Saturday, April 13, 2013

Apr 13 - Steve Gimbel - Einstein's Jewish Science? Looking at Physics, Politics, and Religion

Saturday, Apr 13, 2013, 1:30pm
Bethesda Regional Library
7400 Arlington Rd Bethesda, MD [map]

Presented by Steve Gimbel, Chair, Department of Philosophy, Gettysburg College

Between the world wars, Nazi sympathizers tried to denigrate the theory of relativity by calling it "Jewish science." The Nazis, of course, were wrong. The notion of "religious science" usually brings to mind creationism, but our two best theories of gravitation before Einstein, those of Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton, bore indelible marks of their founders' theology. How did science change in the time leading up to Einstein to remove theological influence from physics?

Dr. Steve Gimbel is author of Einstein's Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Edwin T. and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Chair for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities at Gettysburg College.

FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members. Refreshments and socializing after the talk.

Free limited parking is available. The Bethesda Library is Metro accessible.