PréCiSNo. 49

Winter 2009/2010www.cis.org.uk

CHRIS

TIAN

S. IN.

SCIEN

CEPerry Enever, CiS Development Officer, 157 Rough Common Road, Canterbury, KENT. CT2 9BS; perry@cis.org.uk

Diana Briggs, CiS Secretary, 5 Northmoor Road, Oxford, OX2 6UW; secretary@cis.org.uk

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MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMANOF CHRISTIANS IN SCIENCE

Keith Fox has some particularly excitingnews to share.

I am delighted to report that CiS has beenawarded a three year grant from theTempleton Foundation. This is to support aproject entitled “Capacity Building onScience and Faith in the UK EvangelicalCommunity”. The project will enable us toappoint a full time Development Officer, andto build on our reputation and achievements.Through this grant we will implement a seriesof projects that will build on our pastsuccesses, enhance our profile and supportour members. We aimto increase the impactof CiS in educating theUK evangelicalcommunity aboutscience-faith issues ina well-informed andeducated way,committed tomainstream scienceand evangelicalChristian belief. Theseare exciting times andwe look forward tosome new opportunitiesand challenges. Can Itake a few moments toexplain the majorthemes of the proposal and to excite youwith the prospect of what lies ahead?

Increasing the CiS membership

In order to maximise our impact, and to gen-erate a sustainable income stream, we need

to greatly increase our membership. Wetherefore aim to triple the present CiSmembership from 800 to 2400 members.This may seem a difficult task, but onaverage it only means that each CiSmember will need to recruit two newmembers over the 3 years.

Doubling the number of local groups

Many scientists become aware of CiSthrough the activities of local groups. Thesehelp members to feel part of a supportivenetwork of scientists who are Christians andthey offer opportunities for engaging withlocal churches and universities. Theformation of local groups a few years agohas increased members’ involvement. Wecurrently have 11 local groups, which

organise activities thatrange from public lecturesto seminars and supportgroups. We aim to doublethe number of localgroups and to enhancethe role of the existingones. We aim to establisha local group in each ofthe major university citiesand to help achieve thiswe will be able to provide“launching grants” forestablishing new groups.We are already preparinga handbook for localgroups, which will help theprocess. Establishing,

fostering, resourcing and nurturing theselocal groups will be one of the main tasks forthe Development Officer. Local groups alsohelp to identify and train emerging speakersin science and faith. We would be delightedto hear from anyone who would like to beinvolved in forming a new group their localarea. [Continued page 2]

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Involvement in local churchesOne of CiS’s strengths is its evangelical basis offaith and EA membership, which means that it isacceptable to UK evangelical churches. We planto increase our involvement in local churchesaround the UK and we will plan some targetedevents in large churches. We will produce some“Christians in Science guides” as attractivebrochures on specific issues for use by churches(and student groups) on issues of science andfaith, which will be written for the scientificlayman. We will also produce “Christians inScience Guides to studying…”, written forpractising scientists and students in a range ofdifferent scientific disciplines. Anyone with a flairfor writing is welcome to join in with preparing oneof these.

Involvement with StudentsWe will continue to recruit free student membersand provide them with resources to help them intheir science studies. This will enable us toprovide bursaries for attending conferences andprizes for written contributions. Although we donot envisage setting up separate student groups,the Development Officer will help to produce astudent magazine on science and faith that willaddress key student needs.

Residential ConferenceWe will organise a 3-day residential conference,probably during 2011 or 2012. Ideas for topic andspeakers for this will be very welcome.

Lecture seriesIn association with local groups we aim toestablish several regular lecture series in whichan invited “CiS speaker” will give a lecture in anumber of venues across the UK.

These are the headline challenges for us all overthe next three years and the full timeDevelopment Officer will play a major role settingthese things in motion. It will require increasedparticipation from all our members, not just theofficers and committee, so volunteers,suggestions and comments are encouraged.

