Genesis or Genes?

Can Genesis be reconciled to

modern science?

Are creation Creation stories have been central to

stories myth or religion since the beginning. Every tribe,
are they literally culture and religion has their own,
true? describing the origins of the world and its
people. Often they seem similar.

In the first two chapters of Genesis

What was the intention of
we read two creation stories which
those who wrote them?
are the bedrock of the Jewish and
Christian traditions.

However, since the time of Ptolemy the

What does modern Hebrew understanding of the universe
science and biblical has been questioned. By the time of The
scholarship make of Enlightenment, modern scholars had
them? proposed cosmological theories which
seriously shook the theological
understanding of the origins of the universe.

Developments in science during the last

Are they simply pre-
two centuries seem to some to provide
scientific scientific
a definitive version of both the origin of
theories or spiritual
the universe (the Big Bang as
allegories?
articulated by Edward Hubble) and the
origin of life (Charles Darwin’s Theory of
Evolution). So what now are we to make of these creation
stories?

Do they still have a place in religion

today?
This year’s RE Sixth Form Conference will begin with an
overview of Creation stories by Rabbi Debbie Young Somers, and
include a dialogue between the Creationist Greg Haslam of
Westminster Chapel and the Christian Evolutionist Prof Alistair
McGrath of King’s College London.
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SPEAKERS

Rabbi Debbie Young Somers (West London Synagogue)

Prior to training for the Rabbinate, Debbie Young-Somers read her first
degree in Religious Studies at Lancaster University (BA 1st class Hons),
and was a Buber Fellow at the European Centre for Jewish Studies in
Stockholm, Sweden. She has an Advanced Diploma in Jewish Education
and both a BA and MA in Hebrew and Jewish studies from the Leo Baeck
College. Professionally she has worked as the Reform Students Chinuch
(Education) Fieldworker and the Youth and PR Officer for the Council of
Christians and Jews. She was also the Chair of the International Council of
Christians and Jews Young Leadership Council, and has worked with the
Three Faiths Forum, and various youth-dialogue projects. For the last
three years she has been Interfaith Intern at the West London Synagogue
of British Jews.
www.wls.org.uk/Rabbi-Debbie-Young-Somers

Greg Haslam (Westminster Chapel)

Greg Haslam was born and raised in Liverpool. Greg studied Theology
and History at Durham University. After teaching in a high school he
trained for the ministry at the London Theological Seminary before
moving to Winchester where he pastored for 21 years until his call to
Westminster Chapel, London in March 2002. Greg has travelled widely as
a preacher and conference speaker, both in UK and overseas. He
passionately believes in the recovery of strong healthy churches,
characterised by a vigorous Gospel-centred focus. This is manifested
primarily in a renewed confidence in God's Word, and a conscious
engagement with His Spirit. He is the author of many articles and books.
www.westminsterchapel.org.uk/aboutus/whoswho/greghaslam

Prof Alistair McGrath(King’s College London.)

Reverend Professor Alister McGrath joined the department at King’s
College London as Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion & Culture in
September 2008, having previously been Professor of Historical Theology
at Oxford University. He has long been involved in theological education,
and is the author of some of the world’s most widely used theological
textbooks, including the bestselling Christian Theology: An
Introduction (Blackwell), now in its fourth edition. He is in constant
demand as a speaker at conferences throughout the world, especially in
South-East Asia. His research interests include: the interaction of
science and religion, the “new atheism” of Richard Dawkins, and its
significance for Christian apologetics, the renewal of natural theology and
its relevance for a credible Christian cultural apologetics and the theology
of ministry
www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/education/staff/amcgrath