Faraday research
Projects are listed here in the order in which they have started. Any enquiries about these projects should be made to the first named investigator (see Staff page for contact details):
Research Project No.1: Jason M Rampelt and Denis Alexander
Project title: 'Faith and Creativity in Science:
Biographies from 400 Years of Genius'
Scientific creativity is often marked by an outstanding ability to perceive the central question, by the construction of elegant theories, by novelty of insight, and by originality of thought. The aim of this project is to investigate the relationship between religious belief and scientific creativity in the lives of individual scientists in the history of science from 1600 to the present.
When we look back on the various intellectual and technological achievements that have given rise to modern science, it is easy to think that humanity has merely traversed a necessary path towards an inevitable discovery of the truth about the world. Our understanding of nature in all of its details and all of its glory never ceases to surprise us as once held mysteries are more and more understood to be the intricate workings of physical processes. Such a viewpoint easily guides us to the conclusion that all mysteries in life will one day be disrobed and submit to rational comprehension. Religion, now forced into a small reserve of morals and ethics, will eventually forfeit the last of its entitlements. This totally ahistorical account of science betrays the significant place religion has held in the lives of the very scientists canonised in the history of modern science. Robert Boyle, who made experiment the norm, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, who mathematised electricity and magnetism, and Arthur Eddington, who calculated the inner workings of stars, all held sincere religious beliefs. At the very least, modern science owes a debt to those with religious faith. But more importantly, as we examine the progress and development of their scientific discoveries in light of their theological convictions, we see that religion and science were not merely accidental companions in the lives of these scientists. Their scientific work was often formed out of metaphysical convictions, investigative tools, moral values, and social practices all deeply rooted in their religion.
The aim of this research project is to better understand the deep connections between scientific creativity and religion in the lives of scientists in the modern period. The project will result in a book comprising approximately twelve short biographies, based on original research using primary documents, that will illustrate the various ways in which religious faith and scientific creativity interact. The book will interest scientists and historians, as well as anyone fascinated by the complex interplay between science and faith.
Research Project No.2: Rodney Holder
Project title: 'Natural Theology and the Legacy of Karl Barth'
The twentieth century Protestant theologian Karl Barth has left a legacy of suspicion with regard to the project of natural theology: seeking evidence for God’s existence in the ordered structure of the world. The aim of this research project is to revisit the role of natural theology in the light of contemporary scientific advances.
Natural theology has had a chequered history but has been given new life in recent years, especially through insights from the natural sciences, notably physics and cosmology. Barth’s challenge came as a reaction to the failures of nineteenth century liberal Protestantism, which had succumbed to the Enlightenment’s elevation of human reason, and it informed the struggle of the Confessing Church against Nazism. Yet the question of natural theology is vital for the science-faith dialogue. Is there any kind of praeparatio evangelica given by the natural world as investigated by science, or does the natural world only say something to us about God if we already have a belief in God from somewhere else (revelation)?
In seeking to answer this question, the project will re-examine Barth’s argument, especially noting the importance of its context in 1930s Germany, and follow up how Barth’s position has been critiqued and developed by others. This investigation will begin with Emil Brunner to whom Barth reacted so vigorously with his famous Nein! The different approaches of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Wolfhart Pannenberg in German Protestant theology will then be examined, followed by that of Hans Urs von Balthasar from the perspective of Roman Catholicism. The historical-critical engagement will conclude with two notable British participants in the science-religion dialogue, Thomas Torrance and Alister McGrath, before arriving at an overall position which takes account of the theological concerns of those studied.
Whilst not wanting to pre-empt the findings of the study, the aim will be to see how it might be possible to hold together the notion of religious revelation whilst employing reason and empirical evidence, including that from the sciences, in the justification of belief. The study will also engage with the Biblical material and point up both the possibilities and limitations of a natural theology for the twenty first century. The end result will be a book in which it is envisaged that chapters will be devoted to the theologians named, together with a final section setting out the position reached as a result of this historical-critical study.
Research Project No.3: Jonathan Moo and Bob White
Project title: 'Transformation of the Natural World according to the Christian Scriptures'
The biblical hope of a ‘new heavens and a new earth’ presents a particular challenge for those interested in the relationship between Christianity and the environment. This project aims to address that challenge by delineating the significance of the New Testament’s teaching regarding the ‘new creation’ from the perspective of the natural world.
