CiS has had a long tradition of debunking myths about science and Christianity – Galileo was tortured, the church always hated evolution, the early church believed in a flat earth… So it was interesting to see a performance of Bertolt Brecht's play, the "Life of Galileo", a few weeks ago. His portrayal of the events of Galileo's life was a little different to the one I heard at the Faraday Institute summer course ­ when Professors Ernan McMullin, David Lindberg and Peter Harrison spoke about church politics, the reformation and all the other factors that contributed to Galileo's no doubt distressing but very comfortable long stay in Rome. It was frustrating to watch all the people applaud and go away with their misunderstandings about the church and science reinforced. If only someone could write a sensible play, but perhaps they already have (answers on a postcard)…

It's encouraging to hear about all the invitations CiS members have received to write, speak, and appear on TV or radio shows, especially in the wake of Richard Dawkins' latest attacks on Christianity. Science and religion never fail to appeal. In the last year, the CiS website received about 6.7 million hits, and 5.5 million of those were in the two weeks after Dawkins' channel 4 programme, "The Root of all Evil". It just goes to show that we're doing something right, and reaching part of the audience with a more helpful message!

The aim of this first issue of the CiS magazine is to explore the interactions between science and Christianity and how this relationship is played out – not just in ethics and academia, but also in the media, in books, films and on the web.

If you have any feedback, or would like to be involved in our next edition this spring (which will focus on ethics), then we'd love to hear from you!

Ruth Bancewicz, CiS Development Officer