drama, opera, paintings, narrative fiction, and films. Faust is the archetypal figure of the scientist--from potential destroyer to redeemer. In the 1597 equivalent of a pulp paperback, Faust is carted off to hell for blasphemous curiosity and dispensing demonic amusements, from pre-roasted fowl to trips to the moon and visible projections of past and future events. Marlowe reluctantly damns him for seeking medical skills and learning reserved for God. Goethe saves him as one who unceasingly strives for knowledge and finds fulfillment by helping humanity. Mary Shelley turns him into Frankenstein. Thomas Mann depicts him as coldly rational alienated overreacher. Hermann Hesse calls him Magister Ludi.
In "Star Trek the Next Generation," he appears as Captain Picard. Twentieth century films that explore the Faust-Scientist theme include such examples as "Prince of Darkness," "Back to the Future,"
"Bedazzled," and this summer's box office hit, "Jurassic Park." From computer games for the masses to virtual reality for the sophisticated, from genetic counseling and genome mapping to the Tao of quantum physics, popular culture continues to grapple with Janus-faced Faust.
Ingrid Shafer is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. She studied at the universities of Vienna and Innsbruck and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy as well as master's degrees in literature and human relations from the University of Oklahoma. She has published two books of theological literary criticism, one book on the creative imagination, and more than twenty articles. In addition to analyses of the literary work of Andrew Greeley, Herman Hesse, John Updike, and Shusaku Endo, she has explored such diverse topics as the relationship of ecological awareness and faith, mysticism as language of quantum physics and molecular biology. Shafer has also published poetry, including "Noogenesis" (Zygon, September 1992). In addition to teaching, her current projects include writing the biography of Andrew Greeley, laying the groundwork for turning transdisciplinary global history of ideas courses into "user friendly" interactive multi-media CD-ROM format, and organizing a workshop on the future of the Catholic Church for the Fourth Congress of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas to be held in Graz, Austria in August 1994. She is long time Popular Culture Association Area Chair for Religion and Culture. In 1991 and 1992 she served as Visiting Scholar/Lecturer for Chicago Advanced Seminars on Religion in an Age of Science.
TUESDAY EVENING
Philip Hefner, "Narratives and Rituals--Context for Living our Lives"
The conference theme, "Charting Our Lives," can be misleading if it leads us to think that we sit at our desks, weighing the threats and the promises, and drawing up plans for our lives. I will probe the idea that we chart our lives in terms of narratives ("stories," "myths") that provide the unity and wholeness of our lives into which present and future actions will fit harmoniously. We also depend on rituals, sets of symbolic actions that portray those harmonious actions. The religious communities offer such rituals, but most Americans rely also on rituals from their families, the workplace and school, television and the arts, and other public sources, including professional athletics. In my presentation, I want to reflect upon some of the leading narratives and rituals that drive our culture, such as The Free Market, professional athletics, the hedonism of Playboy
magazine, psychological therapy, violence and "slasher" films and television programs, free speech and "political correctness." (I will not deal with all of these!) I want to ask how these narratives and rituals translate into
charts for our lives, relying on the suggestion that they organize our consciousness and thus form the foundation for the charts. Ward Goodenough's studies on religion as self-maintenance and self-transformation are relevant here. I will also focus on what I consider to be some of the most urgent narrative-ritual proposals for our times: (1) the altruism-love proposals set forth in the teaching and actions of Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; (2) the evolution-as-myth proposals, such as those of Eric Chaisson; (3) and proposals for relating the empirical world of the sciences with a realm of the spirit, as suggested by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; (4) "Noble Lie" and deception proposals as set forth by Loyal Rue; (5) the "secular morality" project of Sol Katz. It is not surprising that members of IRAS have contributed substantially to all of these proposals, since the theme of this conference is one that has been central to IRAS's goals since its founding forty years ago.
Philip Hefner's biographical sketch appears above, on page 5.
