TRUTH AND TRUST IN 2018

THE MACHINE WILL SEE YOU NOW

An article in a medical journal suggested that robots will not only provide caring for patients (even made to look ‘cute’ like a child) and 24-hour supervision and ‘friendship’ for the elderly, the disabled, and babies, but that in future many medical consultations will take place using smartphones, home sensors and AI systems with access to NHS-wide data. The robots would then ‘partner’ with humans who would only need to become involved where the systems fail to solve a problem.  What will be our attitude to such simulation of human activities?  Does it matter if ‘compassion’ or ‘friendship’ is a product of clever programming?

Human robots?

In modern distribution centres, the work of real humans is already guided by robots who give detailed instructions to them to go to a certain row and aisle and lift such and such an item off a certain shelf, etc etc.  Are the people doing those jobs still working as humans or is their work so robotic that it would be better if they weren’t involved? And is there more dignified work they could or should be doing?  Where will the jobs of the future be?

Driverless (and shared?) cars

As a member of a House of Lords Select Committee, the Bishop of Oxford realised recently that his young grandchildren may never have the experience that we do of car ownership or even a driving test.  How do we feel about that, with our habitual British interest in individualism and staying in control? The Bishop's 8 challenging 'Key Issues' to be faced by all of us can be read here. 

From technology to ethics to politics

Matthew Taylor of the RSA and author of the Taylor Review on modern working and employment practices commented in an economics discussion in Bristol last week that it is high time this subject was politicised. We cannot just sit back and leave it to 'technological' forces - which in effect means free market forces.  We must ensure that technology develops the way we want it to and the political choices will require us to know the facts as well as face them. 

On Sunday, December 10^th, at Wychwood Library, we will watch a video of an erudite and engagingly delivered talk by the author of the medical journal article referred to above, Professor John Wyatt of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at Cambridge University. Ian Cave has kindly agreed to facilitate the viewing and the ensuing discussion which is likely to be fascinating and far-reaching - and of ever-increasing relevance to all our lives.  Do join us at 7pm (ends 9pm).  

ROBOTS, THE NEAR FUTURE AND YOU

The event will consist of a viewing on-screen of a talk by Professor John Wyatt given at Malvern Priory on this subject, followed by an open discussion of the issues raised, practical and ethical, by this advancing technological revolution. We are grateful to Ian Cave for introducing the topic and leading the discussion.

THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY

ONLY CONNECT - TURNING TO POETRY 

'When a poet writes a poem, he is trying to express something he has seen about the world, some personal vision of the world. He is not trying to describe it in prose; that might be quite impossible. ... The poetic use of language is not to increase your information about the world. ... The use of words in poetry is to evoke a certain attitude or way of looking at things or feeling about things. ...'

Thus Keith Ward, the same Professor Keith Ward who stunned many of his audience with his wit and erudition, back in September in his Wychwood Circle presentation on Religion and Rationality. He has written so much that it was not to be wondered at that poetry ('Language about God is something like the language of poetry') should crop up too within an argument about the infinity and indescribability of God in a very short book of 2015.

On November 12th, Elizabeth Hollins Main and Lesley Wasley will come at poetry from their own angle, probably neither pious nor theological, but born of a shared love of writing and reading poetry, and they will be hoping to provoke each one of us into a response of our own. 

R S Thomas (1913-2000), an overtly Christian but radical and thoughtful, mystical Welsh priest and poet, will feature amongst others, as well as Wendy Cope, neither overtly Christian nor Welsh nor a priest but widely loved for her pithy and irreverent, often ironic or oblique short poems. Wendy Cope's collections include 'Making cocoa for Kingsley Amis' and 'Serious Concerns' - titles which probably sum up her light-hearted and her thought-provoking sides rather well.  Seamus Heaney said of Thomas that he appears 'as a loner taking on the universe, a kind of Clint Eastwood of the spirit'.

Liz and Lesley will choose poets of the 20th and 21st centuries, and this is what they say about their evening with us, Only Connect - Turning to Poetry: 'Our emphasis will be very much on personal responses to the poems - our own and, we hope, our audience's.  We see the evening as a personal exploration and sharing.'

All are welcome at Wychwood Library at 7pm on Sunday, November 12th. 

'ONLY CONNECT' - TURNING TO POETRY

'NO RELIGION' AND THE ANTI-GOD SCRIPT

No more than a cosmic accident?

The National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) recently published the latest British Social Attitudes survey reporting that 53 per cent of us have no religion, and that the young are the least religious of all. As Angela Tilby says in her column in the Church Times:

As religious literacy has waned, young people have simply absorbed the anti-religious narrative of our time. ... The script that human life is no more than a cosmic accident, and that we acquire meaning only by choosing to be who and what we wish to be, is now deeply embedded in our culture. 

Speaking truth to power? 

