LAKELAND (Sept. 27, 2011) – The Florida Center for Science and Religion at Florida Southern College will host a lecture about the nature of science and its limits by a prominent philosopher of science.

Dr. David Banach, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, will speak on “Peering Beyond the Veil: Science at its Limits and the God of the Gaps” at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 in the Hollis Room on the FSC campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Center co-director Dr. Sara Fletcher Harding said Banach’s lecture will deal with the religious implications of the “new cosmology,” which includes recent discoveries about the Big Bang, quantum physics and mathematical models of infinity.

“Some of these discoveries present a challenge to natural theology in which God is the explanatory principle,” Harding said. “Yet it’s also about the limits of what we can know.”

While visiting Florida Southern, Banach will also address the campus Philosophy Club and speak to classes. He has degrees in chemistry and philosophy, and has taught at Saint Anselm College for more than 20 years, specializing in the philosophy of biology and the history of science, especially the role of mathematics in ancient science.

The Florida Center for Science and Religion was established through funding provided by the Local Societies Initiative Grant of the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science and is currently funded by Florida Southern College. The FCSR promotes the engagement of issues in science and religion throughout central Florida.  The center sponsors annual lectures and meetings on a wide range of topics.