WEDNESDAY MORNING
M. Therese Lysaught, "Charting Our Lives by a Map of the Genome: To What End Will It Take Us?"
Despite the claims to moral neutrality, scientific pursuits and technological developments are premised on socio-cultural values and structures, and in turn, reproduce them. A useful window on this dynamic is the Human Genome Project, the current 15-year NIH initiative to "map" the human genome, and related initiatives in genetics. In this paper, I will illustrate how genetics research and technology embody particular understandings of the "good" and suggest social and
institutional correlates, i.e., the "good life." In short, this particular"map," like any map, contains--to some degree determines--possible destinations and the paths of our journeys. Insofar as genetic science, as with other developments in medicine and technology, has become part of the fabric of culture, this map exerts increasing influence on individual lives, and thereby their social polity. Many individuals, however, also employ a second and equally powerful map, namely, that of Christian faith. In the second part, after exploring values embodied in a particular vision of Christian belief and their attendant communal correlate, I will discuss questions that will inevitably arise for those who attempt to chart their lives by both maps.
M. Therese Lysaught (Ph. D. in theological ethics, with concentration in biomedical ethics, Duke University), is a Research Associate at The Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics in Chicago. Dr. Lysaught's work includes investigations into and reflection on the issues of suffering and pain, giving particular attention to the ways in which liturgical resources and the identity of religious communities can provide resources and forums for
moral reflection on issues of health and illness. In addition to reflection on the ethical and religious dimensions of genetics, she is particularly interested in examining the interface between these areas and women's issues.
WEDNESDAY EVENING
John R. Albright, "How Technology, Information, and Entropy Change the Patterns of Our Lives"
Historically, advances in all areas of science and technology bring change to society, but advances in information bring the greatest changes to religion. The recent past has seen revolutionary developments in the technology of information, with corresponding effects on society and religion, and with more to come. In addition, there have been great advances in our understanding of the nature of information: how it can be defined rigorously and related directly to concepts of predictability and entropy. The consequences for humans as individuals and as components of society will be considered. How should ethical decisions be made? What kinds of changes will religious groups need to make? Can we guide our lives in a more effective way? John R. Albright comes originally from Pennsylvania. His bachelor's degree in mathematics is from Susquehanna University; his M.S. and Ph.D. are in physics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Since 1963 he has been a member of the physics faculty at Florida State University at Tallahassee. He has held visiting appointments at Fermilab (IL), Brookhaven National Laboratory (NY), the Cavendish Laboratory (Cambridge, UK), and the Chicago Center for Religion and Science. After many years of experimental work in high energy physics, his research interests have moved toward nonlinear theory: solitons and chaos. He has also been busy writing the biography of P.A.M. Dirac. Besides teaching a variety of physics courses, Albright has taught the undergraduate course in science and religion for the religion department and has taught doctoral humanities seminars on causality and chance, as well as creation and creativity. He is married to Carol Rausch Albright (Executive Editor of Zygon and
co-chair of this conference).
THURSDAY MORNING
Robert C. Sorensen, "Decision-Making: A Failure of Nerve?"
Making decisions provides movement and momentum to life that require nerve. Decisions make things happen. Without the desire or capacity for decision making, one can only hope, hypothesize and humor one's self. In turn one excuses government and society's institutions for the same "sit tight" posture, awaiting progress that refuses to happen by itself, and reacting rather than proacting in response to change. One's
capacity for exercising free will becomes an illusion of free choice, life becomes cluttered with "wait and see" debris, and forms of social, economic and political determinism evolve that need never have occurred. Are we now suffering the consequences of a serious failure of nerve? One's personal decision making process has consequences for the good society. Science, religion and government require hard decision making of their participants, as does any other body of knowledge, values and methodology (e.g., farming, medicine). Justice and injustice evolve from decisions at personal and institutional levels. Central to personal and public decision making are: need, purpose, study, participation, conscience, imagination, values, discipline, structure, negotiation, genetic and social constraints, risk-taking, evaluation, and accountability. Making personal decisions is hard work and more complex than ever because our potential choices are more varied, their potential consequences are more serious, our search for meaning more subtle. One's own life or death, career, desire to reproduce or abort, war or peace with one's family and community--indeed, one's own contentment or dissatisfaction with life and surely one's personal effectiveness--flow from whether and how a person makes decisions.
