A programme of:

Ian Ramsey Centre

AHRC Report February 2010

Recruitment: Dr Russell Powell was appointed as research fellow on the project and commenced work in June 2009. Russell was a Greenwall Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

Mr Nicholas Iles was appointed as project administrator and commenced work in March 2009. He is also administrator for the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics.

Website:

Our website has been established and includes staff, research and publication pages as well as pages for relevant conferences, contacts and links. See http://www.src.ox.ac.uk

Literature review:

Dr Russell Powell, with the assistance of Dr Steve Clarke, have conducted a review of relevant literature and developed a 15000 word background paper based on this review for distribution to conference participants (see below for further details).

Conference Preparation:

Preparations for a conference entitled: “Does Religion Cause Tolerance or Intolerance? Perspectives from Across the Disciplines” is being organised for May 17-19 th 2010 in Oxford. Several eminent international academics have agreed to participate in this conference. These include (inter alia) Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Duke University), Professor Patricia Churchland (University of California at San Diego), Professor Daniel Batson (University of Kansas), and Professor Owen Flanagan (Duke University). A number of eminent British academics have also agreed to participate in the conference. These include Professor Robin Dunbar (Oxford), Professor Harvey Whitehouse (Oxford), Professor Susan Mendus (York) and Professor Benjamin Kaplan (University College London), among others. All participants have agreed to make their conference papers available for a volume of papers that we are planning to edit which will be based on the conference proceedings.

Public Media Dissemination:

Dr Steve Clarke was interviewed on 25 July 2009 for ‘The Philosophers Zone’ on Australia’s Radio National on the subject of “Governance and the Yuck Factor”. A transcript of the interview as well as audio is available here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/stories/2009/2631260.htm

Professor Julian Savulescu gave an invited question to the Reith Lecture broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 16 th and 20 th June 2009 on the topic of ‘Morality in Politics’. Audio of the lecture is available here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00l0y01

Publication:

Dr Steve Clarke has had three papers published in 2009 which are relevant to the project. These are:

‘Scientific Imperialism and the Proper Relations between the Sciences’, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 23, July, 2009, pp. 195-207. Co-authored with Adrian Walsh.

‘Naturalism, Science and the Supernatural’, Sophia, 48, May 2009, pp. 127-142.

‘Bioconservatism, Bioliberalism and the Wisdom of Reflecting on Repugnance’, Monash Bioethics Review, 28, March 2009, pp. 04.1-04.21. Co-authored with Rebecca Roache.

Dr Roger Trigg has published a paper in an edited collection entitled 'Are We Ghosts or Machines?’ in Theology, Evolution and Mind, edited by Neil Spurway, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Dr Roger Trigg is also continuing to work on his manuscript Equality, Freedom and Religion, which is under contract with Oxford University Press. He is also editing a volume of essays on the philosophical implications of the cognitive science of religion. He also has a forthcoming (20,000 word) report for the Theos thinktank in London, on 'Religious Freedom in a Liberal Society'.

Dr. Russell Powell has had one paper accepted for publication that is relevant to the project: ‘The Evolutionary and Moral Significance of Human Genetic Modification,’ Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, forthcoming 2010.

Papers prepared and presented:

Dr Steve Clarke presented a paper entitled ‘Salvific Exclusivism, Liberalism and Tolerance’ at the Australian Philosophy of Religion Association Annual Conference at the University of Sydney in July 2009 and also at The Concept of God and the Cognitive Science of Religion: an International Conference, University of Birmingham in June 2009. He has been invited to submit the paper to a collection of scholarly papers to be edited by Dr Yujin Nagasawa from the University of Birmingham.

Dr Steve Clarke presented a paper to the Australasian Society of Philosophy Annual Conference held at the University of Melbourne in July 2009 entitled ‘Governance and the Yuck Factor’. The paper is was jointly developed by him and Dr Rebecca Roache of the Future of Humanity Institute, also at the University of Oxford.

Dr Russell Powell and Dr Steve Clarke have prepared a paper entitled: ‘Is Religion an Adaptation or a Byproduct?’ which has been accepted for inclusion in the XIIIth European Conference on Science and Theology, in Edinburgh in April 2010, which is organised by The European Society for the Study of Science And Theology (ESSSAT).

Dr Steve Clarke and Dr Russell Powell have prepared a paper entitled ‘ Religion, Tolerance and Intolerance: Views from Across the Disciplines’ based on a review of the relevant literature, which will be distributed to participants in the aforementioned SRC-organized conference, and will serve as a background chapter for an edited volume based on the conference proceedings.

Dr Roger Trigg lectured on 'Is Religious Experience Natural'? (on the cognitive science of religion) in March at the University of Wales, Lampeter. In July he lectured on 'Rationality in Science and Religion' at the Faraday Institute, University of Cambridge (This lecture is available on video via the internet). He also gave a major lecture to inaugurate a new Institute on Religion and Politics in Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland in October 2009, on 'Religious Freedom in a Secular Society'. He has also given two special lectures in Oxford on the issue of 'Religion in Public Life' as the first sessions of the newly launched Centre for Religion in Public Life, Kellogg College.