Overview
Could science one day 'defeat death'? What would alien contact mean for humanity? Has medicine finally found a cure for sadness? Will AI replace us? For too long, the 'science and religion' debate has fixated on creation, evolution, cosmology, miracles and quantum theory. But this, argue Nick Spencer and Hannah Waite, is a mistake. Religious belief has survived, and thrived, under many different models of the universe. It was never intended to be a competing explanation for the science of any age. Where science and religion really do come together - sometimes furiously, sometimes fruitfully - is over the status and nature of the human. And that has never been more important than today. Whether it's the quest for immortality or the search for alien life, the treatment of pandemics or 'animal personhood', AI or mental health, abortion or genetic editing, science is making advances that are posing huge questions about what it means to be human, whether we should change ourselves, and how far we should 'play God'. These developments are only going to grow in significance. Playing God brings readers up to date with the latest developments but also draws out their moral and religious dimensions. In so doing, it shows how the future of science and religion is inextricably tied up with the future of humanity.
Full Product Details
Author: Nick Spencer (Author) ,
Dr Hannah Waite
Publisher: SPCK Publishing
Imprint: SPCK Publishing
ISBN: 9780281090037
ISBN 10: 0281090033
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 21 March 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
"""On this deeply polarised issue the norm is crude generalisation. In contrast, Playing God sheds light and brings nuance. An insightful book on a deeply important topic."" -- Philip Goff, Professor of Philosophy, Durham University ""Can anything new be said in the perennial debate between science and religion? Probably not; but every now and then we need a new guide to the current state of the argument; and for our generation this magnanimous and comprehensive narrative is exactly what we need."" -- Richard Holloway, writer, broadcaster and former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church ""An accessible, engaging and satisfying engagement with some of the big questions of our time."" -- Alister McGrath, Senior Research Fellow, Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, University of Oxford ""It is sometimes said that debate on life’s big questions boils down to anthropology. What is it to be human? And which of the available accounts of our nature in the marketplace of ideas is most robust? Nick Spencer and Hannah Waite have much to say from a Christian standpoint about science–religion dialogue – and especially about AI – that is of great relevance to the health of 21st-century society. They also voice prophetic warnings about where and how things may go disastrously wrong. Accessible as well as shrewd, Playing God deserves a large audience among believers and secularists alike."" -- Rupert Shortt, Research Associate, Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge"
Author Information
Nick Spencer is Senior Fellow at Theos, the Christian think tank. He is the author of a number of books and reports, including Magisteria (Oneworld, 2023), The Evolution of the West (SPCK, 2016), Atheists: The Origin of the Species (Bloomsbury, 2014) and Darwin and God (SPCK, 2009). Outside of Theos, Nick is Visiting Research Fellow at the Faiths and Civil Society Unit, Goldsmiths, University of London, and a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. Hannah Waite is Science and Religion Researcher at Theos, the Christian think tank.
