The Role of the Imagination in Religion and Science

Western culture has seen a separation between two once-connected disciplines: the scientific and the religious. The religious is part of the humanities, thus it utilizes imagination, while the world of the scientific is based in objective facts. However, this description of the separation between these disciplines does not suffice. I posit that both of these realms use an aspect of the imagination, just with different ends in mind and different mindsets. In order to show this, I will be utilizing the psychological framework developed by Jerome Bruner in his book, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds, focusing on pragmatic and narrative mindsets. I will also be relying heavily on the work done by Garett Green in his book, Imagining God, who attempts to breach this same divide by looking at it from a purely theological perspective. Crossing the gap can be done by seeing science and religion as both using the world-making tool of imagination. This paper will begin with an examination of Bruner’s framework, followed by an analysis of how each of these mindsets utilize their own form of imagination as a tool in their respective disciplines: the pragmatic in the scientific world, and the narrative in the religious. After this I will examine how one can communicate across this seemingly growing divide between worlds, opening the way for further collaboration between science and religion, as well as assisting in reducing conflict between them

The Role of the Imagination in Religion and Science

Western culture has seen a separation between two once-connected disciplines: the scientific and the religious. The religious is part of the humanities, thus it utilizes imagination, while the world of the scientific is based in objective facts. However, this description of the separation between these disciplines does not suffice. I posit that both of these realms use an aspect of the imagination, just with different ends in mind and different mindsets. In order to show this, I will be utilizing the psychological framework developed by Jerome Bruner in his book, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds, focusing on pragmatic and narrative mindsets. I will also be relying heavily on the work done by Garett Green in his book, Imagining God, who attempts to breach this same divide by looking at it from a purely theological perspective. Crossing the gap can be done by seeing science and religion as both using the world-making tool of imagination. This paper will begin with an examination of Bruner’s framework, followed by an analysis of how each of these mindsets utilize their own form of imagination as a tool in their respective disciplines: the pragmatic in the scientific world, and the narrative in the religious. After this I will examine how one can communicate across this seemingly growing divide between worlds, opening the way for further collaboration between science and religion, as well as assisting in reducing conflict between them

Precision Measurement of the Longitudinal Double-Spin Asymmetry for Inclusive Jet Production in Polarized Proton Collisions at s√=200 GeV

We report a new measurement of the midrapidity inclusive jet longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, ALL, in polarized pp collisions at center-of-mass energy s√=200  GeV. The STAR data place stringent constraints on polarized parton distribution functions extracted at next-to-leading order from global analyses of inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (DIS), semi-inclusive DIS, and RHIC pp data. The measured asymmetries provide evidence at the 3σ level for positive gluon polarization in the Bjorken-x region x\u3e0.05

Measurement of D0 Azimuthal Anisotropy at Midrapidity in Au + Au Collisions at √ s N N = 200 GeV

We report the first measurement of the elliptic anisotropy (v2) of the charm meson D0 at midrapidity (|y

Photonovels: Educational Resources to Prevent Agricultural Illnesses and Injuries

Photonovels use photographs and a story featuring people from the community, familiar settings, and a simple text to deliver an educational message. This unique educational tool lends itself to a wide variety of topics and targets audiences including farmers, farm workers and their families. Information on how to design, create and use photonovels to prevent agricultural injuries and illnesses will be presented

High-concentration Er:YAG single-crystal fibers grown by laser-heated pedestal growth technique

High-concentration Er:YAG single-crystal fibers have been grown using the laser-heated pedestal growth technique. Instability in the melt and concomitant opacity of fibers were observed at source concentrations higher than 15 mol.%. Spectroscopic examination shows that broadening of the linewidth of the I<sub>13/2</sub>4→I<sub>15/2</sub>4 transition is strongly dependent on Er<sup>3+</sup> concentration

A CW-pion focusing horn for low-energy muon neutrino beams

Low-energy muon neutrino beams can be produced from pion decays in-flight at high-intensity accelerators, such as the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF), providing a new tool to study the role of the weak interaction in nuclear and particle physics. Employing a pion focusing device can enhance the neutrino flux by large factors, and reduce backgrounds by sign-selection of the parent pions. However, LAMPF's long beam pulse and high repetition rate makes it impractical to use pulsed horns like those found at high-energy accelerators. In this paper we discuss a CW-pion focusing device that uses coils wound inside vanes mounted radially around the beam axis to provide an azimuthal field. From our studies with a prototype magnet, we have found the optimum field configuration needed to focus pions at LAMPF energies can be obtained by adjusting the radial density of turns in the coils. This optimum yields an eight-fold increase in neutrino flux above the muon threshold over the bare-target case. Our calculations also indicate a correlation between the arrival time of the neutrinos in the detector and their energy