In this Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study lecture, geologist David Montgomery [2], University of Washington, Seattle, explores the interface of science and religion through flood stories from cultures around the world.

Montgomery investigates the ever-changing nature of truth and how the work of early scientists, theologians, and natural philosophers—which we often assume to be at odds—actually led to important developments in their fields. While offering a robust defense of scientific inquiry, he takes us through the history of the polarized perspectives of science and creationism to show how religion shaped science and how science, in turn, influenced theology.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

David Montgomery is a Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at University of Washington, Seattle and a MacArthur fellow. His areas of focus have included how landslides and glacial erosion influence the height of mountains, how rivers originate and shape the landscape, and how human modification of river channels affects aquatic ecosystems, among other probing questions about the Earth’s surface. Most recently, he is the author of The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood and Dirt.