The financial value of the award is £145,000, anda further £100,000 has been promised if we canfind matching funds. This should not just be athree year flash in the pan as our intention is that

on completion of this grant we will have sufficientmomentum to be able to sustain the full timeposition of Development Officer and keep thework going. The award of this grant is a fantasticopportunity - but the hard work starts here!

Volunteers for Christian ResourcesExhibition

11-14 May 2010 Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey.

Many thanks to those of you who have alreadyvolunteered, but we still have some opportunitiesfor others to help staff the stand at the CRE forone or more days. If you have a flair for engagingand interacting with people and can spare a dayor more over this period, please contact Perry(perry@cis.org.uk).

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Faraday Institute News FeedFaraday Institute Staff and Associates receive adaily newsfeed prepared by their media staff thatlists the URLs of current articles, papers etc.,which are often of personal/academic interest forthose working in the field. A major aim is thatthose receiving these newsfeeds should, onoccasion, respond (e.g. by sending a letter to thepress, writing an article for a particularpublication, getting involved in radio/TVprogrammes etc.), thereby increasing articles inthe public domain written by those who have thecredentials and background to contribute. Inorder to widen the circle of people engaged inpublic discourse in this way, the Faraday Institutewould like to make newsfeeds available to anyCiS member who lets Katie Turnbull know at:kjt39@cam.ac.uk.

INTERVIEW WITH DR CHRISTINABIGGS

Dr Biggs is the chairperson of our newestlocal group in Bristol

1. Tell us what you've been doing until now.

I’ve had quite a varied career, working inacademia, industry and teaching. I did a degreein Natural Sciences and a PhD in MineralPhysics at Cambridge, followed by two postdocs:one at Birmingham on the physics of Ice XI, anda Marie Curie Fellowship at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble doing neutron scattering onwater in zeolites. Then things changed – therewas a period of illness at home, and I attempteda PGCE in Oxford, interspersed with a two-yearstint in the food industry as a microscopist. Ifinally gained the PGCE in Further Educationwhile teaching physics at Oxford FE College. I’vealso taught for tutorial colleges, at Oxford’sDepartment of Continuing Education and at OpenUniversity summer schools. Now I live in Bristolwith my freshly minted husband and work as aprivate physics and maths tutor. I’ve recentlybeen asked to do some supply teaching, and findit every bit as hard as I remember!

2. What do you do for fun?

I love music! I play the viola: I have alwaysmanaged to find an orchestra wherever I live, andlove the intricate conversation that is a quartet. Ialso enjoyed singing monthly evensongs inOxford. I like walking and while in Oxford walkedpart of the Thames Path. My husband hasconverted me to his love of trains and I’m acampaigns organiser for the friends of our localline. I sail, most recently Lasers on reservoirs,swim and enjoy playing tennis with my veryenergetic mother.

3. Who have been the most important rolemodels in your life?

I keep in contact with my PhD supervisor, MartinDove, and enjoy his quiet wit and understated butstrong faith. In Oxford I met Katherine Blundell,Professor of Astrophysics, who was my housegroup leader. I’ve learned much from her energyand incisive mind, as well as her emotionalwisdom at difficult times in my life.

4 What challenges have you come across as aChristian and a scientist?

There’s nothing particularly theologicallyproblematic about water in rock minerals (myresearch subject)! But I’ve got very interested ingeneral science–faith issues. While at university Iwas challenged by my atheist friends, particularly

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in regard to evolution, free will, andinconsistencies in the Bible. I don’t have aproblem with the length of time involved inevolution, but do struggle with the notion of Godcreating intentionally through apparentrandomness and waste; I wonder whether theremight be a mechanism through which God coulddirect affairs. Simon Conway Morris’s idea ofconvergence is helpful here: perhaps thedirection lies in the overarching environment ofphysical law. Free will is difficult too: how canpeople be considered responsible for choices thataccording to science are controlled by theenvironment? Finally, I used to go on an atheistwebsite and found myself confounded by theinconsistencies in the Bible that were flagged up.My best response to this was to think of the Bibleas a blotched lab notebook!

