The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, joined Phil Mercer-Kelly on BBC Radio Oxford on Sunday 12 June to talk about the relationship between science and faith in response to a new survey about attitudes towards science and faith.
A recent YouGov survey by religion and society thinktank Theos asked 5,000 people whether they thought science and religion were compatible. Findings show that nearly two thirds of those asked believe they're not. Nick Spencer, senior fellow for Theos, says;
"Everybody seems to have an opinion on science and religion... The problem is that a lot of the conversations, particularly lately, have got rather snagged on a few quite specific issues."
"In the last generation or so, they've degenerated into shouting matches, and what that's done is obscured a much wider, much more interesting and ultimately, I think, more important set of discussions around science and religion."
Speaking to Phil Mercer-Kelly on BBC Radio Oxford, the Bishop of Oxford reflected on Nick's views, commenting on the importance of opening a healthy dialogue, being particularly aware of using social media, where debates can quickly become polarising. Bishop Steven acknowledged the ways in which science and faith can together 'enrich' our everyday lives, calling for discussions which keep the sense of nuance and subtlety these areas deserve.
"We need to know what things mean as well as to understand what they are, and we need to know what they mean for our lives."
Though the majority disagreed with the statement that science and faith were compatible, when pressed on particular scientific areas, most were more likely to say that increased knowledge in these areas doesn't make it harder to be religious. Bishop Steven commented that on many issues, people's opinions are changing to accept a compatibility between science and faith, mentioning the mental and emotional demands of the pandemic as one reason many have revisited faith or begun to explore it in a new way in the past few years. He also praised the fact that many Christians have "made a significant move towards embracing all that science can bring," acknowledging a "fluid situation" that was encouraging to see.
The survey found that people are less likely to consider religion one of the 'world's great evils' than they were 15 years ago. Looking to the future, Bishop Steven considered the importance of faith as an ethical guide in the challenges that lie ahead of us as a society. As a founding board member for the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation and a member of the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence until 2020, the Bishop of Oxford was clear to stress the importance of taking learnings from faith into the ever-advancing technological world.
"I think the world is facing tremendous challenges. We need the knowledge of the sciences. But we also need the the wisdom the faith tradition brings, and particularly, for example, in the area of new technologies.
"We need to do a great deal of careful thinking so that the new technologies are used ethically and wisely, in a way that protects people, humanity and privacy."
You can listen to Bishop Steven's interview in full on Soundcloud.