The threat of environmental crisis has prompted substantial reanalysis of the role that Christianity has played in science, technology and use of the nonhuman world. It is clear that scriptural passages which suggest there will be a radical end to the present world-order have often encouraged an other-worldly piety and in some instances have been used to legitimise unsustainable use of natural resources by those who consider the world to exist primarily as a stage for individual salvation and existential decision. For others, eschatological hope has served as a basis for valuing ‘secular’ work of all kinds and as the driving motivation for involvement in social and environmental issues. This study returns to the formative Christian documents themselves to consider how the ‘created order’ is portrayed in terms of its role in the inauguration and realisation of the ‘new creation’.
For example, to what extent do New Testament authors envision continuity within the natural order between this age and the ‘age to come’? Unambiguous answers from texts not written primarily to address such issues cannot be expected; and it is recognised from the outset that there is a great diversity of themes and emphases in the relevant passages, reflecting the diversity of the New Testament documents themselves. Nonetheless, the theological significance of such questions and their implications for Christian ethics justify asking them, and—given its central importance in shaping the practice of the Christian church and its influence in the Western world generally—the New Testament seems the appropriate place to pursue them. The intent is to let the books of the New Testament speak with their own voice and yet also to bring them into dialogue with each other, the Hebrew bible and contemporary science. The goal of this project is to produce a book that will be of interest to biblical scholars and theologians, as well as to scientists and policy-makers interested in the Christian tradition, and especially to Christians who wonder about the relationship between their faith and issues such as climate change, natural disaster, habitat loss, biodiversity and sustainable development.
Research Project No.4: Hilary Marlow and Bob White
Project title: 'What is Human? The Place of Humanity in the biblical traditions'
The way that human beings behave in the world and their impact on the rest of creation reflect, according to many theologians, fundamental beliefs about our own significance. This project aims to explore this by examining the biblical understanding of the divinely ordained nature, status and rôle of human beings as part of God’s creation.
Philosophical naturalism and scientific reductionism, together with new theories on the nature of consciousness, pose a challenge to Christian attempts to define humanity and its relationship to God. The Christian response to this has often been to emphasise human uniqueness over the rest of creation, as described by the phrase in Genesis that people are made ‘in the image of God’. However, this terminology and the associated command to ‘rule’ over the earth and ‘subdue’ it, taken from Genesis 1, have been perceived as exploitatively anthropocentric by some ecologists and theologians.
How might the tension between the desire to stress human uniqueness, and concerns about human abuse of the earth, be resolved? Theologians have debated long and hard over the meaning of ‘image of God’ without reaching a consensus, but does this phrase define what makes us human? What do the biblical texts actually say? This project will examine these questions and draw on the teaching of both the Old and New Testaments to develop a Christian understanding of what it means to be truly human.
Our theological findings will be placed within current scientific understanding of what it means to be human based on palaeontological, anthropological, sociological and neurological evidence. Our aim is to set a Christian understanding of the nature of humanity in the wider context of God’s creation, and to develop from this implications for how Christians should live in, and interact with, the world. The project will initially result in one or more academic articles in the field of science and religion, but ultimately also in a book aimed at a more general readership.
Research Project No.5: Kevin Dutton
Project title: 'Scientific and religious aspects of conflict resolution'
The ability to resolve conflicts peaceably, equitably and quickly carries the thumbprints of natural selection. Throughout history, the renouncement of confrontation has distinguished successful human societies from those that have perished: tribes, kingdoms, nations and empires – their stability and expansion have all depended, at one time or another, on the peaceful solution to confrontation. In fact game theory suggests that cooperation, as opposed to defection, evolves as an evolutionary stable strategy over time. The meek really do seem to inherit the earth.
The implications of this are profound. If the ability to diffuse confrontation has evolved, then buried within each of us is the ancient know-how, the primeval blueprint, for resolving conflict. And just as there are going to be those who show little aptitude for conflict resolution, there are also going to be those who show great talent. When anger rages, anxiety runs riot and feelings of hopelessness encroach and overwhelm, sophisticated persuaders behave in a way fundamentally different from the rest of us. They can think without thinking, make instant decisions seemingly without having to decide, and finesse dramatic turnarounds under extreme conditions both effectively and quickly.
