A new International Society for Science and Religion has been founded by high-profile scientists and faith representatives, and headed by Britain’s John Polkinghorne.

A conference to found the new society was held in Spain in August, to study the implications of cutting-edge research for the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith.

The conference saw one of the liveliest public debates ever, in the history of dialogue between science and religion.

Organiser Mark Richardson said recent world events have made such dialogue especially timely.

“There are urgent questions for the billions of people on the globe whose religious traditions speak of ‘the one God’ who creates the world and humankind,” Mr Richardson said.

“The latest science portrays a universe unfolding over 14 billion years with increasing complexity, life emerging and evolving with incredible diversity, human nature generated and governed by intricate neural structures, and life itself subject to the changes and alterations of biotechnology.

“All of these findings have implications for monotheistic faiths as they’ve been traditionally understood.”

The symposium attracted speakers and participants from Britain, the US, France, Israel, Pakistan, and South Africa. Representing the Bahá'í community was British neuroscientist, Faraneh Vargha-Khadem.

The symposium addressed the difficult questions of “natural law”, complexity, human nature, and the implications of biotechnologies—such as cloning and embryonic research—for ethics and national legislation.

Together with an audience of some of the world’s most brilliant scientists and scholars, the conference struggled with one of the greatest challenges of our day: how science and religion can contribute to the human quest for peace, justice, and understanding across cultural and religious differences. CP