Metaphysics

The cover story of the New Scientist this week is Metaphysics, which they sub-title “How science answers philosophy’s deepest questions”. I think that the New Scientist is a very interesting magazine, and I’m pleased that they tackle these sorts of topics, although I do find how they approach them somewhat frustrating sometimes!

Ecclesiastes as experiment

What does Ecclesiastes look like from a scientist’s point of view? People have long struggled with how best to understand Ecclesiastes and the approach of R J Berry provides a refreshing change to some of the theologian’s arguments over whether it is ‘pessimistic’ or ‘optimistic’. On another note, Ecclesiastes has also provided the inspiration for…

Chance or Constraint?

The results of evolution (including us!) are the results of chance. That’s the standard view anyway. The great, late Stephen Jay Gould wrote engagingly about this in his fascinating book, Wonderful Life.  But, this view has been challenged by Simon Conway Morris, particularly in his book Life’s Solution. In this he argues that, once life…

The Trinity and Science

What does science have to teach us about the doctrine of the Trinity? Quite a lot I think; particularly quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics deals with what happens when you get down to the atomic and sub-atomic scale. Which, in short, is stuff that you wouldn’t imagine! Or, to use the phrase that gets used a…

The God Hypothesis?

‘The God Hypothesis‘ by Victor Stenger argues that “the existence, or not, of God is very much a question science can address”. It is one of the articles in The New Scientist’s ‘God Issue‘ (subscription required), which I’ve already blogged about. Unfortunately, I don’t think that he does a very convincing job…

The God Issue?

This week’s edition of the New Scientist is deals with what they call “the surprising new science of religion”. Called ‘The God Issue‘, they publish a variety of articles looking at different aspects of God and faith. (I’ve linked to the articles, but a subscription is required). I think it’s great that an international popular…

Darwin and God’s Image

Being ‘made in the image of God‘ is a fundamental theological concept,  which can help us think about the theory of evolution in a more constructive way than is always the case. This sermon was preached in 2009 as part of a baptism service for both a baby (Ella) and two adults (Emily and Sophie;…

Science and faith

I’m a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists, a community of (mainly) Anglican and Methodist ministers who also have a a qualification and/or experience at a professional level of science or technology. As a community, we therefore obviously believe in the compatibility of scientific discovery and our Christian faith. So, I was pleased to…

Review of The Work of Love

I’m very interested in the concept of kenosis, which was particularly developed by Vanstone and Moltmann. Very briefly, this is an understanding (based on Philippians 2) that Jesus self-limited, emptied himself, during the incarnation. I’ll try and explore this more in other posts, but one of the more recent books to develop this idea is…

Critical realism

Critical realism is something that I’ve been interested in for a long time. It is an ‘epistemological theory’; in other words, a theory about knowledge, about how we actually know anything. Everyone has an epistemological theory, it’s just that most of them aren’t very well worked through! They tend to be: I know what I…

Wondering about wonder

I spoke at Greenbelt 2011 on the subject of wonder: Wonder is more than an emotion, more than a thought. It is experienced by scientists, artists, theologians. It drives people to create new things, to make new discoveries. What does the experience of wonder tell us about what it means to be human? What role…