5 How has your faith helped you as a scientistor vice versa?

I was particularly struck by the crystal structuresof the rock minerals I studied for my PhD. Mymineral was analcime, which has the spacegroup Oh10 or Ia3d, the last one in the book andtherefore the one with the highest symmetry. Imade a model of the unit cell: it is cubic, butbecause of screw triads placed at the 8 cornersof the unit cell and various glide planes, there are96 general positions. This means that, if an atomis placed in the unit cell, there are 95 other atomsrelated by the symmetry; there are also 8 watermolecules at the symmetric special positions,each with its own silicate cage round it with three-fold symmetry and interconnecting channels. Thisincredible symmetry exists in nature, not merelyas a model, and it is repeated a million times ineach direction to make up even a millimetre-sizedcube of beautiful clear faceted crystal. To thinkthat all the rocks in this planet are made up ofsimilar minerals (about 4,000 different structuresknown to date), only a fraction of which will seethe light of day and the eye and appreciation ofman! This is the careful, painstaking artist Godwe worship

6. What science-faith book have you mostenjoyed/found most helpful?

I’ve found Francis Schaeffer’s Trilogy (The GodWho Is There, Escape from Reason and He IsThere and He Is Not Silent) very helpful in estab-

lishing the rock-solid reality of God. I’ve alsofound that reading Richard Dawkins, particularlyThe God Delusion, has sharpened and chal-lenged my thinking.

LOCAL GROUP NEWS

If you live somewhere that does not yet have alocal group but you wish it did, please get intouch with us about how to start a group in yourarea by contacting our Development Officer,Perry Enever (perry@cis.org.uk).

In particular, if you live in, or within commutingdistance, of Peterborough, please contact LesBatty at les.batty@mac.com.

There is strong interest in forming a local CiSgroup in the Ipswich area. Anybody interested infinding out more should contact Dr. John Ling atjjling@btinternet.com.

Meetings:

Bristol:

Next Event: Dr. Ernest Lucas (Bristol BaptistCollege)

on Friday 19 March, 8pm in the Randall Room,All Saints Church, Pembroke Rd, Clifton, BristolBS8 2HY.

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For more information, please contact Dr ChristinaBiggs (cmbiggs@googlemail.com).

Cambridge:

At the next Faraday Lecture Prof. Bill Newsome(Stanford University School of Medicine) will talkon God, Brain and Mind 5.30 pm 27 April 2010Howard Theatre, Downing College followed by adinner-discussion held at St Edmund's College.

At the next Faraday Research Seminar Dr LydiaJaeger (Institut Biblique de Nogent-sur-Marne,Paris will present The Religious Roots of the Ideaof Scientific Laws on 23 February 2010. Thefollowing event will be Sustainable Development- Is Religion Relevant? by Prof. Jan Boersema(Institute for Environmental Studies, VrijeUniversity, Amsterdam) 9 March 2010.

Central South:

The most recent event was held on12thNovember 2009 when Rev. Dr David Wilkinsontalked on God, Time and Eternity. The localAGM will be held at 7.30 on Thursday 18th March2010 at 7.30 in Highfield Church Centre,Southampton, SO17 1RL, when we will belooking at the Test of Faith material. Our nextmain talk will be on Thurs 13 May, when thespeaker will be Dr Mike Clifford. For informationof these events or to listen to previous talks, visittheir web pagehttp://www.cis.org.uk/groups/centralsouth.

Durham:

Please contact Dr Alan Roberts(a.w.roberts@durham.ac.uk) for details of up andcoming activities.

Edinburgh:

In March the Edinburgh local group will behosting the Northern Conference. Please book forthis online. Contact Gavin Merrifield(g.d.merrifield@ed.ac.uk) for more details of thisor other events in the local group.

GlasgowIf you have an interest in joining this local groupplease contact Dr. Lawrence Osborne for moredetails lawrence@lhosborn.co.ukHarrow:

For details of the next meeting please contactRev. Lyndon North 07747 638783 oremailrevlnorth@aol.com.

