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The
Lust for Certainty It brought together a number of writers at the interface between science and religion to present their ideas to a general audience. They shared a common conviction. Many of the things that appear to be going wrong in the world today stem from various kinds of dogmatism. The risks of the resulting hubris range from the aggravation of conflicts because of religious conservatism to the danger of environmental disaster because of technological utopianism. What is a huge mistake is to advocate a reactionary militant secularism or Luddite technophobia. So, the event was a gathering of key speakers in fields including science, religion, politics and history to speak succinctly and passionately about the limitations, and even dangers, of dogmatic attitudes and thought. The idea is to provide a platform for the vital necessity in the modern world for questioning and humility. The tragedy is that in the quest for personal wellbeing and political development, these virtues that are so key to the achievement of such goals are easily sidelined and forgotten. Though they lie both at the heart of the humanist tradition: as Socrates put it, the key to wisdom is understanding one's ignorance. And at the heart of religion, for ultimately God is unknown making all theology provisional and relative. You can listen again to the talks as a podcast given at the first roundtable. Watch this space for details of further events. For more information please email. |
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Participants Professor
Sir Anthony Kenny, former Master of Balliol College and Warden of Rhodes
House, author, including 'What I
Believe' (Continuum, 2006). Professor
Stuart Sim, Sunderland University, author of 'Empires of
Belief',
(Edinburgh University Press, 2006). Professor
Kathy Sykes, professor for the public understanding of science, Bristol
University, TV presenter and chair of the Cheltenham Festival of
Science. Dr Mark Vernon, writer and journalist, a former Anglican priest, and author of ‘Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life’ (Palgrave, 2006). Dr Giles Fraser, vicar of St Mary's Putney, Guardian columnist and lecturer in philosophy, Wadham College, Oxford. Chair: Mick Gordon, playwright and theatre director |
