Science is a Gift from God | David Wilkinson, Durham University - YouTube

"My background is research in star formation and galaxy evolution, and the big bang itself,

and these days I teach Christian theology."

That's the Reverend Professor David Wilkinson of Durham University, England.

As a respected author, and theologian who also happens to be an astrophysicist,

Professor Wilkinson is working to bridge the gaps he's observed between the faith and science communities.

"Lots of people think that science and Christian faith are in conflict but I think one of the real problems of the conflict model

is it claims that science and theology say exactly  the same things about the world

and therefore, if they say different things, one has to be right and one has to be wrong. That's far too simplistic."

"To use an old illustration, 'What is a kiss?'"

"Well, a kiss is the approach of two pairs of lips, the reciprocal transmission of carbon dioxide and microbes,

and the juxtaposition of two orbicular muscles in this state of contraction.

That's a kiss, in scientific terms."

But if I go to my wife and say to her, 'Should we get together for a mutual transmission of carbon dioxide and microbes?'

You see in that context with my wife, a kiss is  about meaning, value, purpose.

It's quite different from the description of carbon dioxide and  microbes but it's just as valid.

If I allow science to speak its own language and allow theology to speak its own language,

to have a conversation together rather than a boxing match, I find that that conversation is fruitful and illuminating."

Several years ago Professor Wilkinson  and a scientist colleague, Professor Tom McLeish,

were concerned about the typical reactions they'd seen from the church when it engaged with science.

"One was one of ignorance.

Actually that Christian leaders found themselves speaking on topics they didn't fully understand."

"Another and a very dominant one, was one of fear as they were asked to comment on science

and the third thing was silence."

"And so what we tried to do was to start to help equip Christian leaders to talk with scientists in a safe space.

In a way that they could ask and learn without  feeling threatened and we certainly wanted to  

replace fear with a sense that science can be  welcomed as a gift from God."

So Professor Wilkinson and Professor McLeish started a project:

Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science

"To provide cultural change we felt we needed five  strands to this project."

"The first: Research"

"We wanted to know what senior leaders really believed  about science

and then we wanted to invite those leaders to our second strand: Conferences

to meet world-leading scientists, to have conversations."

"The third strand was about trying to form future  leaders. We call that, 'Science for Seminaries.'

because we're working with theological colleges  and courses to introduce science into the curriculum at an early stage."

"The fourth strand was to recognize that the media and the political  

world were impacted by some of the statements made  by the established church,

so we partnered with the Church of England to help support them."

"And underlying these four strands there was another strand called, 'Scientists in Congregations'

And this was to give exemplar projects

of what a local church could do if it used the  scientists who were already part of its community,  

and worked with them to do something  that would be educational, inspiring about science and theology."

"This isn't simply biology for beginners."

"This is about people who are at the forefront of genetic research,

with some of the really tough and difficult questions both in the science and within the ethics."

"This is about people who are working in artificial intelligence,

allowing church leaders to encounter  robots who will talk with them."

"We pick up controversial areas.

Fracking has been an area where we've recognized a disagreement amongst church leaders but also among scientists."

"The existence of the soul."

So what will a culture change  within the church look like?

And what has Professor Wilkinson observed so  far?

"A measure of success of the program for me

is that we move away from  church leaders engaging science with a sense of fear in their eyes,

to a sense of openness and joy in their eyes."

"We should see some of those attitudes towards science changing within our research."

"I think there's a sense of actually being valued and listened to as a scientist by the church, perhaps, for the first time."