The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion is an

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

academic

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

based in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is named after the 19th-century English scientist

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

, the pioneer of

electromagnetic induction Electromagnetic or magnetic induction is the production of an electromotive force, electromotive force (emf) across an electrical conductor in a changing magnetic field. Michael Faraday is generally credited with the discovery of induction in 1 ...

. It was established in 2006 by a $2,000,000 grant from the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a Philanthropy, philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a Contrarian investing, contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in relig ...

to carry out academic research, to foster understanding of the interaction between science and religion, and to engage public understanding in both these subject areas. The institute also leads debate on wider issues such as sustainability and education.

Senior staff

The institute's Executive Director is Graham Budd, and its Associate Director is Sarah Perrett. The emeritus directors are Denis Alexander and Robert (Bob) White.

Activities

The institute organises a wide range of activities, including:About us
, Faraday Institute #Free, regular lectures and seminars on a range of science and religion topics. # Providing access to resources such as downloadable audio and video recordings of over 350 Faraday Institute courses, lectures and seminars. The website also includes a wide range of written material, and an online shop featuring heavily discounted books. # Short, intensive weekend, and midweek courses. These are open to graduates or undergraduates from any university in the world, of any faith or none. Discounts and bursaries are available to students and those from low-income countries. Some courses give an overview of the science-religion debate, while others focus on a specific topic. # Residential and day conferences which focus on a particular aspect of the interaction between science and religion. # Informing and improving the media's understanding of the interaction between science and religion. Activities of the Faraday Institute have included: *Hosting a workshop on "The Social, Political, and Religious Transformations of Biology" in September 2007. A book arising from the conference, "''Biology and Ideology – From Descartes to Dawkins''" (eds D.R. Alexander and R.L. Numbers) was published in 2010 by University of Chicago Press. * A project on

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

, faith, and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

, in collaboration with the

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

Theos THEOS, which translates from Greek as "God", is an operating system which started out as OASIS, a microcomputer operating system for small computers that use the Zilog Z80, Z80 processor. When the operating system was launched for the IBM Per ...

. * The "Test of Faith" documentary, course, and books. * Commissioning the play ''Let Newton Be'', which was reviewed in ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'' and ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

''. * Organisation of The Georges Lemaître Anniversary Conference, April 2011 at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. * Organisation of the ‘Sustainability in Crisis’ Conference, Sept 26–28, 2011, held at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. In his former capacity as director and now as emeritus director of the institute, Denis Alexander has commented on science and religion in UK national media and international media. The institute has published 20 Faraday Papers discussing various science and faith issues, which are available online in 12 different languages. Its website hosts recordings of more than 350 lectures. Most of these lectures can also be found on the University of Cambridge Video & Audio Archive. Its work, along with that of other similar organizations, has led to a "complete reassessment of historical literature on the relationship between science and religion."

References

External links

Faraday Institute webpageThe Compatibility of God and Science
Evans, Katie, Interview with Rodney Holder, Course Director of the Faraday Institute, "Cambridge Medicine", Vol 21, No 1 (2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Faraday Institute For Science And Religion Research institutes in Cambridge Religion and science Research institutes established in 2006 2006 establishments in England Michael Faraday