Robert C. Sorensen: Applied Sociologist wanting more science and a Unitarian wanting more religion, yet guarding against overdoses of both. A native Nebraskan, wedded fifty years this September to Marge. A University of Chicago doctorate with a social psychology major and with the law school on his dissertation committee. Early career in law and sociology assistant professorships. Organized and ran Audience Research department of Radio Free Europe in Munich for five years. Early publisher of Psychology Today magazine, Vice President for Marketing of Warner Communications (now Time Warner), and past VP-Research of several advertising agencies. Now Professor Emeritus (Marketing) of Rider College, continues full-time consultancy in New York City applying social and market research design to law, public affairs, and expert testimony in litigation mostly in the federal courts for cross country clients. Author of monographs and articles in professional journals and law reviews, and author twenty years ago of a pioneering published survey of behavior and personal values: Adolescent Sexuality in Contemporary America. Past Board Chairman of Foster Parents Plan International and Scandinavian Seminar. Co-chaired IRAS Star Island conference and later conference in Denmark, and co-edited book, in 1986, all on "Free Will and Determinism." Active in IRAS, Zygon and
CASIRAS.
FRIDAY MORNING & AFTERNOON
Loyal Rue, "Talk Show" Focussing Events
Loyal Rue has proven to be one of the most successful summarizers and interpreters of IRAS Star Island conferences in recent years. This year he will experiment with yet another format, assisted by persons he selects to help us put this week of presentations, discussions and reflection together in more meaningul ways.
Loyal Rue is Professor of Religious Studies, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Besides his very substantial 1989 book, Amythia: Crisis in the Natural History of Westernm Culture, he has just finished the manuscript
for The Grace of Guile, which is serving as the basis for the IRAS Seminar discussions this week. Loyal has served for several years on the IRAS Council, and he has been instrumental (with Ursula Goodenough) in
putting together two standing-room-only symposia at recent annual meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY MORNINGS
Barabara Whittaker-Johns, Conference Chaplain
The chapel services, held each morning at 9 a.m., are an integral part of the conference. Each morning Barbara will share with us her thoughts on the conference theme in a setting (in the stone chapel or on the rocks outside overlooking the island and sea) that is conducive to reflective thought.
The Reverend Barbara Anne Whittaker-Johns is Minister of First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (MA). Previously, she served as Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst (MA) for six years.
Barbara worked in education and counseling from 1964 to 1980, earning a Master of Science degree in education from Yeshiva University. In 1984 she received a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University. She grew up in Bangor, Maine, in the environs of Bangor Theological Seminary.
Barbara's involvement in IRAS began in 1984. She has served IRAS committees and Star conferences in various ways, was Chaplain in 1987, and is in her second term as Vice President for Long Range Conference Planning.
Her husband, Frank A. Toppa, also has been coming to the IRAS week since 1984. Their son, Isaac Anthony Toppa, became an IRAS Star Islander the summer of 1989, when he was three months old and about the size of a sea gull.
Isaac's parents have a summer home on Cape Cod, where they have roots. When Isaac and his parents talk about having two homes, he says, "No, I have three homes." But what is your third home? "Star Island," he
says, with a twinkle.
The workshops are scheduled in the afternoon, 4-5 p.m.
Meeting one time: WEDNESDAY
P. Christian Cole, "Understanding How Theology Underlies Our Every Action"
This presentation will look at the connection between our actions and the thoughts which allow those actions to take place. The thoughts which drive our world-view are our theology. These thoughts may or may not have been influenced by a religious tradition. There is value in being consciously aware of our theology--it will make us more responsible for our thoughts and actions, and reduce a naïveté about our influence in the events that make up our lives.