Leaving aside exactly what constitutes 'religion', let alone what the variety of people questioned took it to mean, there is little doubt that this is now the prevailing mood. And along with the decline of truthfulness in public discourse (our Foreign Secretary arguing with the UK's Statistics Authority as I write) there is a question over what now typically guides our thinking on matters of moral standards, such as, for example, compassion towards our neighbour, the poor, and refugees. If we do not trust our leaders in public life, from our MP to our vicar and from international experts to our own academics, where will our principles (if we have any) take us? Consumerism? Mindless destruction of our planet? My family, my community against the rest? America/Britain/me first?

People like us

On a (possibly) more light-hearted note, the popular philosopher Julian Baggini (author of A Short History of Truth) comments in an article today on the huge support for a Tweet by a disgruntled London commuter. Along with others on the Kings Cross Victoria line the commuter bemoans the loss of his painfully acquired advantage on the Underground over 'tourists and provincials' now that London Transport has painted green lines on platforms to show where the train will stop. Baggini concludes, maybe with resonance for broader aspects of our national life: 

Traditional British fairness is not about treating everyone equally. It's about giving subtle, informal advantage to insiders and locals. The outraged commuters may not realise it, but they are following the ethics of both old-boys networks and "Britain first" nationalists.  Both see preferential treatment for "people like us" as more just than treating any Tomasz, Dag or Ali the same. 

Challenging the anti-religious narrative

Back on the subject of religion and our culture's unthinking attitude to it, Angela Tilby calls for more 'thoughtful, culturally literate' Christians to 'come out' and contribute to changing the narrative, from academics and scientists to media people and celebrities. She misses a contemporary C S Lewis.  Well, in the Wychwoods we are fortunate in having a number of inspiring speakers to make us think twice: Richard Coles came to Milton's village hall as did Angela Tilby herself as well as, just a year ago, biologist Andrew Briggs and artist Roger Wagner. 

On Sunday we look forward to a talk by Professor Keith Ward on religion and rationality - a task for which he is more than qualified with his background in both philosophy and theology. Angela Tilby is worth quoting again in order to set the scene which Keith Ward will no doubt tackle incisively: 

In reality, the anti-religious script is less intellectually secure than it seems. It has been shown again and again that it is not really scientific: it distorts history, neglects philosophy, takes no account of religious experience, and is not obviously superior to faith in terms of rationality.  While its rhetoric is strident, and even bullying, it steadfastly ignores the ultimate questions of existence. 

Keith Ward is our guest at Milton under Wychwood village hall on Sunday, 24th September at 7pm. Open to all.  Retiring collection. 

TRUTH, TRUST, AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

This article, announcing the coming season, first appeared on the CHASE benefice website 

In the 1630s a group of intellectuals known as the Great Tew Circle met a short distance away from the Wychwoods to champion the use of reason in the religious polemics of the time.  At Wychwood Circle we could say we are focused on exploring the use of religion as well as reason in the political, moral and technological upheaval of our own time.

What can we know?

The clash, or otherwise, of faith and reason has taxed thinkers from the days of the Roman Stoic Epictetus (“I am a rational creature; so I must sing hymns to God”) through the spread of Christianity and other faiths and the so-called Enlightenment to the present day.  Is Religion Irrational? Foremost amongst contemporary theologians and philosophers is Professor Keith Ward who on 24^th September will be at Milton under Wychwood’s Village Hall to help many of us to face this theme head-on. He is a prolific author and if you can’t make it, you will find a whole range of topics on his website, from science and the cosmos to morality and the non-literal interpretation of Jesus’ teachings.

In January 2018 we will be further challenged by Oxford philosopher Tom Simpson (formerly an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos and now resident in Chipping Norton) on the issue of trust, and not so much what we can believe, as who we can believe. His topic will be ‘Can We Still Trust Experts?’ – never so relevant as in our post-referendum and Trumpian world of post-truth and ‘alternative facts’.

How then shall we live?

For those who are willing to put in the preparation, our 2017-18 season will include three discussions taking the recent book How Then Shall We Live? as our theme.  The author, Sam Wells, is both Vicar of St Martin in the Fields and Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics at Kings College London – and a contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC.  The book, readily available in paperback, usefully divides up into three sections: Engaging the World (October discussion), Being Human (February), and Facing Mortality (May). Please email david.soward@gmail.com for more information.  

And are robots people too?

So some have asked, as they stop to think about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and humanoid robots who might not only make and then drive our cars but offer home care and even medical advice in the near future.  What impact will these developments have on our identity and self-understanding? In December we will watch a recorded lecture by Professor John Wyatt and discuss the massive ethical and other implications of AI.

Only connect

Other upcoming events, as usual open to everyone and anyone, whatever their standpoint, will give us an opportunity to look at poetry under the heading of ‘Only Connect – turning to poetry’ (November 12^th) and an evening at the Village Hall where local (and international) Yoga teacher Ruth White will help us to consider How To Turn Adversity into Advantage (March 11^th).  Most of our meetings take place in Wychwood Library, warmly welcomed by librarian Ruth Gillingham, on the second Sunday of the month: but check www.wychwoodcircle.org for occasional changes of date or venue.