When did you last hear someone say ‘…of course Science has disproved the existence of God’. It’s a popular view, widely held, but it is not true and as Christians we need to challenge the rather lazy assumptions that lie behind it. The argument goes that once upon a time we turned to God to heal us when we were sick, to provide the right weather for our crops to grow and to fight for us when we were threatened by conflict. Today however, we can solve all these problems with science and so we no longer have a need of God. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the recent covid pandemic when science has been our saviour in providing us with a vaccine, new advances in medical science have saved lives and technology has allowed us to stay in touch with each other. Where was God whilst we were ‘following the science’ some will ask.
You may therefore be interested to learn that during 2022, the project Science and Faith in the Second City will be running in Birmingham in the spring and autumn. The project will provide an excellent opportunity to explore some of the difficult science-faith questions through the eyes of high-profile scientists who are also practising Christians. The aim of the project is to provide a Christian apologetic to demonstrate that the science-faith dilemma is a false choice, by demonstrating that science is not a barrier to the Christian faith, and that science and faith are compatible. The project will be attractive to those with a Christian faith and those to who are less convinced and for all who struggle with the apparent science-faith conflict. The intention is that the project will stimulate discussion across the city and will provide an excellent talking point about the Christian faith.
Science and Faith in the Second City is organised and run by the charity ChaplaincyPlus who are based in central Birmingham and will be led by their director Steve Bavington and Professor Hugh Rollinson, formerly course director at the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge. Science and Faith in the Second City is funded by the ‘Scientists in Congregations’ scheme based at the University of Durham.
The Birmingham project will launch with an event for church leaders from across the city at lunchtime on Wednesday 16 February 2022. Then there will be a series of monthly public lectures during April, May, June and September, October, November. These will be held both at lunchtime and in the evening in central Birmingham on contemporary science-faith topics such as
- ‘Is science the answer to everything?’ with Prof. John Lennox
- ‘Why care about climate change?’ with Dr Ruth Valerio
- ‘Making sense of our identity in the 21st century world’ with Prof Glynn Harrison
- ‘Who am I? Am I just my brain?’ with Dr Sharon Dirckx
We also hope to stream the events and so run a series of live satellite groups in churches and other venues around the city.
In addition to the public lectures there will be two one-day training courses which will run in the Autumn 2022. One will be for church leaders, especially for those who do not have a background in science, to engage with contemporary science-faith topics in greater depth. There will also be a course for scientists/ medics/ engineers/ technologists who are Christians to help them think more theologically about the implications of their scientific work.
For further details visit the ChaplaincyPlus website, or email Hugh Rollinson, or Steve Bavington.