The 2025 E.T.S. Walton Lecture on Science and Religion was given by:
Nick Spencer
Theos, London
Genetic Engineering and the Future of Human Beings - A Christian Perspective
The lecture was given on 10 November at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Belfast, and on 12 November at Trinity Church, Dublin.
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Abstract. The ability to understand, manipulate and "improve" human beings is greater today than at any time in our history. Techno-optimists often make breathless claims about "a genetic cure" for almost anything. The technical reality has turned out to be less excitable. The genetic "code" works in a far less straightforward way than the word "code" implies, and the promises of genetic engineering made on the back of the human genome project 25 years ago have proven small. Nevertheless, the genie of "changing" and "progressing" human nature through science is out of the bottle. How should we respond? Should we reject these endeavours as arrogant attempts to play God? Should we embrace the prospect of a future free from disease? And why is this whole question of how far we take genetic engineering ultimately a theological one?
Nick Spencer is Senior Fellow at Theos, a Christian think tank based in London focussed on the relationship between religion, politics and society in the contemporary world. He has been Research Director at Theos. Before joining Theos, he worked as a researcher and consultant for Research International, The Henley Centre, the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and the Jubilee Centre. He is the author of a number of books including Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity (with Dr Hannah Waite, SPCK 2024), Magisteria: the Entangled Histories of Science and Religion (Oneworld, 2023), The Political Samaritan: how Power hijacked a Parable (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Evolution of the West (SPCK, 2016) and Atheists: The Origin of the Species (Bloomsbury, 2014). More information about Nick Spencer can be found here.
The E. T. S. Walton Lectures on Science and Religion
The E. T. S. Walton Lectures on Science and Religion (Walton Lectures in brief) are a series of lectures on currents topics related to science and religion, suitable to an audience of academics and informed lay persons. Each year a speaker, who is a scientist, philosopher, or theologian of international reputation, will be invited to give a lecture, which will be held in one or more locations on the island of Ireland.
The Walton Lectures are named after physicist and Nobel laureate the late Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton. Walton's work as a scientist and his Christian commitment are well documented in the biography written by V. J. McBrierty: Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, The Irish Scientist, 1903-1995 (Trinity College Dublin, 2003). Walton was a committed member of the Methodist church, and following the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 jointly to himself and John Cockroft, he spoke on science and religion to audiences in Ireland, the United States, and Sweden.
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The Walton Lectures are organised by Christians in Science Ireland.