Eric Robson chairs this special edition of GQT with members of the Chelsea Fringe, London. 
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RICHARD DAWKINS
Throughout history people have attempted to explain the world and their place within it through mythology. In his new book, The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True, Richard Dawkins argues that myth pales in comparison to the magic and wonder of science: “an inspiring beauty which is all the more magical because it is real and because we can understand how it works”. In his book, aimed at a family audience, he compares the scientific explanations of the planet, from the first humans and the sun, to shooting stars and the rainbow, with the stories from the Book of Genesis, to old Norse legends and Aboriginal myths. Although the narrative of science is constantly being written, Dawkins argues that it’s an ongoing story that is both exciting and awe-inspiring.
Richard Dawkins
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True, illustrated by Dave McKean, is published by Bantam Press. -
JONATHAN SACKS
“Religion and science share much, but in particular they share faith” contends the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. In his book, The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning, he argues they both share a willingness to “travel to an unknown destination beyond the visible horizon, to attempt dimly to discern an order beneath the seeming chaos, to hear the music beneath the noise”. But while science is searching for explanation, religion is looking for meaning. And for Sacks meaning can only lie outside our empirical world, and therefore is found in God.
Chief Rabbi
The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning is published by Hodder & Stoughton. -
LISA RANDALL
“We are poised on the edge of discovery…What scientists find within the next decade could provide clues that will ultimately change our view of the fundamental makeup of matter or even of space itself.” So begins Lisa Randall’s book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World. In it she explores how we decide which scientific questions to study and how we go about answering them, and she examines the role of risk, creativity, uncertainty, beauty and truth in scientific thinking.
Knocking on Heaven's Door
Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World is published by The Bodley Head.
Broadcasts
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BBC Radio 4Mon 17 Oct 2011 09:00 BBC Radio 4
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BBC Radio 4Mon 17 Oct 2011 21:30 BBC Radio 4
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