Is humanity headed for the junkyard? Is there life after death? Does modern astrophysics undermine the hope of an afterlife? Does one's idea of the end affect how one conducts oneself now?

Two leading scholars in theology and astrophysics will consider these kinds of questions and other topics relating to science, religion and eschatology when they present a pair of lectures at McMaster today and tomorrow. (Eschatology is the body of doctrines concerning the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell.)

Michael Welker and William Stoeger address the theme of “The End of the World and the Ends of God: Eschatology in the Light of Science and Religion Today,” on Tuesday, March 21 and Wednesday, March 22.

Welker, a professor of systematic theology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and a member of the Centre of Theological Inquiry at Princeton University, speaks March 21 on “Springing Cultural Traps: Science and Theology Discourse on Eschatology and the Common Good.”

“What is Our Destiny? Science, Culture and Belief” is the subject of Stoeger's talk, presented March 22. A Jesuit, Stoeger is a professor of astrophysics at Arizona State University and secretary of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.

Both lectures will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Ewart Angus Centre, Room 1A6.

The lectures are presented by McMaster University's Faculty of Science and the Department of Religious Studies and are supported by the John Templeton Foundation.