Welcome to the Bristol Christians in Science Homepage.

Bristol is the newest CiS local group and is aimed at people in and around the Bristol area who are interested in discussing the relationship between science and faith.

If you would like to get involved please email Christina Biggs.

Next talk:

Date: Friday 19th November 2010 at 8pm

Speaker: John Bryant, Professor Emeritus of Cell and Molecular Biology, Exeter University.

Topic: ‘Synthia - synthetic life or cells and spin?

Venue: Randall Room, All Saints Church, Pembroke Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2HY).

Professor Bryant writes:

'American scientist creates life' - this was the general tenor of the headlines when Dr Craig Venter announced the success of his experiment in which he transferred a synthetic set of genes into an 'empty' bacterial cell. But actually he had not come anywhere near creating life. Should Christians be concerned? Not about the experiments themselves. However, as with any new development in science, we need to think about how it will be used. Humankind has a consistent track record in misusing God's gifts (including the gift of scientific curiosity) and there is no reason to suppose that this area of 'synthetic biology' will be immune to that.

The parish priest of All Saints, Father Richard Hoyal, has written a brief article on the theological implications of Synthia in All Saints June magazine:

http://www.allsaintsclifton.org/parmag/2010June.pdf, page 2. You may like to read it in advance of the meeting to help your reflections.

Previous talks:

November 2009 -  Professor Andrew Halestrap, Professor of Biochemistry at Bristol University: "Science, Suffering and the Love of God"

March 2010 - Revd Dr Ernest Lucas, Vice-President, Bristol Baptist College: "Are Evolution and Genesis 1-3 compatible?"

June 2010 - Dr Jonathan Doye, Lecturer in Theoretical Chemistry, Oxford and Fellow of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion: "Chance, Providence and Free Will".

Recordings:

For those of you who could not attend, there is a recording of the talk on-line, kindly put together by Dr Roger Tucker on his website www.outsideecho.com: follow the link to CiS Bristol. Although you will need to download Roger's own program Notetaker, this is well worth the effort since not only will you be able to listen to the audio in identifiable chunks (thus obviating the need for listening all the way through just for one section), but also Roger has spliced the audio together with the actual Powerpoint slides. It makes for a complete experience! For those of you who wish to listen to it as a whole you can also download an iTunes file.

There is also a recording of the previous March 2010 talk by Revd Dr Ernest Lucas on "Are Evolution and Genesis 1-3 compatible?", using the same software.