On Friday 28 September 2012, GCRI hosted the first of what looks to be an ongoing series of discussions among a group of religion scholars. The discussion covered several topics, including an extended discussion of the inevitability of catastrophe.

Meeting participants included Hassan Hussain of UCLA & Columbia University, Jun Zhuang of University at Buffalo, and Seth Baum, Tony Barrett, Mark Fusco, and Jacob Haqq-Misra, all of GCRI.

The group observed that some religious communities view catastrophe as inevitable, such as in ideas about apocalypse. These communities …