Resources
As we explore both scientific and theological topics, links to reference materials for further exploration will be listed here.
Danna Hargett, Ph.D.
Danna Hargett, Ph.D., a South Carolina native, became interested in the inter-workings of biology, while studying at Boston University, where she earned a B.A in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology along with a M.A. in Biotechnology. Deciding to pursue a career in academics, she completed her Ph.D. in Virology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and moved to Princeton in 2006 as a Fellow in the Molecular Biology Department. Danna then began teaching extensively, both at Princeton and as Adjunct Faculty at the College of New Jersey.
While teaching Genetics, she often saw her students of faith struggling with the concepts she taught such as evolution. Over many conversations, she began to see how little intellectual framework these students had to reconcile what science had to teach them with what they had come to believe from their faith tradition. Danna was uniquely suited to help them through this intellectual struggle.
Danna, raised Southern Baptist, had always searched for harmony during her search for truth, both theological and scientific. Drawn to the rich tradition of logic and reason that imbues Catholic theology, she converted to Catholicism while in graduate school. While it was easy to find internal harmony, that balance was not always understood by her colleagues.
The hesitation and sometimes outright hostility she received from other scientists over being religious, only made her more curious about how the two really fit together. Now she is passionate about teaching people about how science interacts with faith. With this current project, she seeks to help others build an intellectual framework for these complex issues. She hopes that willing scientists can use this discourse to come to a better appreciation of the value of faith. She also hopes that this discourse will allow people from all walks of faith to have a better appreciation for how the search for scientific knowledge can lead to a richer understanding of God's creation.
Now that we have a good handle on the 1st Axial Age, we should explore what Karen Armstrong has put forward in her theory of the 2nd Axial Age, which would be occurring now.
In order to begin our discussion of the blunted effects of the Second Axial Age, it is first important to the nature of transcendence and the First Axial Age where it was introduced to into the human consciousness.
Defining the upper bounds of Biocultural evolution and the blunted impact of the Second Axial Age
For those of you who know me personally, you already have reasons to feel sorry for my mother. For those of you who don’t know me, let’s just say I was an inquisitive child who would never let a question go until satisfying explanations where provided, by any means necessary. Sometimes this persistence got me into trouble, sometimes a lot of trouble. It is fair to say I never learned my lesson, as I am still asking hard questions and bearing the consequences. One particular unsettled question brings us all here now.