Online science and religion videos
One of the leading organizations involved in research about religion and science is the University of Oxford’s Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion. The Centre’s “About Us” webpage provides this description:
The Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion (IRC) conducts research into religious beliefs and theological concepts in relation to the sciences.
Research into beliefs focuses on the application of scientific tools to religious phenomena, such as in the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR). Research into theological concepts focuses principally on those metaphysical principles, such as persons, that are important to theology and are being seen from new perspectives by current developments in science.
Members of the Centre also carry out extensive work on the history of science and religion, often challenging simplistic accounts of what has been a complex and varied interaction. Besides research, the Centre also runs a series of public seminars, generally once every two weeks during term time.
A sizeable collection of videos is available to the public, through the Video link on the Centre’s homepage1https://www.ianramseycentre.ox.ac.uk/home and on YouTube,2https://www.youtube.com/@IanRamseyCentre/videos including a series of twenty-seven short presentations by Alister McGrath, one of the preeminent scholars of science and religion. All 27 of these videos are six to nine minutes long and may be especially useful in churches and schools. Each film introduces a different topic pertaining to science, faith, and religion:3https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZggb9UjpEESr9H82eXa245lB-3f7qjJj
1. Introducing the Field
2. A Personal Journey
3. The Warfare of Science and Religion?
4. Science and Faith: Different Maps of Reality
5. What does it mean to explain something?
6. How do we develop theories?
7. How do we find the best explanation?
8. Faith and Proof in Science
9. Faith and Proof in Religion
10. Scientism: Exploring the Limits of the Sciences
11. Can God “explain” anything?
12. Watching the Heavens: Copernicus and Kepler
13. Isaac Newton and the Mechanical Universe
14. Miracles and the Laws of Nature
15. How does God act in the world?
16. Darwin, Evolution, and God
17. Albert Einstein on Science and Faith
18. The Big Bang: Creation and Cosmology
19. A Fine-Tuned Universe
20. Models and Analogies in Science
21. Models and Analogies in Religion
22. Reductionism in Science and Religion
23. Science, Religion, and the Meaning of Life
24. Science, Religion and Moral Values
25. Science and Religion: Natural Theology
26. Science and Religion: Mystery in Science and Religion
27. Conclusion: Framing the Relation of Science & Religion
COVID’s Impact on U.S. and Religion
On February 12, The Pew Research Center released a study titled “5 Years Later: America Looks Back at the Impact of COVID-19.”4https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/12/5-years-later-america-looks-back-at-the-impact-of-covid-19/ The report’s third section focuses on COVID’s effect on religion in the United States: “How the COVID-19 pandemic affected U.S. religious life.”5https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/12/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-affected-u-s-religious-life/ The study notes that although “The COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on how religious communities gather for worship,” the Center’s study, conducted in October 2024, shows “most Americans say their religious and spiritual lives have not been changed by the pandemic.” Moreover, “survey findings paint a picture of remarkable stability in U.S. religious life during a time of widespread upheaval.”
Based on responses from those who participated in the survey, graphics show percentages of Americans who claim COVID-19 had much, a little, or no effect on their spiritual or religion life; U.S. adults who report the pandemic’s impact on their religious or spiritual life was positive, negative, or of no influence; and the proportion of Americans who participated, virtually or in person, in religious services from the beginning of the pandemic to the present. The report also includes details about the significance of the pandemic on religious groups by ethnicity/race and patterns of participation in religious services within demographic and religious subdivisions.
