Students seeking understanding and knowledge about science and religion can find some answers with the new Science and Religion Student Dialogue organization.
“We want to get people talking,” said Sadrian Merritt, president and founder of SRSD. “There are so many questions in science that the discussion groups and speakers can help to explain.”
The organization originally stemmed as a sister organization of the LSU Collegium for Science and Religion, a faculty discussion group. Merritt said the Collegium group serves as the benefactor for SRSD, which is aimed toward students.
Merritt said the discussions and lectures are not limited to religion and the organization does not discriminate against any denomination or spirituality.
“We do not want to discourage anyone’s beliefs,” Merritt said. “It is whatever gives your life meaning.”
Merritt said the one regulation that is required to be a member of SRSD is tolerance.
“We have to maintain a level of tolerance between the different beliefs because we are here to understand them better, not prove one wrong,” Merritt said. “When you have tolerance amongst the group, you are able to create a higher level of understanding.”
The organization’s main purpose is to cover an array of topics surrounding the relationship between religion and science. Merritt said topics the group does not cover are those attempting to “prove God” with science or others that might be evangelical or religiously biased.
“Most of these [religious] topics are viewed from an evolutionary perspective, not a creationist one,” Merritt said.
Merritt said the group discusses how a person’s psyche or neurological development is affected by religious experience. She said they are focused on the inter relationships between religion and science.
“We are not saying anything is definite,” Merritt said. “We are just discussing it.”
Since the organization was recently formed, Merritt said many of the ideas she and her officers have in mind will be implemented next semester. The organization will be broken into small reading groups that will meet every other week and the large group will meet a few times a month for a speaker.
The group will host an informal coffee talk discussion sometime during finals week for anyone interested.
“We wish to expand the Collegium and to further publicize the Collegium within the LSU student populations,” Merritt said. “Overall, SRSD seeks to build a coterie of students passionate in the pursuit of knowledge, and motivated to apply their understanding to research, writing, collaborations and contributions to these fields.”
Merritt said SRSD does not discriminate against any background, but their main objective is to create discussion.
“We do not want to be another organization that students come see a speaker, eat pizza and leave,” Merritt said. “We want to make people think about the topics covered and discuss them in and outside the organization.”