God and Darwin at the Science Festival

The panellists will address questions including: what were Darwin’s own religious beliefs? Were Darwin’s ideas as widely rejected by the Victorian Church as is commonly supposed, or is this conflict a more contemporary phenomenon? Should Creationism and Intelligent Design be given space within the modern school science curriculum? And as contemporary scientists continue to extend the boundaries of evolutionary knowledge, how is the relationship between religious belief and Darwinian evolution being redefined?

“This is a very timely debate, with news on Monday that Hampshire council is to incorporate teaching on creationism and intelligent design into secondary schools,” Faraday Institute spokeswoman Katie Turnbull said.

The discussion will be chaired by Dr Denis Alexander, Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, The panellists will include: Professor John Hedley Brooke (Emeritus Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University); Professor Simon Conway Morris FRS (Professor of evolutionary palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge), Professor Michael Reiss (Professor of Science Education at The Institute of Education London) and Dr David Summers (Chair of the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge).

Professor Hedley Brooke is a historian who rejects the simplistic thesis of “conflict” or “harmony” between science and religion and puts an emphasis on the subtlety, complexity and diversity of the interaction between the two. Professor Conway Morris is an authority on the fossil fauna of the Burgess Shale, one of the world's most celebrated fossil regions. In his book Life’s Solutions he argues that evolutionary convergence has philosophical implications concerning the inevitability of human intelligence and our place in the universe.

Professor Michael Reiss resigned as Director of Education at the Royal Society amid criticism of his view that teachers need to discuss the differing world views of students from Jewish, Christian and Muslim backgrounds.
The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion is based at St Edmund’s college and provides accurate and up-to-date information to help inform and improve public understanding of the interaction between science and religion.

The discussion is free to all and will take place from 3-4pm in the Queen’s Lecture Theatre, Emmanuel College; the talk is suitable for ages 14 .

This year’s Cambridge Science Festival looks to be the biggest to date and has a total of more than 160 events for all ages over the space of two weeks. More information about the Festival and the events can be found on the Science festival web site: www.cambridgescience.org.