CANTON -- In the spirit of an interdisciplinary liberal arts education, Matthew Stanley will blend religion and science at the 2015 St. Lawrence University Niles Lecture on Religion and Science at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, in Sykes Common Room, located on Park Street across from the Brewer Bookstore.

This event is free and open to the public.

The associate professor of history and philosophy of science at New York University will explore in his lecture, “How to be a Religious Scientist: Lessons from History in Thinking about God and Nature."

With backgrounds in astronomy, physics, and religion from Harvard University and University of Rochester, Stanley intends to blend these wide-ranging disciplines to find scientific connections in the wider culture.

Organized by the Spiritual and Religious Life Committee organizes, the Niles Lecture will address the modern dichotomy between science and religion in contemporary culture. Using examples from history, Stanley will draw connections between actual scientists and their religious beliefs. These interdisciplinary bridges often proved incredibly successful in the work of these historical subjects.

In the abstract of his upcoming lecture, Stanley states: “History can show us that our modern assumptions about how science and religion should interact are not necessary or inevitable, and that those two categories can have surprisingly fruitful relations.”

Stanley is the author of both Practical Mystic: Religion, Science, and A. S. Eddington and Huxley’s Church and Maxwell’s Demon. He is also working to compile a history of scientific end of the world predictions.

For more information, visit www.stlawu.edu/chaplain or call 229-5256.