A Message from Program Chairs Tom Ferko and Louise Huang

Greetings from Southern California! After a very long two-year wait to meet again in person, the American Scientific Affiliation invites you to attend and present a paper (orally or as a poster) at the upcoming 2022 ASA Annual Meeting at Point Loma Nazarene University, July 28–August 1, 2022, in San Diego, California. Both longtime ASA members and newer attendees will find it to be a spectacular setting to engage in the science and faith conversation!

Our plenary speakers will offer meeting participants a window into historical and current theological thinking on the theme of “What Is a Human? Flourishing as a Person” with applications to issues of science and culture. (Plenary speakers and lecture titles forthcoming.)

New Programming Structure for 2022

In addition to the traditional plenary talks and breakout sessions of contributed talks, this year we will be piloting a series of “TED-style” talks by invited participants who will speak on provocative topics of interest to the wider ASA audience. These brief yet engaging talks are sure to lead to conversations that continue throughout the conference.

We will also have a dedicated time for participants to engage in various working groups with focuses on AI (Artificial Intelligence), CWiS (Christian Women in Science), Students and Early Career Scientists, Mid-career Professionals in Technology, and other areas.

Your Contribution Is Welcome

We invite meeting registrants to contribute oral or poster presentations to traditional parallel session tracks on a range of topics at the intersection of science and faith in addition to related disciplines and their study within the realm of the human experience (see list below). One track of each parallel session following the plenaries will be devoted to further exploration of the plenary topic with the speaker and invited respondents. This offers meeting participants the opportunity to interact more significantly with the plenary speakers than in a typically brief period of Q&A.

Submitted abstracts will be evaluated for both technical and theological content. Since accepted papers will need to show adequate understanding of both science and faith, it may be helpful to collaborate in your presentations. Opportunity for such collaboration will also be available after abstracts are evaluated. Posters are particularly encouraged from student members.

1. Humanity and the Physical Sciences & Mathematics

How does what we have learned from the physical sciences—physics, chemistry, earth sciences, astronomy—inform what it means to be human, and to flourish? How are we more than just the physical material that forms us? How does life, especially human life, remain especially unique given our expanding knowledge of the cosmos? How has the development of the cosmos made human life possible?

2. Humanity and the Health and Life Sciences

What makes humans special and in the image of God? Or maybe not so special, within the whole realm of the life sciences? How are topics such as disease, death, and healthy living informed by a Christian perspective?

3. Humanity and the Environmental Sciences

How can we be good stewards and good shepherds of God’s creation? How can we bequeath to future generations the good earth that God blesses us with? How does our environment and climate change affect what it means to be human and how are humans affecting our environment and climate?

4. Humanity and the Social Sciences

How do the social sciences inform other areas of science and society in general with regard to our place and purpose in creation? We call Scientia a “gift,” but what is the social role of the sciences? How is our increasing knowledge of social differences shaping the practice of science?

5. Humanity, Sciences, and Personhood

The behavioral sciences have expanded rapidly in the 20th century. Given what we know about human and animal development today, what is a person? Are there insights from the social sciences to help us navigate the historic challenges that society faces? How might quantitative and qualitative approaches to the social sciences better inform, or be informed by theological insights?

6. Human and Transhuman

Our machines are becoming more and more like us. How will we navigate the blurry line that distinguishes us from what we have created? What challenges, opportunities, and dangers emerge for flourishing and personhood?

7. Humanity from Theological, Paleontological, and Historical Perspectives

How has our understanding of the human condition changed over time? How does theology influence science [and science influence theology] in understanding the place of humans in creation? How do the biblical accounts of creation and scientific concepts of evolution, astronomy, anthropology, the environment, and geologic change impact views of humanity?

8. Communicating Science to Humanity through the Lens of Faith

What challenges and opportunities do scientists who are Christians experience currently in communicating effectively from the classroom to the public square? What ways can scientists who are Christians be better equipped for effective communications?

9. AI and Its Effect on Humanity

Artificial Intelligence and related disciplines of machine learning and computational neuroscience are increasingly embedded in everyday life. Are these machines and algorithms moral agents? How might Christians think more deeply about the development of these areas? What emerging responsibilities do we have, and how should these disciplines be viewed in light of a Christian worldview?

10. The Expanding Horizons of Knowledge and Effects on Humanity

What is happening at the cutting edge of the social and natural sciences today that impact our view of humanity? What is happening in other disciplines beyond those in the sciences that we who are Christians may not be aware of but that will affect human life and the human experience in the future? What are other areas of interest to ASA members that are not yet being addressed in the other tracks?

Abstract Submission Deadline - EXTENDED: March 15, 2022.

1. All abstracts must be 50–250 words.
2. Authors should indicate whether they are submitting an abstract for an oral presentation or a poster, or whether the author is open to the reviewers’ suggestion of format. Also, the abstract should indicate which topical area the abstract supports.
3. Oral presentations will be limited to 20 minutes plus 5 minutes for discussion. Poster presentations will be available for view Saturday and Sunday with a designated time slot for interaction with attendees. Detailed instructions for oral presentations and posters are available under the Annual Meeting tab on the ASA website.
4. Each abstract must emphasize what your oral or poster presentation offers that is new and important for the topic chosen. The abstracts will be considered if they fit within the overall theme of the conference and if they can be otherwise accommodated within the limits of the conference. Provide sufficient detail to be informative, but use language that will be intelligible to a nonspecialist or a scientist from outside your field.
5. Authors must append to their abstract one to three recent or particularly significant bibliographic references pertinent to their topic.
6. Authors may submit only one abstract for which they are the primary author. Additional abstracts listing individuals as secondary coauthors may also be submitted.
7. All abstracts must be submitted online using the Call for Abstracts form.
8. Upload your abstract as a Word or rich text format file. Please begin your abstract with (a) type of submission—oral, poster, or reviewers’ choice, (b) the topical area, and (c) the title and name of author(s). Then save it with the filename, ASA2022YourLastName.
9. Deadline: All abstracts must be submitted on or before March 15, 2022.
10. Notification of abstract acceptance is planned by April 18, 2022.
11. Contact program chairs Tom Ferko (tferko@calbaptist.edu) or Louise Huang (lhuang@apu.edu) if you have any questions.

Please note: All presenters must register for the meeting no later than May 31, 2022.