Science and Faith

When I was in Spain, the people in the church we were visiting discovered that I was both a Christian and a scientist. They seemed surprised at this, and I seemed a bit of a celebrity as a result! They asked me to ‘star’ in a couple of discussion evenings where we discussed all manner of topics related to science and faith, genetic engineering, counsciousness and ‘the soul’ etc.

In fact various people I’ve met seem to think that science and any sort of faith seem somewhat incompatible. I guess Richard Dawkins has promoted this sort of perspective. But actually it’s not true. In my time studying and researching science I met a very large number of Christians who were also scientists. In fact the ‘prestigious’ institutions where I studied, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, seemed to have more Christians than the less ‘prestigious’ universities. And a large proportion of these were scientists. Scientists, I think, tend to have more polarised views about religion, but they’re certainly not less likely to be Christians, instead the opposite seems to be true (in Britain at least, maybe not in other countries).

I think this topic is of considerable interest to lots of other people too. So I’m starting up a new section of lloydaboutlife on Science and Christianity. I’ve started it off with a few thoughts and articles, and links on these pages. However, I’d like this section to be really interactive. After all this is what blogging is in part meant to be about – an interactive online community sharing thoughts and ideas. So please make comments, and ask questions. I want to expand the section, but I’d like to write on topics which are of general interest, not just to me. To do this I need some feedback. And pleae do vote on my science and faith poll on the right hand side!