Prof. Peter Harrison - Science, Religion and Modernity

Professor Peter Harrison gives his sixth Gifford lecture, entitled Science, Religion and Modernity.

The last few decades have witnessed a growing public disillusionment with a scientific enterprise that for much of the twentieth century had enjoyed unparalleled prestige. The narrative of progress without limit now also looks a little threadbare.

This final lecture considers whether the new 'flight from science' represents a regrettable defection from reason and 'Enlightenment values', or whether it presents an opportunity to reconnect the study of nature with the kinds of moral and religious values that once played a prominent role in its genesis and development.

Recorded on 24 February 2011 at the University of Edinburgh's St Cecilia's Hall.