St Ed's
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St Edmund's Parish Church
Roundhay, Leeds, England
Articles - Miscellaneous
Centre for Science and Religion
At Simon Cowling's suggestion I went back to school for a day to attend a course at the Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Leeds held on a Saturday in June. My brain hurt a little by the end as I don't think I sat through 5 lectures in a day even when I was a real student. The topics were:-
Religious Values in the Practice of Science in 19th Century Britain - the most disturbing aspect of this lecture was that I learnt that a century doesn't mean 100 years but just a period of time between 2 important events that are roughly 100 years apart. In this case the storming of the Bastille 1789 to the Russian Revolution 1917 - I must try this approach to figures when I produce the next church accounts. It was a wonderful talk which convinced even me that we have something to learn from history.
The Science Wars as Religious Wars - in contrast to the 19th century this speaker argued, pretty convincingly that now the real conflict was not between science and religion. Rather that both science and religion should make common cause with the anti-foundational postmodern movement which sought to undermine both. The idea being that both science and religion are rooted in faith, albeit of different sorts, whereas postmodernism is a rootless collage of ideas.
Science, Gender and Values - this was an impressive feminist critique of science, which described women's exclusion on the bases of the masculinity of science, the embedded gender assumptions within science and the cultural bias within the education of science. It's pretty difficult for someone from the group that this bias benefits - white, male, middle-class, middle-aged - like me, that it exists at all, but I know it does and I know it's wrong.
Science and Islamic Values - the speaker explained his belief that the Koran is the source of all knowledge and the basis of Islamic scientific methodology. It is accepted within Islam that this could result in restrictions being placed upon scientific freedom and objectivity. There was an acceptance too that the wonder of science was as important as its practical impact on everyday life. The Koran highlights the importance of knowledge and contains an obligation for mankind to subjugate nature, if required to enable mankind to serve God.
Religious Values and Technology - a Christian Approach The speaker proposed a sacramental theology of technology, which ran as follows. The table fellowship and hospitality of the sacraments represent the unrestricted guarantee of God's goodness as seen in the distribution of water, bread and wine. This was in contrast to the actual distribution of material goods in the world. It was in the light of the sacramental values that new technology was to be judged.
Simon has encouraged me to produce a longer version of the notes on these topics over the summer, perhaps in the form of a handout. In the meantime I hope that I've given a flavour of the day. The Centre runs these courses fairly regularly. A couple of folk have already said that they would like to go along to the next one so if you would too let me know.
David Everett
http:/www.stedmunds.roundhay.org.uk/misc/cfsr.htm
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Last Revised 26 July, 2001