Seeding New Narratives: Pilot Research Study

Science and faith come together in every aspect of our daily lives. At ECLAS we are looking for new narratives that capture the positive integration of these two essential aspects of the human experience.

Public discussions about the relationship between science and religion are, too often, based on an assumption that these two approaches to understanding the world are inevitably in conflict with each other. Yet the evidence of history and experience reveal a very different truth. We would like to tell a new and truer story.

About the pilot

We collected examples from history, science, and theology which show how science and faith can have positive and sometimes surprising interactions. We selected three of these stories as the basis for a new study of how Twitter users respond to the ‘conflict narrative’.

Story One explores how Messy Church are bringing science into church buildings and outdoor spaces, to allow more people to make links between science, wonder, and God.

Story Two is about Draper and White, and how their conflict narrative fooled the world.

Story Three follows two pioneers in the field of climate science, Sir John Houghton and Dr Katharine Hayhoe, and how their faith is central to their vocation as scientists.

By monitoring how people interact with and respond to these new narratives, we hope to gain insight into the stories that resonate.

Data and ethics

From August-September 2022 we monitored engagement with these three narratives in terms of Twitter engagement, views, and shares.

Dr Amanda Rees (amanda.rees@york.ac.uk) is guiding this aspect of ECLAS’ work, and will be very happy to answer any questions you would like to ask about it.

The project has been approved by the University of York’s Ethics Committee. If you have any concerns about our activities, please feel free to contact Professor Nik Brown (nik.brown@york.ac.uk), Head of Department in Sociology, or the University of York Ethics Committee (tony.royle@york.ac.uk).