Leading scientists are heading to church to debate the relationship between science and faith.

Professor Tom McLeish and Professor Stephen Smye, along with other stellar scientists, will be engaging in vigorous discussion at Faith In The Questions as part of the York Festival Of Ideas.

We’ve partnered with Scientists in Congregations, to tour a number of Faith In The Questions events, the first of which are taking place in York from June 8 to June 10 at St Michael le Belfrey church. The evening starts at 7.30pm and is free.

The evening begins with Counting The Clouds, an inventive new one-act play by Nigel Forde. It will grapple with the scientific and personal challenges which arise from the debate surrounding belief and scientific enquiry. In the Q&A session that follows, audience members will be invited to raise their own questions.

Counting the Clouds has been written for the evening by poet, playwright and long-standing Riding Lights collaborator Nigel Forde. The play the biblical figure of Job as a modern-day scientist. Job wrestles with the unpredictable structure of the universe, asking if God could possibly be in control?

Or is that even a reasonable question to ask? When Job’s personal world is shaken to the core, how can he reconcile the pieces of the puzzle that emerges?

Tom McLeish is Professor of Physics at Durham University and also chairs the Royal Society’s Education Committee. He has won several awards both in Europe and the US for his work on molecular rheology of polymers. Professor Stephen Smye is a specialty cluster lead for the NIHR Clinical Research Network based at King’s College London.

You can find out more, and book tickets here. Or call our box office on  01904 613000.