Recommended Listening

God and the Brain: What neuroscience can teach us about people and God

Can science can teach us anything useful about how we relate to and experience God?  Does neuroscience tell us that religious beliefs and experiences are nothing more than electrical events in the brain?

This recording is of a talk given by Revd Dr Alasdair Coles at an event organised by Test of FAITH at the Pentecost Festival, LICC, 8th June 2011.

Dr Coles is a lecturer in neurommunology at Cambridge University, consultant neurologist to Addenbrooke’s and Peterborough Hospitals, and curate in the Anglican Church. He was also interviewed for the Test of FAITH documentary and book.

 Listen to Dr Coles’ lecture here.

 

Why God Won’t Go Away: Reflections on the “New Atheism”

Speaker: Alister McGrath
Date: June 27 2011
Length: 67 min

In light of the 5th anniversary of the publication of Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion, Alister McGrath reflects on where the “New Atheism” is now and what responses might be made to the issues being raised. Alister’s lecture addresses what he sees as the three most significant criticisms the “New Atheism” makes: Religion intrinsically leads to violence, Religious belief is intrinsically irrational, and Science destroys religious belief.

Alister E. McGrath MA, Dphil, DD (Oxford University). Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture, King’s College, London. Teaching Fellow, Regent College. Some of his more recent books are A Scientific Theology, a groundbreaking work of systematic theology in three volumes: Nature, Reality and Theory, The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World and Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life.

Listen to Prof McGrath’s free downloadable lecture here.