16th August 2016
Can creationists be pro-science?
By James Reilly The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise,…
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News & Blog
INSBS Conference Postponed
As you will all be aware, across many countries governments and universities have recently been placing restrictions on people’s travel in response to the COVID 19 epidemic, with many higher education institutions closing completely for an indefinite period. This includes bans on mass gathering over 100 people and incoming international travel in some countries including South Africa. In the UK we have not yet witnessed many restrictions on travel and large gatherings, but it seems…
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5th July 2016
“The most pestilential book ever vomited from the jaws of hell”
By Sylvia Nickerson Radicalism and science at the publisher John Chapman In the latter nineteenth century several British doctors, philosophers and naturalists embraced scientific principles as the ones upon which society should best form itself for the future. The theory of evolution, the atomic theory of matter and the theory of the conservation of energy were the core theories upon which this new group hoped to reshape society for the…
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27th May 2016
What is the history of “Antievolution”?
By Adam Shapiro Perhaps nobody wants to be an “Anti.” In the American abortion debates, both sides typically self-identify as “Pro-” (Choice or Life) and debase their opponents as being “anti” something-else; anti-abortion, anti-life, anti-women. People, organizations, and statements may be described as Anti-Islamic, Anti-Family, Anti-Semitic, Anti-EU, Anti-LGBT; those descriptors are most often used critically. We seem to live in an anti-anti era, and as a historian, it’s important to…
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17th May 2016
Prophecy, Mistrust and Development: Religion and the 2014-15 Ebola Epidemic in Sierra Leone
By Ben Walker One night in June 2015 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the Ghanaian Prophet Daniel Amoateng roared to a crying, praising and screaming crowd that there would be ‘No more Ebola’. Backed by the clanks of an electric keyboard, the noise became rapturous with call, response and cheers as Amoateng declared over and over that the disease must ‘touch nobody’. Aside from prophecy, Amoateng donated…
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3rd May 2016
What’s the best way to think about creationists?
By Jeffrey Guhin Michelangelo, The Fall and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Sistine Chapel What’s the best way for non-creationists to think about creationists? Some view them, unhelpfully, as inescapably anti-modern, utterly unwilling to face facts. This unwillingness is often supposed to be linked to religion itself, with religious belief understood as diametrically opposed to the scientific process. Science, we are told, is about facing facts, being open to…
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29th March 2016
‘Most people don’t have the time to be concerned with systems of ideas, because they have day jobs’
By John H. Evans Chris Nurse - Skull Crucifixion-Wellcome Images John H. Evans offers a sociologists’ view on science and religion debates John H Evans is the author of Playing God? Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate and Playing God? Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate. Here, he talks to…
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15th March 2016
Reimagining both the peg and the hole in the conversation between Christianity and science
By Simon Appoloni Square peg in a round hole Have you noticed that within many of the current leading classifications of the religion-science relationship (such as those proposed by Ian Barbour, Willem Drees, Philip Hefner, Ted Peters, or John Haught), there is an implicit or explicit goal within the author’s…
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1st March 2016
What’s in a name? Does Darwin hinder the acceptance of evolution?
By Daniel Kuebler Darwin Mosaic Time Magazine Charis Tsevis For nearly 35 years, Gallup has polled Americans regarding their views on human evolution using a polling question that gives respondents three options to choose from regarding human origins. Surprisingly, the results of the survey question remained relatively steady over time. Since 1982, the percentage of Americans that believe God created humans in their present form within…
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12th February 2016
Darwin Day: Celebrating Without Deifying
By Alexander Hall Today, Friday February 12th 2016, is the 207th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. Celebrated around the world as ‘Darwin Day’, events across 6 continents from Tel-Aviv to Tokyo will commemorate the English naturalist’s work, explore his legacy, and discuss the current state of affairs in the field of Evolutionary Biology and beyond. Whilst the majority…
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8th December 2015
Where is the Evidence? Privileging Science over Religion
By Joel Thiessen When I examine comment sections online in response to stories about religion in Canada, remarks almost inevitably spiral into a religion versus science debate. In my book, The Meaning of Sunday: The Practice of Belief in a Secular Age – based on ninety interviews with those in Canada who identify with a Christian group and attend church weekly (active affiliates), those who identify…
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