70 students from the five primary and two secondary schoolsin the Severn Academies Educational Trust gathered at St Bartholomews CEPrimary School last week for a day looking at the relationship between scienceand faith. The day was organised by the Rector of Areley Kings, Mark Turner andwas led by the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge. Children had the opportunity to ask anyquestions they had about science and faith and took part in a number ofinteractive sessions around different aspects of science.
Lizzie Henderson studied Natural Sciences at CambridgeUniversity and works for the Faraday Institute helping children and youngpeople to explore the interactions of science and religious faith. She said:Issues of science and faith are really important questions to think about.Young people have a lot of questions in this area and theres not often spacein the timetable for them to be explored. At the day in Areley Kings, we wereasked to work with children in years 5 & 6, which is a really interestingage group. Often by the end of Primary school children think that science andreligion are separate; these workshops are a chance to meet people who hold themtogether.
Steph Bryant is also a graduate in Natural Sciences from theUniversity of Cambridge now working for the Faraday Institute. It was atuniversity that she became a Christian and became ever more interested in therelationship between God, people and the planet. She said: During the day, wespent some time thinking about the environment and whether God cares for theplanet. We also discussed how a loving God could allow natural disasters. It isgreat to hear all the questions from the young people its a chance for themto think differently and for us to help counteract the strong narrative thatscience and faith dont fit together.
Children asked questions including Is evolution necessary?and Why did God make us smart enough to make him question his being throughscience? They also looked at a range of different fossils and worked in smallgroups with the students from the two Secondary schools supporting the Primaryschool children.
Martha and Daniel are both in Year 6 at Wolverley SeabrightPrimary. Martha said: Its been interesting to hear that you can have religionand science at the same time and that lots of famous scientists wereChristians. Daniel said: I enjoyed learning about the evolution of theworld.
Leah and Owen are both in Year 5 at Hartlebury CE Primary.Leah said: We learnt all about the earth and how we should respect it andtreat it with care because its the only one weve got. Owen said: I havereally enjoyed today, especially finding out about fossils and how they wereformed.
In the evening, Lizzie and Steph from the Faraday Institutealso led a community event at St Bartholomews School. Parents, headteachers,governors, local clergy and interested church members were all invited to findout what the children had been doing during the day and ask their own questionson the subject of science and faith.