Chris Cole has a twenty-year career crossing many disciplines. Common to all of them has been education and liberation of the individual from limitation. Chris grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a family of practicing Christian Scientists. He majored in Business Administration at Principia College. Because of the Viet Nam war he decided to become an army chaplain to best serve in that conflict. So, he spent three years pursuing his Master of Theology degree at Boston University. He has held the following positions:
1972-74--Instructor of Religion and Philosophy, Principia College; 1974-77--U.S. Army Chaplain; 197780--Executive Director of Newfound/Owatonna Foundation (Children's Camps); 1981-Present-Founder/President of Exeter Group Management Education, Inc.; 1993-Present--Founder/President of Collaborative Strategies, Inc.,
Meeting two times: SUNDAY AND MONDAY
Michael Mallary, "The History of the Improbable Universe"
Session 1: The Improbable Universe. Scientific details on "15 Stepping Stones to Life" will be discussed in the context of the Big Bang and the subsequent formation of stars and our planet. The "Stepping Stones" are aspects of the physical structure of reality that had to be very nearly exactly the way they are for protons to turn into intelligent life. The implications of the extreme improbability of the "Stepping Stones" being correctly positioned are discussed from the view point of deliberate "Creation" and from that of the "Anthropic Principle." Either viewpoint leads to the implication
that this Improbable Universe is a very "Valuable Universe" and so are all of the life forms in it.
Session 2: The History of the Universe Parts II and III. The previous session could be thought of as the "History of the Universe Part I." It is about the material stage setting for Parts II and III. The evolution of biological life from the condensation of the Solar System 4.5 billion years ago is traced to the present. Along the way a new level of being evolves on top of the biological one. This is Part III. It is about the evolution of "Human Spirit" and that of other critters with whom we share this remarkable planet. What this new level of being is and what it will become is up to us all to determine.
Michael Mallary received his Ph.D. degree in high energy physics from the California Institute of Technology. His thesis topic was, "CP Symmetry Violation." This phenomenon is deeply related to the existence of matter in the universe. He has done further research in high energy physics at the Rutherford Laboratory, CERN, and Fermi National Laboratory. He taught physics at Northeastern University. Presently his is a Senior Consultant Engineer with the Digital Equipment Corporation. He has conducted a number of Sunday Services at the First Parish Church of Northborough, Mass., on the evolution of life and the improbably physical structure of the universe that allowed it to happen.
Meeting four times:
SUNDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY
1. Henry C. Everett, "Psychiatry and Paradigm Shifts"
The past few years have revolutionized the theory and practice of psychiatry. Modern psychiatry is said to be a "biopsychosocial" discipline. Biology: genetics and brain imaging technics have revealed that many conditions previously thought to be a product of repressed memories or else of a lack of "willpower" have a physiological basis. Not only is this knowledge leading to effective remedies, but it has been a big factor in overcoming the stigma of mental illness. A new kind of no-fault family therapy is being developed.
Psychology: Learning and experience are biologically registered, so there is no true dichotomy between the biological and the psychological. Long-term psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy has come under attack by the insurance companies as unproven
and lacking in cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, they are more willing to pay for cognitive, behavioral and interpersonal psychotherapies.
Social: On the positive side, society is moving in the direction of overcoming the stigma associated with mental illness. When people come out of the closet about their psychiatric problems, others are encouraged to do likewise. It is especially helpful when celebrities like Patty Duke and Dick Cavett do so.
On the negative side, health insurance companies have "carved out" mental illnesses from other medical illnesses. While Managed Care is encroaching upon all of medicine, it is particularly intrusive and harsh in its rationing of psychiatric care.
There will be four sessions. They will be interactive. Come prepared to participate.
Henry C. Everett received his undergraduate degree from Harvard before going to Johns Hopkins for a medical degree. After a two-year medical internship at Rhode Island Hospital and a year in general practice, he decided to return to Johns Hopkins for specialty training in psychiatry. He then spent three years in Madison, Wisconsin, doing teaching, research and private practice. In 1965 he returned to Massachusetts, practicing in Cambridge and teaching at Harvard Medical School. In 1975 he relocated to Andover, Mass., where he continues in private practice His 25 professional publications are based on research in neurology, group therapy, support groups, family therapy and psychopharmacology. He seeks to bring knowledge of psychiatry to the general public.
