The Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) held their Winter Symposium earlier this month (February 1-3) as part of a two-year inquiry into the societal implications of astrobiology, made possible by funding from the NASA Astrobiology Program and the John Templeton Foundation.

Frank Rosenzweig, PI of the NAI University of Montana Team, was one of two visiting astrobiologists collaborating with CTI’s research fellows. Both scholars are interested in learning about the origins of life by replicating evolutionary processes in the laboratory. Rosenzweig has undertaken research that seeks to study the process of evolution in such a way that history and contingency are controlled. In this way we can learn about not only what happened in the past but also what could have happened, but didn’t. That helps us know more about what might be possible elsewhere in the universe.

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