Kingston Philosophy Café

Stephen Hawking's latest book The Grand Design (2010) made headlines with its claim that God wasn't necessary to create the Universe. Can science really disprove the existence of God - or are there mysteries that science will never resolve (consciousness, quantum physics, why there is something rather than nothing, the "fine-tuning" of the universe...) that leave room for God, even if it's not quite the God that most religious believers believe in and pray to? Are science and religion in fact different "magisteria" that should stick to their separate fields of competence? Stephen Hawking also claimed that philosophy is dead too – but perhaps it's only philosophy that can shed light on these questions. Once again Kingston Philosophy Café ventures into controversial territory for an hour or two of discussion, assisted by extracts from Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, Douglas Adams and others. See also http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/julian-baggini-if-science-has-not-actually-killed-god-it-has-rendered-him-unrecognisable-2070125.html.

Bridges cafe riverside doors open at 5.30pm for a prompt 6.00pm start to the business of the evening. Come along at 5.30 to get drinks or snacks before we start.