2. Thomas Shanley, "Seniors and the Good Life"
Two of the major concerns seniors face today are: (1) Budget cuts in entitlements and (2) the shape health care reform assumes once the Administration and Congress agree on a plan. In four one-hour discussion periods, Dr, Shanley will highlight the principal issues of both entitlements and health care. To ensure lively discussions, your input is necessary and welcomed.
Thomas Shanley has over 40 years of experience in banking and education. He counsels senior citizens as a special market, offering counseling in finances, retirement planning, and estate planning. He teaches a course in Economics of Aging at Cape Cod Community College to seniors and professionals specializing in senior care, and also develops and conducts seminars in life-long living, with emphasis on housing, health and finances. His educational background is a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Notre Dame, M.A. from Catholic University, B.A. in philosophy from Providence College. Professional affiliations include National Board of Directors, American Association of Retired Persons; Immediate Past-President, Elder
Services, Cape Cod and the Islands; Advisory Board, Center of Successful Aging, Cape Cod Community College; Board of the Committee of Seniors and Health of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
Meeting five times: SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY
1. Nan Billings, "Good Life, Good Death: Facing Endof-Life Decisions"
Session 1: An Introduction to the Right-to-Die Movement. Early pre-Christian history (Seneca and Socrates); a brief look at Judeo-Christian views; U.S. groups active in this movement--their differences; key U.S. court cases (Quinlan, Cruzan); efforts to legalize physician-assisted dying for the terminally ill (California and Washington state); the Hemlock movement in the U.S. and new developments; Living Will laws and Durable Power of Attorney for health care.
Session 2: A Religious "Insider" Talks of Right-to-Die. A 25-minute videotaped interview with Richard T. Nolan, a canon in the Episcopal Church. What is morality? Life vs. quality of life; responsible dissent for those belonging to mainstream religious groups; role of dissent; the slippery slope concept; individual obligation to choose.
Session 3: A Medical Doctor's Observations. A 25 minute videotaped interview with Dr. Ronald K. Wright, M.D., J.D. Role of Hippocratic oath today; dollars and cents in physicians' decision making; role of 911 in death/dying scenarios; technological changes defining life/death; importance of individual strategy, planning and understanding.
Session 4: Close to Actual Death: A Nurse's View. A 25 minute videotaped interview with Mary Bennet Hudson, R.N. Why Living Wills are essential; nurses' role; symptom control; pain control; role of family; why to say No to tube feeding for the dying.
Session 5: A Unitarian Universalist Minister Speaks. A 25 minute videotaped interview with William Miller, Unitarian Minister, Ft. Myers, Fla.. Fundamentals for those of a free faith; basics for decision making; meaning in our lives--hubris?; going gently into the good night
Wrap-up of the week's discussion and quick review--what you can do.
Nan Billings is a Star Island and IRAS follower for many years. She is a life-long U.U. who recalls her mother's delight with the Star experience. Education: Undergraduate Degree--Barnard College, NY. Master's in Social Work--Simmons College, Boston, Mass.. Experience: Over 30 years in the mental health field, active in correlating mental health field agencies and
aging agencies in the Philadelphia area. Now retired in Florida, where she has started Hemlock chapters and served as Hemlock Field Director in Florida for almost three years. Present position: Board Member of Hemlock Society U.S.A. Concern: Legalization of right to doctor-assisted dying for terminally ill.
2. Lisette Sabach and David Burwasser, "The NeoPagan Movement"
The past 20 years have seen a revival of practical Goddess theology in North America. The Unitarian Universalist Association accepted an affiliate organization centered thereon in 1987.
Goddess orientation is highly relevant to such IRAS summer conference themes as global environment and human destiny, the idea of God, and the good life. Nonetheless there is not and never has been a Goddess oriented presenter of a main paper at an IRAS Star Island conference.
