The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion is an interdisciplinary academic research institute based in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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

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

, the pioneer of electromagnetic induction. It was established in 2006 by a $2,000,000 grant from the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious a ...

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 director is Paul Ewart, and its course director is Sarah Perrett. The emeritus directors are

Denis Alexander Dr. Denis Alexander has spent 40 years in the biomedical research community. He is an Emeritus Fellow of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge and an Emeritus Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge which he co-found ...

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 change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

, faith, and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

, in collaboration with the

think tank A think tank, or 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-governmenta ...

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

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

'' and ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

''. * 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,

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