FARADAY INSTITUTE COLLABORATES WITH COURSES IN INDIA
In February, the Faraday Institute’s Director, Denis Alexander, and Course Director, Rodney Holder, escaped from the cold and snow of Cambridge, to take part in two courses on Science and Religion in India. Both these were organised by alumni from our own Faraday Courses held in Cambridge.

First to Bangalore, where a course entitled ‘One Reality – Two Windows’ explored how theological and scientific perspectives on reality are complementary, rather than contradictory. This was organised by Dr Paul Joshua, a professor on the faculty of the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies and attracted a broad range of scientists and students from the Bangalore area and beyond. Most of the speakers were from the local area, but another visitor from overseas, Richard Hess, Professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary, spoke on the cultural and linguistic contexts of the early chapters of Genesis. Dr. Alexander and Dr Holder also visited a nearby school, to talk to some very perceptive teenagers on cosmology and biology, fielding questions on black holes and genetics among others.

Next to Delhi, for a course organized by Samuel Vaiphei and Azhoni Krichena entitled ‘Breaking Barriers’. Here delegates were mainly graduates from around Delhi, but also included some senior scientists from various Indian Institutes of Science. As in Bangalore, a wide range of lectures explored physical and biological sciences, as well as environmental issues. Environmentalist and theologian, Prof. Ken Gnanakan, a member of one of India’s first pop groups in an earlier stage of his career, even brought his guitar and started his lecture strumming along to ‘What a wonderful world’!

At both courses the lectures were filmed to generate DVD and other resource materials in the field of science and religion, and two books were prepared for the Course in Delhi in special local editions.

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