This paper stresses that both natural history and human history rely upon a significant property ... more This paper stresses that both natural history and human history rely upon a significant property of the physical world, namely, contingency. The principle of contingency recognizes that some natural events are not predetermined--that is, they are unpredictable. Underdetermined natural events make natural history possible; and recalling the past sequence of contingent events makes human history possible. In addition, human subjectivity at the meso-level relies upon contingency at the micro-level; and human subjectivity is the source of meaning, purpose, direction, and freedom. The telling of the Big History story of our universe should include the past history of nature's forks in the road plus its interpretations by differing histories of human subjectivity
As we envision constructive undertakings in the field of religion and science for the next decade... more As we envision constructive undertakings in the field of religion and science for the next decade, the emerging agenda of astrotheology is opening up a new theater for enquiry. Astrotheology provides a critical theological response to the field of astrobiology while critically assessing exciting new research on life in our solar system and the discovery of exoplanets. This article proposes four tasks for the astrotheologian: deliberate on (1) the scope of creation: is God's creation Earth-centric or does it include the entire cosmos?
Email alerting service here in the box at the top right-hand corner of the article or click Recei... more Email alerting service here in the box at the top right-hand corner of the article or click Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article -sign up http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/subscriptions go to: Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A To subscribe to This journal is
Public policy debates such as we find in the Untied Nations, the Singapore Bioethics Advisory Com... more Public policy debates such as we find in the Untied Nations, the Singapore Bioethics Advisory Committee, and the US President's Council on Bioethics reflect behind-the-scenes theological debates. Although religious spokespersons agree nearly universally that human reproductive cloning should be banned; moral ambivalence rises when confronting human embryonic stem cell research. Rather than focus on beneficence (medical benefits), religious bioethicists focus on nonmalificence (embryo protection). The Vatican claim that stem cell research should be banned because it destroys embryos appears at first to rely upon ensoulment at conception; but a closer analysis shows that the Vatican position relies upon genetic uniqueness. Appeal to genetic uniqueness is inadequate for Christian anthropology; what needs to be added is a relational and proleptic understanding of human dignity.
This paper stresses that both natural history and human history rely upon a significant property ... more This paper stresses that both natural history and human history rely upon a significant property of the physical world, namely, contingency. The principle of contingency recognizes that some natural events are not predetermined--that is, they are unpredictable. Underdetermined natural events make natural history possible; and recalling the past sequence of contingent events makes human history possible. In addition, human subjectivity at the meso-level relies upon contingency at the micro-level; and human subjectivity is the source of meaning, purpose, direction, and freedom. The telling of the Big History story of our universe should include the past history of nature's forks in the road plus its interpretations by differing histories of human subjectivity
As we envision constructive undertakings in the field of religion and science for the next decade... more As we envision constructive undertakings in the field of religion and science for the next decade, the emerging agenda of astrotheology is opening up a new theater for enquiry. Astrotheology provides a critical theological response to the field of astrobiology while critically assessing exciting new research on life in our solar system and the discovery of exoplanets. This article proposes four tasks for the astrotheologian: deliberate on (1) the scope of creation: is God's creation Earth-centric or does it include the entire cosmos?
Email alerting service here in the box at the top right-hand corner of the article or click Recei... more Email alerting service here in the box at the top right-hand corner of the article or click Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article -sign up http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/subscriptions go to: Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A To subscribe to This journal is
Public policy debates such as we find in the Untied Nations, the Singapore Bioethics Advisory Com... more Public policy debates such as we find in the Untied Nations, the Singapore Bioethics Advisory Committee, and the US President's Council on Bioethics reflect behind-the-scenes theological debates. Although religious spokespersons agree nearly universally that human reproductive cloning should be banned; moral ambivalence rises when confronting human embryonic stem cell research. Rather than focus on beneficence (medical benefits), religious bioethicists focus on nonmalificence (embryo protection). The Vatican claim that stem cell research should be banned because it destroys embryos appears at first to rely upon ensoulment at conception; but a closer analysis shows that the Vatican position relies upon genetic uniqueness. Appeal to genetic uniqueness is inadequate for Christian anthropology; what needs to be added is a relational and proleptic understanding of human dignity.
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Papers by Ted Peters