Thinking more imaginatively

HOW we see and think about the world shapes our responses to each other, and what we produce by way of interventions and effects.

A fascinating conversation about how to distinguish 'wood from trees' and what is entailed in interpreting the world, texts, each other and much more took place at lunchtime on Saturday 20 August at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace.

Over recent centuries, has there been a drift towards literalism, fundamentalism and scientism in western culture. It was suggested that this ‘left brain chauvinism’ can make us dangerously unaware of all that the right brain can offer – the big picture, meaning, metaphor and spirituality.

Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist and writer (author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Modern World) explored these issues with Dr Joe Bouch, consultant psychiatrist and editor of Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, and John Munro, philosophy of science graduate, retired Church of Scotland minister and member of the Scottish Institute of Human Relations.

A brave new future?

GENETIC modification, synthetic biology, nuclear power, stem cells,  nanomedicine, smart homes, surveillance, perhaps even enhancing the  human body and mind.

But a crumbling mural at Chernobyl shows that new technological promises do not always mean progress for humans or God’s world.  What values should govern our potential for good or ill in this complex area?

Dr Donald Bruce from Edinethics and former director of the Society, Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland joins in conversation with Professor Kenneth Boyd, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Edinburgh on Sunday 21 August, 12.30pm  – 1.30pm at St John’s Church.

Health and wholeness

THERE is a good body of research in the scientific domain demonstrating positive possibilities in the relationship between spirituality and health, based on the stimulation of our bodies' natural healing processes. 

However, many people believe that best practice in the National Health Service has still not come to terms with ideas of holistic health which for others remain essential for the most effective practice of modern healthcare.

How can we encourage scientific medicine to rediscover its long forgotten art, and to practice holistic (or whole) healing? Is 'evidence-based medicine' failing to look in some important places for its evidence? What are the challenges holistic methods need to face up to in a science-based health environment?

This conversation at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace on Saturday 13 August, 11am – 12 noon, at St John’s Church, features Dr Geoff Lachlan, a former general surgeon who has produced interfaith and belief spiritual resources for use in NHS Scotland and Dr Vinod Kumar, a GP who now practices Ayurvedic medicine - both talking with Professor Kenneth Boyd, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Edinburgh.

Creation through evolution

IN the biblical book of Genesis, God is portrayed as declaring ‘Let there be light’, and the world process comes into being. 

Much heat, but a lot less light, has been generated over the issue of whether creation stories in sacred texts clash with or complement scientific accounts of creation - or whether they are quite different languages which nevertheless point in a common direction. 

At the heart of this issue lie different views about the nature and interpretation of the texts – and, consequently, the relationship between faith and science.  At 9.30pm on Saturday 13 August, these issues are explored by Professor Sam Berry, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London and author of Real Scientists, Real Faith and Sheikh Ruzwan Mohammed. They are in conversation with Ewan Aitken of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland.

The picture shows the 'creation window' at Chester Cathedral.