Ireland:

The most recent event was held on 15 February2010 Douglas Adams: Life, the Universe andAtheism with the Rev. Dr. Ron ElsdonNext Event: 26 + 27 April 2010 Rt. Rev. Dr. LeeRayfield (Bishop of Swindon, Canterbury,England) Gene Therapy: Playing God or BeingHuman 26 April: St. Bartholomew’s Church,Stranmillis Road, Belfast and on 27 April: TheExchange, Gardiner Street, Dublin. For furtherinformation about future events contact Dr ScottPeddie, phone 02894 487669, or emails.peddie@pattersonpeddie.com.

Nottingham:

We have been looking at the Test of Faith DVD.Contact Geoff Bagley at gbagley@ntlworld.comor tel: 0115 9258801 for details of the nextmeeting.

Oxford:

For details of the next event or for informationabout the Oxford Local Group please contactDiana Briggs (diana.briggs@gmail.com).

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South West:

Although there have been no formal CiSorganised events recently the CiS SW committeemembers have been busy addressing science-faith issues. Dr Matthew Frost has been givingtalks in local church situations and will be giving atalk “has science killed Christianity” on April the21st in Bodmin as part of a series of apologetictalks. Professor John Spicer has once againbeen very busy being invited to give numeroustalks and interviews. This included a radioInterview on BBC Radio Devon’s SundayBreakfast Show all about the work of ‘Christiansin Science’. Two presentations given byProfessor Spicer are available on the questwebsite used by UK students studying religiouseducation (go tohttp://www.request.org.uk/issues/reflections/spicer/).For more details of CIS SW please contact DrMatthew Frost at matfr@mba.ac.uk.

CiS Development OfficerFollowing the award of a grant from the JohnTempleton Foundation, we are seeking to appointa full time Development Officer. The appointee willexpand our work in universities, workplaces andchurches and enhance the role of local groups.

The position is funded for three years and thesalary will be in the region of £25k p.a. dependingon qualifications and experience. A background inscience is essential, along with an appreciation ofscience-faith issues. The post would suit a recentscience PhD or someone with several yearsexperience since graduating with a first degree ina scientific subject.

Full details may be obtained from Dr DianaBriggs at diana@cis.org.uk or for an informaldiscussion, contact Professor Keith Fox(chairman@cis.org.uk, tel. 023 8059 4374).Applications should be sent to Diana Briggs andshould include a CV with details of three referees.Applications should be submitted by March 7th,2010, and we intend to interview at the end ofMarch.

REDUCED EARLY RATE FORNORTHERN CONFERENCE

There are also only a few weeks left in which toregister at the  cheaper rate before it goes up onMarch 1st with preregistration itself closing onMarch 10th.Registration details can be found at:http://www.cis.org.uk/groups/edinburgh/cis-northern-conference-2010/cisnc2010reg

CALLING ALL STUDENTS

Student conference

We are planning to hold a conference forundergraduate and postgraduate students onSaturday 26th of June 2010. More details will bein the next edition of PréCiS. Please get in touchwith Perry Enever, perry@cis.org.uk, if you haveany ideas or requests for the conference.

CALLING ALL EXPERTS

CiS Rapid Response Team:CiS is periodically approached by the media toprovide comment at short notice on issues whichhave a science-faith aspect. We would like toextend our list of suitably qualified members ofCiS who could be called upon to respond quicklyto these requests. If you are interested in beingpart of this team, please contact the Secretary(secretary@cis.org.uk) or Development Officer(perry@cis.org.uk) for further information andenclose a brief synopsis of your area of expertise,including any experience in dealing with themedia.

SUBMISSIONS FOR NEXT PRÉCIS

We would love to receive your contributions -news of local group activities, events, new booksand other activities. Items for the next PréCiSshould be submitted to: Perry Enever, 157 RoughCommon Road, Canterbury CT2 9BS, orperry@cis.org.uk by Friday 30th March 2010.

Christians in Science Ltd., incorporated in England and Wales. Registered address 4 Sackville Close, Sevenoaks, TN13 3QD. Company No. 05959444. Registered Charity No. 1121422