https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/47984 Mon, 20 Apr 2026 06:28:15 GMT 2026-04-20T06:28:15Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48033 Title: Socratic dialogue : science and religion : two views or two realities Abstract: Discussion by Mr Martin Farrell, Revd Fr Chris Caruana OP, Dr Sandro Lanfranco and Revd Dr Mark Sultana during the first Faraday Course Malta on the 5th and 8th April 2018. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48033 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48032 Title: Science and religion : educating the public Abstract: Discussion by Revd Prof Emmanuel Agius, Prof Sandro Caruana and Prof Charles V. Sammut during the first Faraday Course Malta on the 5th and 8th April 2018. Description: Rev Prof. Emmanuel Agius. Rev. Prof. Agius is the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta. He studied philosophy and theology at undergraduate (S.Th.B.) and postgraduate (S.Th.L.) levels at the University of Malta and then at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where he obtained an M.A. in philosophy and S.Th.D. He pursued post-doctoral research in the field of bioethics at the University of Tübingen, Germany as a fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung, at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. as a Fulbright scholar, and at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He is professor of Moral Theology and Philosophical Ethics at the University of Malta. He is the Head of the Department of Moral Theology at Faculty of Theology, a member of the European Group of Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. For many years, he was an active member of the National Consultative Bioethics Committee, the coordinator of the Euro-Mediterranean Programme on Intercultural Dialogue, Human Rights, and the Future Generations Programme, which was supported by UNESCO. Prof. Agius is the author of three books and co-editor of five publications on future generations. His articles on bioethical issues have appeared in a number of international academic peer-reviewed journals. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48032 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48006 Title: Religion, religious practices in Neolithic Malta Abstract: Talk by Prof Frank Ventura, during the first Faraday Course Malta on the 5th and 8th April 2018. Description: Prof Frank Ventura lectured on science education and was appointed head of the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technical Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta when the department was first instituted in 1989. He is currently the chairman of the MATSEC Examinations Board, which is responsible for national examinations at the end of compulsory education and pre-university levels in Malta, and a member of other education boards. Professor Ventura developed an interest in astronomy and the history of astronomy from a young age and published several papers and articles especially on the archaeoastronomy of the Maltese Neolithic temples, and L-Astronomija f’Malta. In 2016, he co-edited The Materiality of the Sky published by the Sophia Centre Press, University of Wales Trinity St David. In the field of education, Ventura has published articles on science education, environmental education, and educational assessment in local and international journals. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48006 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48005 Title: Cosmology and faith Abstract: The Big Bang theory of modern cosmology points to the universe expanding from a highly compact initial state some 13.8 billion years ago, and evolving into the vast cosmos we see today. The theory raises two issues of potential interest to theology. First, what do we make of the idea that the universe had a beginning in time? Does it point to the need for God as creator, and if so, is God redundant if the beginning can be avoided as some cosmologists, such as Stephen Hawking, have suggested it can be? Then, secondly, the so-called ‘Anthropic Principle’, first formulated by Brandon Carter in 1974, points to the fact that what we can observe ‘must be restricted by the conditions necessary for our presence as observers’. Whilst seemingly tautological, the Anthropic Principle nevertheless raises some fundamental questions. Why are the laws of nature so special (‘fine-tuned’) in the first place so as to produce a universe with intelligent creatures like us (anthrōpoi) in it, who can observe it and discover those laws? Can the existence of a multiverse, a vast or infinite collection of universes, explain the specialness of this universe? This talk will explore whether and how, in the light of the discoveries of modern cosmology, we can still speak of a divine mind behind the creation. Description: The Revd Dr Rodney Holder is the Emeritus Course Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and remains a Fellow Commoner of the College. Dr Holder read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and researched for a D.Phil. in astrophysics at Christ Church, Oxford. Following 14 years working for the UK Ministry of Defence, he returned to Oxford to read theology and was ordained in the Church of England in 1997. After several years of parish ministry he was appointed Course Director of the Faraday Institute from its inception until his retirement in January 2013. Dr Holder’s books include God, the Multiverse, and Everything: Modern Cosmology and the Argument from Design (Ashgate 2004) and Big Bang, Big God: A Universe Designed for Life? (Lion Hudson, 2013), and he is co-editor with Simon Mitton of Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy (Royal Astronomical Society-Springer, 2012). Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48005 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z