Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 28, 2000Volume 28, Number 30



Bruce Babbitt


Conference to explore link between
science, religion and nature

United States Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will be a featured speaker at a conference Thursday-Sunday, May 11-14, that will explore the spiritual dimension of the natural world.

Titled "The Good in Nature and Humanity: Connecting Science, Religion and the Natural World," the conference is sponsored by the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Divinity School at Yale, the Wilderness Society's Network of Wildlands Program, the Forum on Religion and Ecology and the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

Conference participants include scholars and researchers from the biological sciences, land use-managers and administrators, writers and members of the clergy. The unique and diverse approach to a subject of common interest to anyone who appreciates the outdoors can appeal equally to bird watchers and joggers, rocket scientists and poets, according to conference organizers.

"The truly unique feature of our conference," says Stephen R. Kellert, who teaches social ecology in the Forestry School, "is that we are providing an unprecedented forum for natural resource practitioners --foresters, commercial fishermen, land developers and agriculturists -- to talk to scientists and religious and spiritual leaders. We hope this unusual dialogue will help us begin to bridge the divide between faith and reason that has been characteristic of Western and other civilizations for millennia."

In addition to Babbitt, speakers include Wendell Berry, writer and professor at the University of Kentucky; Sylvia Earle, director of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research; Barry Lopez, author of "Arctic Dreams;" and writer Terry Tempest Williams from the Utah Museum of Natural
History.

"The conference will bring together non-traditional partners, all of whom care about the environment, and it represents an indication of a broadening perspective on our national environmental policy issues," comments Robert Perschel, director of the Network of Wildlands Program.

No fees or registration are required for members of the Yale community wishing to attend any or all of the sessions. For those interested in participating in meals there is a fee. For more information, call or e-mail Yale Conference Services (203) 432-0465, confserv@yale.edu or check www.yale.edu/natureandhumanity.


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