Posted by Arthur C. Petersen on 2024-10-28
This issue [click here to browse the issue online; click here to view and download a PDF of the entire issue; and to order a printed copy for $6.75 (no-profit-to-journal price) through Amazon, choose for instance one of the following market places: US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, PL, SE, JP, CA or AU] opens with an Editorial by John Slattery, who challenges all who are engaged with the field of [...]
In Press
Articles
Religious Robots: AI as Religious Subject and Object
Are Religious Machines Possible? Embodied Cognition, AI, and Religious Behavior
Daekyung Jung
2024-11-13 In Press
Could Robots Become Religious? Theological, Evolutionary, and Cognitive Perspectives
Marius Dorobantu
2024-10-25 In Press
What Is the Afterlife Like for Robots? An Experimental Eschatological Sneak Peek
Max Tretter
2024-10-21 In Press
Spiritual Conversation with a Companion Machine
Fraser Watts and Yorick Alexander Wilks
2024-07-29 In Press
From Angels to Artificial Agents? AI as a Mirror for Human (Im)perfections
Pim Haselager
2024-07-19 In Press
Religion among Robots: An If/When of Future Machine Intelligence
Robert M. Geraci
2024-06-10 In Press
IRAS at the Parliament of the World's Religions
Empowering Diverse Faith Communities through Engagement in Participatory Science
Grace A. Wolf-Chase, Katharine E. Hinman and Laura Trouille
2024-11-11 In Press
Welcome to Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. Published since 1966, Zygon is dedicated to the manifold interactions between the sciences and human religious and moral convictions. We seek to consider the whole range of the sciences; cosmology and physics, biology and the neurosciences, sociology, psychology, and anthropology. We seek to be open to religious and non-religious perspectives, those rooted in the great traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, but also to religious naturalism, secular humanism, and atheism, both variants at home in the Western world and versions elsewhere on our globe. We cover ideas (theories, theologies) as well as practices. We address ethical issues and analyze the history of the differentiation between science and religion and their subsequent interactions.
The word zygon means the yoking of two entities or processes that must work together. It is related to zygote—meaning the union of genetic heritage from sperm and egg, a union which is vital in higher species for the continuation of advancement of life. The journal Zygon provides a forum for exploring ways to unite what in modern times has been disconnected—values from knowledge, goodness from truth, religion from science. Traditional religions, which have transmitted wisdom about what is of essential value and ultimate meaning as a guide for human living, were expressed in terms of the best understandings of their times about human nature, society, and the world. Religious expression in our time, however, has not drawn similarly on modern science, which has superseded the ancient forms of understanding. As a result, religions have lost credibility in the modern mind. Nevertheless, some recent scientific studies of human evolution and development have indicated how long-standing religions have evolved well-winnowed wisdom, still essential for the best life. Zygon’s hypothesis is that, when long-evolved religious wisdom is yoked with significant, recent scientific discoveries about the world and human nature, there results credible expression of basic meaning, values, and moral convictions that provides valid and effective guidance for enhancing human life. Zygon also publishes manuscripts that are critical of this perspective, as long as such papers contribute to a constructive reflection on scientific knowledge, human values, and existential meaning.
Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science is owned and managed by Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science NFP, a not-for-profit scholarly corporation established in Chicago in 2019, which succeeds a joint venture established in 1965 and has as its members: IRAS, the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (1954), CASIRAS, the Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (1972), and ISSR, the International Society for Science and Religion (2002)
Founded in 1954, IRAS is an independent society of natural scientists, social scientists, philosophers, religion scholars, theologians, and others who seek to understand and reformulate the theory and practice of religion in the light of contemporary scientific knowledge. It is both an affiliate society of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Council on the Study of Religion, a federation of learned societies in the field of religion.
Founded in 1972, CASIRAS is an independent society of scholars and scientists from various fields who pursue critical, interdisciplinary studies of possibilities for constructively relating religion and science. CASIRAS also is a partner with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, in founding and overseeing the Zygon Center for Religion and Science (ZCRS).
Founded in 2002, ISSR is established for the purpose of the promotion of education through the support of interdisciplinary learning and research in the fields of science and religion conducted where possible in an international and multifaith context. It is registered in the UK as a Company and Charitable Trust.