Has Science made Religion Redundant?

It is often thought that clashes between religion and science are inevitable, and that widespread acceptance of a scientific worldview will necessarily lead to a decline in religious belief.  This talk will challenge this common assumption, examining past and present relations between science and religion and considering how patterns of religious belief have changed in response to the growth of modern science.

Peter Harrison is an Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. Previously, he was the Idreos Professor of Science and Religion and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre at the University of Oxford. He has published extensively in the field of intellectual history with a focus on the philosophical, scientific and religious thought of the early modern period, and has a particular interest in historical and contemporary relations between science and religion. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Yale and Princeton, is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2011 he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh. Author of over 100 articles and book chapters, his six books include, most recently, The Territories of Science and Religion (Chicago, 2015), winner of the 2016 Aldersgate Prize. Peter is also a Fellow of ISCAST–Christians in Science and Technology.

This event is being run by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies in the Faculty of Arts, as part of the 2017 University of Melbourne Science Festival.
Students, staff and the general public are all welcome to attend. Registrations required.
Check out the full Science Festival Program.