On 17 October 2007, Professor Jim Al-Khalili from the University of Surrey chaired the third public Surrey Debate ‘The God Particle: Is science the new religion?’ at Guildford Cathedral. The panel of experts included Brian Cox, professor of particle physics at Manchester University and CERN laboratory in Geneva; The Very Revd Victor Stock, Dean of Guildford; Paul Sen, television producer; and Jo Wonder, performer and fine artist.
Next year, the world’s largest particle accelerator, the LHC, will begin its hunt for the Higgs Boson, dubbed the 'God particle', which could explain why all other particles have mass and is fundamental to a complete understanding of matter. A discovery could answer some of the deepest questions of existence. To mark this event, the panel, chaired by Jim Al-Khalili, discussed the wider issue of whether science is replacing religion in the 21st Century and whether it will ever be able to address the ultimate questions of reality.
Please follow the links below to watch the debate.
Jim Al-Khalili is a scientist, author and broadcaster based at the University of Surrey in Guildford where he holds a personal chair in Physics and is University of Surrey Professor of Public Engagement in Science. In addition to his academic work at Surrey, he is the author of a number of popular science books and a broadcaster. He is a trustee and member of council of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He has lectured widely both in the UK and around the world, particularly for the British Council for whom he now acts as a senior advisor on science and technology.
Brian Cox is professor of particle physics at Manchester University and CERN laboratory in Geneva, working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), CERN’s new 27km ong machine that will search for the Higgs boson. Listen to our recent interview with Brian here.
The Very Revd Victor Stock is the Dean of Guildford and a Founder Trustee of the Globe Centre for people with HIV and AIDS in the City. He is Founding Director of St Mary-le-Bow’s Young Homeless Project and a founder member of the Affirming Catholicism movement Chaplain to the Order of Australia.
Paul Sen has a background in engineering and is an award-winning television producer with a strong track record in factual television, particularly in science and history. His programmes include ‘Triumph of the Nerds’ and ‘Rave New World’ for Channel 4 and more recently, ‘Light Fantastic’ and ‘Atom’ for the BBC, ‘Death by Excess’ for Sky One and ‘The Net’ for the Discovery Channel.
Jo Wonder is a performer and a fine artist. This year’s Surrey Debate incorporated her two-screen video installation ‘Flatlanders’ to celebrate the monumental particle physics experiment at CERN. Watch the video installation here.
The third element of our beautiful science project, taking place in South East Europe, is a series of public debates about scientific questions. These debates are modelled on those pioneered by Professor Jim Al Khalili. Jim is an adviser to the Beautiful Science project and is providing advice on the content, format and speakers for the debates
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