COSAC 2026 Public Lecture

If We Can Alter Ourselves, Should We?

Nick Spencer and Peter Harrison open COSAC 2026, ISCAST’s fifteenth biennial Conference on Science and Christianity, supported by the University of Divinity. They ask what science can tell us about our world and our genetic future, and what faith brings to the conversation.

ABC Radio National’s James Carleton will lead a conversation with both speakers and take questions from the audience. James recently featured Nick and Peter on God Forbid, in a discussion ranging from the Galileo controversy to the theological roots of modern science.

Talks

What Science and Religion Can Say About Our Genetic Future

Nick Spencer

Our ability to understand, change and “improve” our genetic makeup is greater now than at any time in our history. If we can alter ourselves, should we? What principles should guide us, and what, if anything, can religion contribute?

What Science Can (and Cannot) Tell Us About Our World

Peter Harrison

Science is our most reliable source of truths about the natural world. But what must first be true about the world, and about us, for science to be possible at all? And can science set guidelines for its own use?

Speakers

Nick Spencer is senior fellow at Theos, the UK think tank, and hosts its podcast Reading Our Times. His books include Magisteria (2023) and The Landscapes of Science and Religion (2025).

Peter Harrison is professorial research fellow at the University of Notre Dame Australia and emeritus professor at the University of Queensland. He was previously Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. His latest book is Some New World (2024).

Event details

Time/Date: 7:00-9:30pm AEDT, Friday 6 November 2026

Location: Werner Brodbeck Hall, Assembly Hall Building, 156 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Tickets

$35 general, $25 ISCAST members, $15 students. In person only, with supper and a bookstall after the lecture. In-person COSAC 2026 registrations already include the lecture. Everyone is welcome, and you don’t need to be registered for the full conference to come.

Presented in partnership with Scots’ Church Melbourne.