****** PRESS RELEASE ******

Does Nature Know Best?

Is nature always safer and better than human technology?

Monday April 16, 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Royal Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh

The popular assumption is that if it's natural, it must be better. The GM food controversy has seen a great increase in demand for organic produce. Advocates of alternative forms of agriculture are blaming BSE, foot and mouth disease, and much else on "unnatural" intensive farming practices over the past 50 years. Climate change is leading to a new drive to develop renewable energy resources in Scotland instead of burning so much fossil fuel. Are these examples of a responsible reaction to technology gone too far, or are we in danger of going all romantic about nature?

This Edinburgh Science Festival debate takes a step back from the immediate controversies and asks some basic questions behind them. Is nature always safer and better than human technology ... or are we kidding ourselves about how benign nature is? Where do get our ideas about "nature" from? Is it just our material environment, or is it something sacred? Is science under threat because we have begun to deify nature? What does a Christian view of nature suggest - should human beings practice dominion over the earth or care for God's garden? Can we do both?

Edinburgh environmental theologian Rev. Dr Michael Northcott believes that traditional and ancient wisdom about the world has been dismissed too easily by technological solutions. Dr Donald Bruce of the Church of Scotland's Society, Religion and Technology Project fears an over-reaction based on idealistic views of nature ... which may come unstuck. So can care for God's creation and technological intervention co-exist in harmony?

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Contact : Dr Donald Bruce, SRT Project tel. 0131-240 2250, Fax 0131-240 2239,

srtp@srtp.org.uk http://www.srtp/org.uk

or Church of Scotland Press Office tel. 0131- 240 2243

or Edinburgh International Science Festival at the Hub, Edinburgh

Dr Bruce is Director of the Church of Scotland Society Religion and Technology Project (SRT), assessing ethical issues in technology for Scotland's national church.
One of three SRT Project events at the Edinburgh Science Festival.