Date: 7th June 2023
Location: Science Museum, London

The stories we tell shape the decisions we make. This is especially clear when we tell stories about the future. Prophetic stories reveal truths about the here and now, even while pulling our eyes to the horizon. Science, Future and the Christian Imagination was an event which explored possible futures and the way they impact current understanding and choices. What role will science and faith play in the future? How might they fit together or fall apart? With the Science Museum’s Science Fiction exhibition as our background, we gathered senior church leaders with theologians, scientists and authors to explore these crucial stories and ask how they shape us.

In the evening there was a ticketed public panel, in association with the Science Museum, where we heard from key speakers on How stories shape futures: Faith, Science, and Possibility. The video for this event is available below.

This event ran following an academic meeting on the 6-7^th June, hosted by the British Society for the History of Science. More details can be found on their website: https://www.bshs.org.uk/cfp-science-fiction-faith-and-the-futures and a downloadable PDF of summaries of the papers presented can be found on the ECLAS site here.

Key Speakers:

Dr Una McCormack is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling science fiction writer whose has written more than twenty novels based on TV shows such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, Firefly, and Blake’s 7. Her academic interests include feminist science fiction, transformative works, and creative writing practice and methodology; she writes and broadcasts regularly on these and other topics. She is on the editorial board of Gold SF, an imprint of Goldsmiths Press aimed at publishing new voices in intersectional feminist science fiction. A former lecturer in creative writing, she continues to mentor writers, particularly those working towards completion of their first novel.

Prof Alister McGrath is a retired academic theologian who has held professorial posts at Oxford University and King’s College London. He has a doctorate in molecular biophysics and his research interests include theological frameworks for understanding science and the interaction of science and religion.

Prof Magda Osman is head of Research and Analysis at Cambridge University’s Centre for Science and Policy. She is an academic psychologist whose research interests include decision-making, public policy and public understanding of science.