Join activities, celebrations, study groups, spiritual empowerment and education programs for young people, and more.
Baha’i beliefs address essential spiritual themes for humanity’s collective and individual advancement. Learn more about these and more.
Featured in: Harmony of Science and Religion
Baha’is champion rationality and science as essential for human progress. The harmony of science and religion is one of the fundamental principles of the Baha’i Faith, which teaches that truth is one and that religion, without science, soon degenerates into superstition and fanaticism, while science without religion becomes merely the instrument of crude materialism.
“Neuroscience, Ethics and Religion: Moving Beyond Coexistence” is a panel discussion that was delivered by Gillian Hue, Karen Rommelfanger, Paul Root Wolpe and chaired by Tara Raam at the Association for Baha’i Studies Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) in August 2018. The panelists provide an introduction to neuro-ethics within the context of science and religion. The panelists share their thoughts on the diversity of learning among scientific disciplines, and how values affect scientific inquiry. They discuss how the methods and technologies of neuroscience address mental health, and the role religion might play in the discourse on mental health and suffering. To conclude, they answer questions from the audience about consciousness, justice and trauma, and about the nature of ethics.
Dr. Gillian Hue earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Neuroscience from Washington College in Chestertown, MD. In 2008, she completed her doctoral research in Neuroscience at Emory University. She is also Managing Editor at the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience.
Dr. Karen Rommelfanger is the Program Director of Emory University’s Neuroethics Program at the Center for Ethics and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and in the Department of Psychiatry at Emory University. Dr. Rommelfanger received her PhD in Neuroscience from Emory University.
Dr. Paul Root Wolpe is the Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics, a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University. Dr. Wolpe moved to Emory University in the summer of 2008 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was on the faculty for over 20 years in the Departments of Psychiatry, Sociology, and Medical Ethics, and faculty in its Center for Bioethics.
Tara Raam grew up in California and graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Physiology and Neuroscience. She then abandoned the beach and purchased her first pair of winter boots in pursuit of a PhD in Neurobiology at Harvard, where she worked on the role of oxytocin signalling in the hippocampus during the formation of social memories under the mentorship of Dr. Amar Sahay.
This talk was filmed at the Association for Baha’i Studies Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in August 2018.
The Association for Baha’i Studies (ABS) promotes the advanced study of the Baha’i Faith and its application to the needs of humanity, it holds an annual conference and sponsors seminars and symposia, engaging participants from all over North America. It publishes a peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Baha’i Studies, occasional books and monographs, as well as other publications. It is also engaged in a number of initiatives to advance Baha’i studies among students and young adults and to stimulate broader interest in Baha’i studies.
You may also enjoy this Baha’i Blog video about the ABS conference: Baha’i Blog Attends the Association for Baha’i Studies Conference
For more Baha’i-inspired talks you can check out our Soundcloud playlist, and our Youtube channel.
"*" indicates required fields
Join activities, celebrations, study groups, spiritual empowerment and education programs for young people, and more.
Horizons is an online magazine of news, stories and reflections from around individuals, communities
and Baha’i institutions around Australia
Baha’i beliefs address essential spiritual themes for humanity’s collective and individual advancement. Learn more about these and more.
We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures; and to elders both past and present.
The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent authoritative views of the Baha’i Faith.
Visit the site of the
Australian Baha’i Community
and the Baha’i Faith Worldwide
The neuroscience sings a particularly interesting subject. I was allowed to study neuroscience with a well-known professor. A big problem for the professors was religion. It’s unbelievable what I had to experience there! I read the message from Akka- this morning and that is my contribution to the discussion of the lecture. But I was allowed to speak with Prof. Dr. med. R. Learn a lot and understand today
Margrit Rita Hurni (February 2, 2019 at 9:17 AM)
psychiatry – a highly interesting topic in neuroscience. It is an inexhaustible topic! Especially with the religion
Margrit Rita Hurni (February 2, 2019 at 9:21 AM)