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Summary of the 2004-05 year

Our first year of Science and Religion Forums was organized around the question, “Who are we?” We are committed to addressing science and Religious perspectives around contemporary issues that have important public policy implications. To that end, we questioned the scientific and Religious meaning and validity of identities that define human beings: embryonic, sexual orientation, sex/gender and race. These identity constructs raise fundamental questions about the nature of being human, questions our science-religion community forums are especially able to address.

These identities are both defining and divisive. They both unify groups and divide groups into “Us” and “Them,” a fact which has real consequences for our ideas about what it means to be human and, by implication, our ideas about human rights. This makes examination of these constructs meaningful, whatever one’s conclusion may be.

Liberal thinkers tend to downplay constructs such as race and sex/gender (and to the extent that the are veridical, the biological nature of them) because they worry that validating them risks endorsement of discrimination and prejudice. At the same time, liberals emphasize a biological basis and validity of the division between “embryonic life” and “the human person” and maximize the biological determinism of sexual orientation (that is, that sexuality is not a behavioral choice for most adults).

In contrast, conservative thinkers, especially those whose conservatism is rooted in a Religious worldview, tend to see embryonic life as morally and ontologically indistinguishable from an already born human person, to see sexual orientation as a moral and behavioral choice, to emphasize biological differences between male and female, and to some extent (e.g., Herrnstein & Murray) to emphasize biological differences between so-called races.

What knowledge or wisdom can be gained from bringing different scientific, Religious, and political perspectives together? Prior to our events we were hopeful, and in retrospect we are confident, that there is much to be learned and gained from listening to a range of positions on these topics. All four of these topics generated lively discussion and debate. Race is always a pertinent topic in Richmond, with its history as the capital of the Confederacy, center of the slave trade and locus for the Civil Rights movement. The idea of sex/gender differences got a boost in the public consciousness this year when Harvard president Larry Summers made claims about the nature of sex differences in a luncheon talk. Indeed, embryos and sexual orientation were among last year’s most discussed topics in America, as they became a central focus of the presidential debates.

Unlike most discussions of embryos, we focused not just on stem-cell research but on artificial reproductive technologies such as IVF and ICSI. We believe that similar things are done to embryos in both reproductive medicine and in stem-cell labs: namely, the creation, manipulation, alteration, storage, selection, utilization, and destruction of embryonic life.

Considering the explosive discussions that can and do arise around these topics, our forums were a tremendous success in that panelists and audience members engaged in wonderfully civil, frank, honest, pluralistic, humble and critical conversation. The level of discourse was intellectual, not ideological or partisan, and demonstrated mutual respect and appreciation for diverse perspectives and a desire to learn from one another. By no means was there complete agreement among audience members or the panelists – in fact one of the panelists at the Embryos forum was quite critical of the forum co-chairs and what she perceived as a lack of representation of women and the unique perspective of women regarding “their” embryos. From our feedback forms at each event, we received about equal numbers of complaints of “too liberal” and “too conservative,” which we interpret as having achieved exactly the right balance of perspectives from our speakers, and a good balance among audience members as well.

Information on each of the events we held last year is provided through the links below. Some speakers may have provided their presentations to us to make available to interested persons – please e-mail us at forum@vcu.edu to request such materials, specifying the topic, date and speaker.

Science, Faith and Embryos
Sexual Behavior and Sexual Orientation
Are Sex Differences Real?
Race: Is it a Valid Concept?