On Wednesday 18 September, he will be presenting a University of Canterbury Connect public lecture to a capacity audience on the subject Science and Religion: are they compatible?

Humphries is is a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In his limited spare time, he writes on science and religion.

He suggests God came first, before science and that God created the universe.

Scientists study the mechanism of creation, but science cannot answer questions about why the universe was created, he says.

Humphries will look into the subject of the universe from the perspective of a scientist and a Christian.

"This talk will consider scientific and Christian truth, and give scientific and Christian answers to why we are here," he says.

"We will examine two specific cases where science appears to conflict with the Bible: the ‘long day' of Joshua and the star of Bethlehem.

Humphries is Professor of Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London; Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge; and a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

He founded the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride (GaN).

He set up two spin-off companies to exploit the research of his group on low-cost LEDs for home and office lighting.

He founded the Cambridge/Rolls-Royce Centre for Advanced Materials for Aerospace.

Materials developed in the Centre are now flying in Rolls-Royce engines.

He recently set up a new company, Paragraf, to exploit the research of his group on graphene.

Graphene promises to revolutionise a wide range of products including sensors, solar cells and electronic devices.

Registrations have reached capacity to attend Science and Religion: are they compatible?, however, the lecture will be live-streamed on UC's Facebook page and recorded for uploading to the UC Connect YouTube channel, available for viewing about a week afterwards.

Source

• canterbury.ac.nz
• neverofftopic.com
• Image: hneverofftopic.com

"We thought the whole story wasn't being told in the media about the evidence for God from physics," the Jesuit priest told CNA.

"We're utterly convinced that the evidence from physics shows the existence of God and certainly does not take away from it."

The 49-minute documentary, titled "Cosmic Origins," features eight physicists who discuss the big bang theory, theories of modern physics, and eventually discuss the need for a creator.

Along with Fr. Spitzer, a former Gonzaga University President and founder of the Magis Center for Faith and Reason, the film features Michael Heller of the Vatican Observatory, Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias, and a slew of professors from Harvard and Cambridge.

In choosing the physicists for the film, Fr. Spitzer made sure that every scientist was "absolutely top in their field, world class, they had to be a Nobel prize winner, a Templeton prize winner, or come from Harvard or Cambridge or from the top ranks of NASA."

The scientists "come pretty much out of the closet," and affirm that it is impossible for the universe to be random and without purpose, he said.

In the film, after discussing the Big Bang theory and affirming it scientifically, the physicists say there still must be a beginning or cause of the universe, even with theories of modern physics.

"When the universe was nothing, it could not have moved itself from nothing, something else had to do it, and that something else was a transcendent creator," Fr. Spitzer said. Continue reading

Image: CNA