Has Science Replaced God? – Saturday, September 19, 5.30 to 7 p.m.
Durham University (UK) Physics Professor Dr Tom McLeish,
The Rees Hotel Queenstown conference room.
Please register at connect@catalystnz.org, the ticket price is $5 on the door.
Loud voices in the media declare that science has conclusively dismissed the possibility of God through repeated waves of discovery: the underlying laws of physics, the ancient beginnings of the cosmos and the earth, the evolution of species, the chemical basis of the brain …
But is this the right conclusion? What does history say? What do the most far-sighted scientists say? And what does theology say? Might science actually need some help to rediscover its human and cultural roots? Join UK physicist and author of Faith and Wisdom in Science (OUP 2014) Tom McLeish to explore the issues.
Tom McLeish is a Professor of Physics at Durham University, where he studies the science of slimy stuff. He has worked with industrial teams on developing new plastic materials, with biologists on how signals travel inside living cells, and has been involved in science communication in the media, schools and churches for over 20 years.
His research at Durham also encompasses the history of medieval science and the relation of science and theology. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2011, where he is chair of the Education Committee. Tom is also currently Vice-President for Science and Innovation of the Institute of Physics. Since 1993 he has been a lay preacher (‘reader’) in the Anglican Church and currently inflicts his sermons on the good parishioners of St, Michael-le-Belfrey, York. Frustrations over the loss of the human, cultural roots of science and over the stale nature of the public ‘science/religion’ debate drove him to write a book, Faith and Wisdom in Science, published by OUP in 2014.
