S4 Episode 1: The successes of the INSBS with Prof. Fern Elsdon-Baker
In the much anticipated first episode from the 4th season of our podcast, Fern Elsdon-Baker, Professor of Science, Knowledge and Belief in Society at the University of Birmingham, looks back at the successes of the network she founded in bringing together researchers from all over the world and from a wide variety of disciplines, from […]
Commemorating Darwin: Global Perspectives on Evolutionary Science, Religion and Politics
By Joel Barnes and Ian Hesketh By the time Charles Darwin died on 19 April 1882, he had become a scientific celebrity, widely known for his studies of evolution that many believed transformed the way humans understood themselves in relation to the natural world. Since then his memory, and his celebrity, have been reshaped and […]
Translating Data, Visualizing the Nation: How Quantitative Data Helped Envision Modern India
By Sayori Ghoshal In 2022, I began working on an INSBS-funded grant project on the impact of race science and statistics on religious and caste identities in colonial India. Under colonial rule, Indian scientists had rejected the claim that Europeans were racially superior to Indians. However, they had not dismissed race as a scientific object. […]
The Cover That Wasn’t To Be
By Dr. Thoko Kamwendo I am busy putting together an edited collection of essays that take an STS approach to the study of science and religion, funded by the INSBS. As many of you know, there are several parts to creating an edited volume, including making tricky decisions about the cover. I recently received options […]
S3 Episode 5: Science and Religion in Argentina with Professor Reynaldo Rivera, Dr Arturo Fitz Herbert and Sol Barbera
In this episode James and Will welcome Professor Reynaldo Rivera, Full Professor in the School of Communication and Design, post-doctoral researcher Dr Arturo Fitz Herbert and researcher Sol Barbera from Austral University (Argentina). Reynaldo, Arturo and Sol discuss there work as project partners on the Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum of Global Perspectives project, […]
Science and Religion, A Very Short Re-Introduction
By Adam R. Shapiro When Thomas Dixon first asked me to work with him to revise and update his excellent 2008 book Science and Religion, A Very Short Introduction, my first thought was to ask why such a text might need a new edition. On the face of it, many of the issues we typically associate […]
Evolution as a Trojan Horse
By Bernard Lightman With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that over the course of the past 150 years a remarkable reversal has taken place. Whereas once the investigation of nature had derived status from its intimate connections with the more elevated disciplines of ethics and theology, increasingly during the twentieth century these […]
The ‘Scientific Interpretation’ of the Bible and the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
By James C. Ungureanu In his Autobiography, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) gave three specific reasons for his growing religious doubts. He became morally revolted by the God of the Old Testament, whom he characterised as a “revengeful tyrant.” Moreover, the discovery of the “fixed laws of nature” made belief in miracles seem “incredible” to him. Finally, […]
Uniformity, biblical criticism and supernatural activity in the 19th century
By Nathan Bossoh In June 1887 the Canadian writer Grant Allen aptly summed up the evolution of science over the preceding fifty years in an article for the Fortnightly Review entitled “The Progress of Science from 1836 to 1886”. After providing an elaborate yet succinct overview of the immense expansion of science, Allen concluded that
Rethinking Science-Religion Conflict Narratives
Public Lecture, Thursday 4th July @ 17:30, University of Birmingham Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Peter Harrison will give a free public talk titled, “Rethinking Science-Religion Conflict Narratives,” on Thursday 4th July at 5:30pm in Lecture Theatre C of the Aston Webb Building at the University of Birmingham. A bio and abstract follow, below the poster […]
