(Posted March 5, 2003)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- A Washington University biologist will lecture at Juniata College on the evolution of life and of the universe and discuss how aspects of religion and spirituality fit into classic evolutionary theory at 7 p.m., Monday, March 10 in Alumni Hall in the Brumbaugh Science Center on the Juniata campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

Ursula Goodenough, professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., will talk on "Emergence, Transcendence and Religious Naturalism" as part of Juniata's Science and Religion Lecture Series, sponsored by the Templeton Foundation and the Juniata College J. Omar Good Fund.

Goodenough (pronounced good-en-now) will talk about how the evolution of human beings and human conciousness can be reconciled with the spiritual side of nature -- what she calls religious naturalism.

She wrote a book on religion and science, "The Sacred Depths of Nature," which details the religious perspectives on our scientific understanding of nature.

Goodenough has been on the faculty at Washington University since 1978. Before that she was an assistant and associate professor of biology at Harvard University from 1971 to 1978. Her research focuses on cell biology and molecular genetics.

She earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from Radciffe and Barnard Colleges in 1963. She went on to earn a master's degree in zoology from Columbia University in 1965 and a doctorate in biology from Harvard in 1969.

She is a member of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science and served as the organization's president for four years.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.