Roger White wrestles with the philosophical implications of living in a universe such as ours, where the finely tuned conditions for life exist. is there evidence of a Designer?

John Leslie (1989) argues vigorously that the fact that our universe meets the extremely improbable yet necessary conditions for the evolution of life, supports the thesis that there exist very many universes. The view has found favor with a number of philosophers such as

Did anyone ever think the earth was flat? An historian of science explores a case of Christian vilification.

How does investigating the myth of the flat earth help teachers of the history of science?

First, as a historian, I have to admit that it tells us something about the precariousness of history. History is precarious for three reasons: the good reason that it is extraordinarily difficult to determine “what really happened” in any series of

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The debate about ID is also a debate about how to do apologetics. A physicist weighs its apologetic value.

Christians in different parts of the world are getting excited about “intelligent design” (ID), the movement initiated by Philip Johnson (Darwin on Trial) and best known for the work of Michael Behe (Darwin’s Black Box) and William Dembski (The Design Revolution); it points to aspects of biological systems that because of their ‘irreducible

Does human consciousness refute Christianity?

Francis Crick, Nobel prizewinner for his work on DNA, writes:

‘You’, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.¹

This was Crick’s ‘astonishing hypothesis’, from which came the title of his famous book. The hypothesis is that the

Scientists wrestle with philosophy; theologians struggle with biology. The contemporary attempt to integrate these fields still has a long way to go.

To what extent do the biological/ neurobiological sciences help us understand issues of personhood and soul? To some, the answer is obvious: entirely. It is increasingly common to find cognitive scientists claiming not only that neurology is everything and consciousness simply one property of brain

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The Re-enchantment of Nature, Alister McGrath, one of the most prolific of living evangelical theologians, turns his attention once again to the interface of science and Christian faith. As he notes in the introduction to this volume, this is a return to his roots—for McGrath was first a working scientist (in the field of molecular biophysics) before he turned to Christian theology. In this book he brings his two interests together, with a

Is genetic intervention likely to change our concepts of human nature? Professor of Anatomy, D. Gareth Jones explores the hype and the hope behind new forms of therapy, and ponders a Christian approach based on humility before the Creator.

Genetics and humility—a contradiction in terms? The world of genetics can be intensely misleading, since it lends itself to oversimplification. Images of ‘designer babies’, the rampant cloning of famous and

A review of Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain by Antonio Damasio

Antonio Damasio’s book on the neurobiology of feelings and the pursuit of happiness is a little out of my area. I can’t comment on the discussion about the brain-stem switch, or the emotional impact of Parkinson’s Disease. I look forward to comments from qualified Christina neuroscientists. But I found these discussions fascinating, even to the lay reader, and on

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A review article of the Dan Brown novel on the alleged conflict between science and religion.

The idea of the conflict between science and religion is pervasive in our society, particularly in popular literature. This article examines the mythical origins of the conflict metaphor and its employment by the airport novelist of the moment, Dan Brown.

Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons is a page-turner mystery novel, and has proved a very successful one at

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CASE faculty member, Dr Megan Best, delivered the 2004 Smith Lecture on Friday 17 Sept at the Australian Stock Exchange on the topic Designer Humans—is any room left for God?

We live in a technological age, and that is a good thing. We have all enjoyed the fruits of technology, from PowerPoint slide shows to fully automatic washing machines. Thanks to technology, our world has changed enormously in the last 100 years. Consider this quote from the