Pulse back-issues

If you are interested in the science – religion debate, it is likely that you know about the famous encounter between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (“Soapy Sam”) and Thomas Huxley (“Darwin’s bulldog”) that occurred in Oxford’s Natural History Museum.It was during this exchange, according to the legend, that Wilberforce was supposed to have made the famous quip as to whether Huxley thought he was descended from a monkey on his grandfather’s or grandmother’s side. This apparently prompted the equally memorable riposte from Huxley, that he would rather have been descended from an ape than a bishop who obscured the truth – a response which apparently caused one lady in the audience to faint.This celebrated clash is often portrayed as a pivotal moment in history, when science registered a telling victory over religion in the ongoing power-struggle that has been raging ever since the Enlightenment.

We are living in a time of well-publicised uncertainty – and fear. The challenges we are presented with are unlikely to go away quickly; indeed it may take more than a decade for us to economically recover. It is always the case that during times of national and global crisis, people re-examine both their lives and their livelihoods. The present crisis with all of its political, social, economic and moral consequences has opened the doors for the Gospel as I have not experienced before. People have come to Christ, or come back to him, as they have been driven to ask what the point of all this economic activity is in the first place. People in positions of power and responsibility have a freshly discovered interest in what we, as Christians, have to say.