Monday 28^th October, 7.30pm

The Meeting Place, Holy Trinity Church NR2 2BJ.

All are welcome, no booking required.

It is ironic that everyone suddenly seems to be talking about God, including the most unlikely people. But ‘playing God’ is another matter. It was a phrase used by the Ancient Greeks ‘because of worries about human arrogance trespassing on divine territory’. In the nineteenth century there were similar worries about the first anaesthetics. In the last century it was about artificial insemination, and even today modern medical help is refused by certain sects for similar reasons.

Stem cells have played their part in raising similar controversies. Even more recently, synthetic biology is the latest research field to enter a public debate in which science and religion have been seen to be in conflict. But does this need to be the case? Is there a more constructive conversation to be had?

Professor Sir Brian Heap CBE ScD FRS has had a long and distinguished career as a biological scientist. He is currently a research associate at the Faraday Institute, Cambridge, and at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Cambridge. He was formerly Master of St Edmund's College, Vice-President and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, Director of Research at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and President of the Institute of Biology. He is a member of Christians in Science and has served on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Department of Health's Expert Group on Cloning,

For further information, contact the secretary Prof Nick Brewin (07901884114) sfnorfolk1@gmail.com .