IRST
Yale's Initiative in Religion, Science & Technology (IRST) is an ongoing interdisciplinary program of the Yale Divinity School whose mission is to explore how religion and spirituality encounters and interacts with science and technology. Directed by Denys Turner, a professor at the School, it was co-founded in 2003 by Harold Attridge, the School's dean from 2002-2012, along with former dean Rebecca Chopp and then-professor of communication Wes Avram. Since then its programming, including nearly a hundred lectures and three international conferences, has been coordinated by James Clement van Pelt, a 2003 graduate of the School. Its programs and courses have been funded by Yale, the Metanexus Institute, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, and co-sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. IRST has hosted a weekly Science and Religion in Dialogue working group since 2004 and maintains an ongoing discussion of science-religion studies and issues via a Yahoo email group. IRST also co-directs research working groups such as the Synchro Project, which conducted research concerning the phenomenon of meaningful coincidence from both spiritual and scientific perspectives.
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