science and religion engagement group
september 2007 to march 2008
A monthly engagement group has been running at Essex Church, Notting Hill, on the theme of 'Science and Religion', each session co-facilitated by the Revd. Sarah Tinker and a member of the congregation. You'll notice that the linking word is 'and' and not 'versus'.
It has been said that religious people split into three main groups when faced with science, the 'know-nothings', the 'know-alls', and the 'no-contests'.
The 'no-contests' are reconciled to the fact that religion cannot compete with science on its own ground. They think there is no contest between science and religion because they are simply about different things - Stephen Jay Gould's 'non-overlapping magisteria'.
The 'know-nothings', or fundamentalists, hold that religion's main function is scientific: in fact, most religions have their own cosmology and biology. Today if you asked people to justify their belief in God, most think that you need a God to explain the existence of the world and especially the existence of life.
The third group, the 'know-alls' think religion is good for society. Perhaps good because it consoles them in death or bereavement, perhaps because it provides a moral code. Maybe there isn't a God: most Unitarians know there is precious little evidence for one, let alone for ideas such as the Virgin birth or the Resurrection, but some people need a God to keep them on the straight and narrow or to comfort them in bereavement.
Among the themes so far discussed has been 'Religion and Consciousness' introduced by Michaela Von Britzke in which the discussion was mainly around the work of Professor Daniel Dennett who has written extensively on consciousness and recently published 'Breaking the Spell'. The discussion gave rise to a consideration of such questions as:
- Does the soul exist and does it continue after a person's death?
- Is the external world 'real' or is it a construct of the brain?
A further session on 'Religion and Evolution' introduced by Howard Hague, took as its central text, Richard Dawkins' book 'The God Delusion'. Dawkins maintains that we do not need religion to be good. He argues that morals continually evolve in society, despite opposition from the 'religious morality'. He (Dawkins) uses examples from the Old Testament in the Bible to illustrate what he sees as the barbarism of much 'religious morality'; which most modern Christians find embarrassing but still maintain that the Bible determines their morality.
'Religion and Cosmology' introduced by Will Lyons ranged over the various cosmologies of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and others and considered their explanations of the origin of the Universe. These were compared with the current scientific 'Big Bang' theory (the name given to it disparagingly by the late Professor Fred Hoyle who didn't believe it and had his own 'Steady State' theory). After considering the size of the universe (it's big!), questions grappled with were:
- Whether there was extra-terrestrial life (human or not) and what would be the theological impact of finding it?
- Were the vast resources of money and industrial effort spent on space exploration better spent here on earth on humanitarian causes?
Another session, introduced by Jane Blackall, was on 'Religion, Biodiversity and Interdependence'.
The last subject to be scrutinised by the engagement group was 'Religion and the Psychology of Prejudice' introduced by Caroline Blair. It was felt that our brains had evolved to live in groups similar to ourselves and consequently feelings of prejudice were somehow 'built-in' and needed a conscious effort to dispel.
The attendance at these engagement groups varied with usually some regular members of the community but with a fair number of members of the public who came because they had a specific interest in the subject.
Will Lyons
last updated: 03 Aug 2009
