Ira Pastor, ideaXme exponential health ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Sister Ilia Delio PhD. OSF, a Franciscan Sister (Order of St Francis of Washington, DC) who holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University.
Ira Pastor comments:
On previous shows, as we’ve spent time discussing the bio-architecture of life, we have spent time at various levels of this unique hierarchy, from the very, very small (as we’ve delved into topics like quantum biology), to the very large (as we discussed themes like chronobiology), and a lot of domains in between: the genome, micro-biome, systems biology, etc.
Today, we are going to go further and deeper than we’ve ever been before.
Sister Ilia Delio, PhD
A native of Newark, NJ, she earned a B.S. in Biology from DeSales University, a masters degree in Biology at Seton Hall, and a doctorate in pharmacology from Rutgers University-School of Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences (with specialization in neuro-toxicology, with an emphasis on neuromuscular disease) and she wrote her dissertation on axonal dysfunction in an experimental model of Lou Gehrig’s (ALS) disease.
She then moved, during her post-doc period, to obtain a doctorate in historical theology from Fordham University, NY.
Following graduation from Fordham, she taught in Science and Religion at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. For the next twelve years, she was Professor and Chair of Spirituality Studies at Washington Theological Union, where she taught courses in the History of Christianity, Franciscan theology, and Science and Religion. She then became a Senior Research Fellow at Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University concentrating in Science and Religion.
She is the recipient of a Templeton Course in Science and Religion award and the author of seventeen books, including The Unbearable Wholeness of Being, which won the 2014 Silver Nautilus Award and a Catholic Press Association Book Award.
Other books include Care for Creation, The Emergent Christ, and Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness, nominated for the 2018 Grawemeyer award.
She lectures nationally and internationally on topics including evolution, artificial intelligence, consciousness, culture and religion.
The Intersection of Science and Religion
Dr. Delio’s work at the intersection of Science and Religion is heavily influenced by the teachings of Jesuit scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who devoted his spiritual writing to bridging Christianity and evolution. Like Dr. de Chardin, she sees the essential need to integrate Science and Religion toward a new way of thinking.
Her research interests focus on exploring divine action in a world of evolution, complexity, emergence, quantum reality and artificial intelligence. She continues to lecture and write on religion and evolution, catholicity, cosmology and culture, artificial intelligence and human becoming.
She’s also the head of the Omega Center, whose mission is to deepen Teilhard de Chardin’s integration of science and spirituality.
On this episodes of ideaXme, we will hear from Dr./Sister Delio:
About her background and how she developed an interest in science, biology, pharmacology, and theology. How she finds herself in 2019 at the intersection of science and religion studies. An overview of Dr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s ideas. An overview of her concept of “Relational Wholeness” and “Relational Universe.” The importance of humans re-connecting with nature and the divine. Her views and ideas about Transhumanism. Her views on the topic of Entheogens (i.e. chemical substances, typically of plant origin, that are ingested to produce a non-ordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes.) Her views on the limits of science and “Playing God” in the laboratory and her views on evil.
Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, text, and audio.
Follow Ira Pastor on Twitter: @IraSamuelPastor
If you liked this interview, be sure to check out our interview In Search of the Holy Grail for Arthritis!
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