4 April 2024

09:50 – 10:35

Amphi 3

Jacques Arnould

An agricultural engineer with a doctorate in the history of science and a doctorate in theology, Jacques Arnould 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, dedicated 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.

Can energy go up in smoke?

Energy is not just an objective, measurable and more or less scarce resource; human wisdom and philosophy also see it as a force within nature, things and beings, a capacity for realization and fulfillment. A force that human beings must learn to channel, especially in its darkest forms. Could this be the origin of the native smoke ceremony?