Students from high school Pineda (Hospitalet de Llobregat) have won the V Poster Contest 'Education, Science and Religion' held at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra. The work made a critique of creationist theories, showing their incompatibility with evolutionism, while demonstrating the compatibility between creation and evolution. 

In second place were the students of high school Irabia-Izaga (Pamplona) with a poster on the extra-biblical evidence of the historicity of Jesus Christ. And a student of high school El Vedat (Valencia) has been in third place with an analysis of the theory of the participatory universe from the point of view of consciousness.

"We have been surprised by the creativity and professionalism with which they have approached the works," said Rubén Herce, researcher of group Science, Reason and Faith (CRYF) of the University of Navarra and organizer of the contest. In total, more than 400 students from more than 25 schools participated in the competition, with 20 posters reaching the final phase. They have dealt with topics such as artificial intelligence, evidence of the existence of God from reason, transhumanism, when human life begins, quantum mechanics and Philosophy or visions of writers, scientists and artists about God.

Science and religion united in the research

As a novelty, this year the contest has been framed within the I congress of the Spanish section of the Society of Catholic Scientists, held at the ICS of the University of Navarra from September 15 to 17, 2022. In this way, the students have also been able to learn about the research and interests of Catholic scientists today. "For scientists it is a pleasure to see the interdisciplinary interest embodied in the period of life where the big questions are asked most vividly," said Herce, who looks forward to a fruitful interaction between students and scientists in the future.

The poster competition is a continuation of the project of research 'Science and religion in Spanish schools' (2018-2021) jointly developed by CRYF and ICS. Its goal was to study the main pedagogical problems related to the major issues involving science and religion in Spanish schools. Both the project and the competition have received funding from the John Templeton Foundation, who is also interested in tackling the big questions about origins from an interdisciplinary scope.