Jacques Arnould

Biography

Born in 1961, Jacques Arnould is an agricultural engineer with a doctorate in the history of science and a doctorate in theology. He is interested in the relationship between science, culture and religion, with a particular focus on two themes: life and its evolution, and space and its conquest. He has written several books and articles on the history and theology of living beings. Following the outbreak of creationist fever in France in January 2007, he was called upon by various scientific, educational and religious circles to inform the public about the existence of creationist currents, their history and the questions they raise for our societies. The year 2009, devoted to Darwin, showed how the ideas of this scientist and his successors continue to question our contemporaries, inviting them to ask more philosophical questions. He is also an ethics expert at the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES), a position that is still somewhat unique in the world of astronautics. And yet, it’s in line with a real expectation on the part of the public, but also on the part of players and managers, whose motivations can no longer be the same as they were forty or fifty years ago.

Conference: Are we wasting our time?

Reality as we discover it and construct it with our knowledge and techniques offers dizzying new horizons for our ambitions, our dreams and our hopes. From cosmology to transhumanism, via new technologies, time and space, matter and life seem to offer our human species new and sometimes exorbitant conditions. Should we see these as conditions, solutions for our salvation, our survival? Or the ultimate risk of our disappearance? Should we wait, endure or provoke the “last times”, or remain attentive to the “opportune time”?