The project involves research for a book on conflict resolution (possible title ‘Extreme Persuasion’). Book contracts have already been agreed with a wide range of international publishers including Random House (UK), Harcourt (USA), Doubleday (Canada ) and NHK (Japan). The book will survey the evolutionary, neurological and religious roots of the strategies that lead to effective - and fast - conflict resolution
Research Project No.6: Bob White and Jonathan Chaplin
Project title: 'Hope for Creation: a biblical vision for contemporary environmental policy'
This is a three-year joint project with the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics (KLICE) [www.klice.co.uk], funded mainly by the Templeton Foundation, the Kirby Laing Foundation and the Hinchley Trust. This interdisciplinary project aims to contribute to the development of a balanced theology of the environment rooted in the Christian Scriptures, a contemporary environmental ethic and a framework to guide public policy. A great deal of science analysing contemporary environmental crises is now available, but governments seem unable to identify and implement workable public policy responses. Despite the widespread attention these issues are receiving in the media, government and the academy, responses from the churches have lagged behind and lacked depth, both because of their lack of rigorous engagement with the biblical text itself – thus diminishing their ability to enlist the energies of church members – and because of their limited ability to integrate the relevance of a scriptural vision with environmental science and to communicate it effectively in public policy debates. The project seeks to help remedy these deficiencies by supporting a significant British-based Christian contribution to addressing our environmental crises.
The principal outputs of the project include:
- A multi-authored book aimed at a wide public audience, on The Root Causes of Unsustainability.
- Two advanced research projects examining themes in the Christian Scriptures: the transformation of the natural world, and the nature of humanity (see Projects 3 and 4), issuing in scholarly monographs.
- Two books aimed at a wide Christian audience on the themes of Christian hope and environmental ethics (Project 3: Jonathan Moo and Bob White) and the nature of humanity in the Bible (Project 4: Hilary Marlow and Bob White).
- An international conference in Cambridge in 2011 on environmental ethics and public policy aimed at both academic specialists and policy-makers, both within and beyond the churches, and issuing in an interdisciplinary book edited by Bob White and Jonathan Chaplin (Director of KLICE).
Research Project No.7: Berry Billingsley and Denis Alexander
Project title: 'The Interactions Between Science and Religious Belief in the Secondary School Context in England'
Research Project No.7: Berry Billingsley (Principal Investigator, Department of Education, University of Reading; b.billingsley@reading.ac.uk), Keith Taber (Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge) and Denis Alexander (The Faraday Institute)
Project title: ‘Interactions Between Science and Religious Belief in the Secondary School Context in England’.
The aim of this project is to investigate the factors that shape the thinking of secondary-school students (age 11-16) on the relationship(s) between science and religion within the English curriculum context. The research involves quantitative and qualitative survey work amongst pupils in a variety of secondary schools. The ways in which pupils with faith backgrounds view science and the possible pursuit of scientific careers will be addressed.
In addition to the research, specific learning resources for students will be developed that offer approaches to respond to the key issues raised during the research. The resource development strand is both informed by the research strand and designed to feedback into the research by offering opportunities to evaluate student responses to the resources.
The project has an Advisory Board comprising:
Marianne Cutler, Executive Director, Professional and Curriculum Innovation, The Association for Science Education.
Prof. Mary James, Associate Director of Research, Faculty of Education, Cambridge University.
Michael Poole, Visiting Research Fellow in Science and Religion at King's College London.
Prof. Michael Reiss, Professor of Science Education at the Institute of Education, London University.
Dr. John Taylor, Director of Critical Skills, Rugby School.
Research Project No.8: Anabela Pinto
Project title: 'Believe it or not!'
The evolution and adaptive value of belief A book with a title with the word belief in it immediately evokes associations with religiosity and faith. However this book is not about religion. It is about why people get so attached to ideas, and sometimes are even willing to die for them. The thesis developed in the book introduces what I call “meme attachment theory” which is an attempt to explain why some memes are more sticky than others. Some memes have the property to trigger visceral emotional reactions with great social impact. From lonely hero freedom fighters, to earth moving religious or political movements, all are influenced by belief in particular memes that strike a chord with the emotional centres of the brain in some cases leading to ideological and religious fanaticism. The project aims to understand the origins of the emotional mechanisms that regulate belief, exploring how beliefs are formed not only in humans, but in animals. The research also addresses which properties are most likely to make a meme sticky and their relationship with emotion and evolution. Although religion is not the central focus of this project, belief in mystical entities, gods, and other magical objects are also discussed as examples of memes with sticky properties. The project builds on evolutionary aspects of behaviour and cognitive development of several animals including Man. The book is aimed at a wide public audience.