The Neo-Pagan track will partially compensate through a series of Free University sessions and a cycle of NeoPagan ceremonies. One session will view and discuss the National Film Board of Canada videotape, The
Goddess Remembered. Others will be symposia on ancient Goddess culture, Western mystical tradition, and the male Gods of Goddess-worshippers, particularly as each relates to the Good Life.
Ceremonially, the Neo-Pagan Track will be marked by an Opening Ritual, a Closing Ritual, and a Candlelight Service.
Last year, considerable interest was evoked by another National Film Board of Canada videotape, The Burning Times. This is available again this year if there is interest in viewing it.
Lisette Sabbach and David Burwasser are both members of IRAS; of the Covenant of the Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS), an affiliate organization of the UUA; and of the Unitarian Society of Cleveland (Ohio). Lisette: M.A. Library Science, Rosary College
1987. Statistical editor, World Book Encyclopedia; proofreader, JAMA and 9 specialty journals, American Medical Assn; head indexer, American Dental Assn. Currently prison librarian, Lorain (Ohio) Correctional
Institution. Past IRAS Star Island conference attendee. Lisette is formerly UCC, presently UUA, thus very much at home on Star. David: M.A. Physics, Case Western Reserve University 1970. Information analyst
for Information Access Company. Past member IRAS Council, past member Continental Board of CUUPS, only person to serve in both capacities. David has attended IRAS Star Island conferences since 1967, continuously since 1970.
3. Marjorie Hall Davis, "Grappling with Real Life Dilemmas: A Case Study Approach"
Participate in a case study and learn how to use case studies in your own setting. These "slices of life" give opportunities to explore ethical choices and faith issues evoked by new understandings of science and new forms of technology such as in vitro fertilization, genetic screening and endangered species. A different case will be used each day.
Marge Davis is presently a pastoral counselor at the Pastoral Counseling Center of West Hartford, CT. Ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC), she also works in UCC churches as an Intentional Interim Minister. A member of the UCC Working Group on Science and Technology and the Ecumenical Roundtable, she is writing case studies on various science/technology issues. Marge is Immediate PastPresident of IRAS. She holds degrees from Cornell and Yale Universities.
4. Robert M. Schaible, "Continuing the Energy: A Follow-Up to Last Year's Conference on the Environment"
This workshop will allow participants to discuss ways in which last year's IRAS conference on the environment made an impact on their lives. We will have an opportunity both to affirm each other's efforts toward living in a more balanced way with the rest of the planet and to gather additional ideas on how we might improve the earth's chances for survival.
In addition to the more directly practical considerations described above, the workshop will also offer the pleasures of good poetry. One way to replenish our energy and enhance the sense of ourselves as a community of actively concerned and earth-enjoying individuals might well be to read and discuss a number of poems about the earth and our relationship to it. The workshop convener will therefore bring along a small selection of such poems that should provoke lively and fruitful discussions.
Bob Schaible is an Associate Professor Arts and Humanities at Lewiston-Auburn College of the University of Southern Maine. In accordance with the mission of the college, his teaching and scholarship are primarily interdisciplinary. In collaboration with faculty from a variety of fields, he teaches such courses as "Metaphor in Science and Literature," "Life and Literature after Darwin," "Violence and Aggression," "Men, Women, and Work," and "Photography and Poetry: Two Ways of Speaking." He has presented papers at a number of national conferences on interdisciplinary studies and on the relationship between postmodern literary theories, pedagogy, and the
political correctness debate. Two of his articles, coauthored with Gale Rhodes of USM's chemistry dept., have been featured as cover stories for the Journal of College Science Teaching. For the past three summers, Bob has taught in New Hampshire's Scientist as Humanist Project, a seminar funded by NEH and NSF for the purpose of helping high school science and humanities teachers to develop and teach
interdisciplinary courses. He is attending the conference with his wife Sally Bowden-Schaible, a practicing psychotherapist in southern Maine.
5. Ingrid Shafer, "Popular Culture/Science/Religion"
Using the perennial Faust (from Paracelsus to Captain Picard) legend as focus, I hope to facilitate group discussion of the implications for religion of contemporary scientific speculation, including theories of chaos, cosmology, spacetime, consciousness, quantum physics, and DNA.
We will consider such technologically driven aspects of contemporary life as genetic screening and engineering, computer bulletin boards, global electronic communication, multi-media CD-ROM productions, interactive entertainment and instruction, television, films, and videos. Instead of automatically rejecting technology as anti-religious or idolizing it as saving power, I hope to encourage a balanced view that is both open to causes for legitimate concern and the possibility for a new and largely untapped horizon of discovering God in and through science and technology.
Ingrid Shafer's biographical sketch appears above, on page 8.
IRAS SEMINAR
The book manuscript under consideration is The Grace of Guile by Loyal Rue, scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press next year. Each session (3-4 p.m.) will begin with analysis and criticism by one of the following scholars:
Sunday, Ursula Goodenough, biology, Washington University, St. Louis Monday, William Irons, anthropology, Northwestern University Tuesday, Neil Elgee, endocrinology (emeritus), Medical School, University of Washington Wednesday, Philip Hefner, theology, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
The argument of Rue's book can be summarized as follows:
Nihilism is the philosophical outlook that proceeds from the assertion that the universe is objectively meaningless, blind, and aimless, having no value in and of itself. Rue argues that whereas this nihilistic thesis might be true, it is nevertheless detrimental to human survival and must be opposed by a Noble Lie. The argument proceeds by examining the role of deception in history, nature, personality and society. In the course of this exploration a fairly broad philosophical perspective unfolds to justify the use of deception to construct an alternative to nihilism. The Noble Lie option introduces a third voice into our current cultural debate between the nihilists, who promote relativism, on the one hand, and realists , who defend objective truths and universal values, on the other. This option agrees with the nihilists that universal myths are pretentious lies, but insists against them that without such lies we cannot survive.
READING LIST
Walter Truett Anderson, Reality Isn't What It Used to Be. San Francisco: Harper, 1990.
Hanna Arendt, The Human Condition,. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1958.
Ian Barbour, Ethics in an Age of Technology. Harper and Row, 1992. (Especially the chapter on information theory.)
Hazel E. Barnes, An Existentialist Ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Robert Bellah et al., The Good Society. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1991.
Robert Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985
Daniel Callahan, What Kind of Life? The Limits of Medical Progress. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990
Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity. Citadel, 1948
Ronald Dworkin, Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom.
Alan Page Fiske, Structures of Social Life. New York: The Free Press, 1991.
Timothy Goldsmith, The Biological Roots of Human Nature. New Hav en: Yale University Press, 1991.
Ward H. Goodenough, Cooperation in Change. Russell Sage Foundation, 1963 (chapters 5 and 6).
Ronald Green, Religion and Moral Reason. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1988.
Ronald Grimes, Ritual Criticism. Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press, 1990.
Philip Hefner, The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
Humphrey and Wickett, Right to Die
William Irons, "How Did Morality Evolve?" Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, vol. 26, no. 1 (March 1991), pp. 49-90.
Gordon Kaufman, In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1993.
Daniel J. Kevles and Leroy Hood, eds., The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1992.
Ervin Laszlo, Evolution, The Grand Synthesis. Boston: Shambala, 1987.
Ervin Laszlo, "Human Survival: The Responsibility of Science and Religion." Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, vol. 26, no. 4 (December 1991), pp. 547-554
Randolph Crump Miller, Empirical Theology: A Handbook. Birmingham, Ala.: Religious Education Press.
Ronald C. Pines, Science and the Human Prospect. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1989
Michael Ruse, Taking Darwin Seriously. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986
Loyal Rue, Amythia: Crisis in the Natural History of Western Culture. Tuscaloosa, Ala.: Univ. of Alabama Press, 1989.