Religion and science

I forgot to mention that last Friday we went to a lecture in the George Bush Snr Presidential Library (the money that has been lavished on buildings here is staggering, but that's another story.)

Two speakers, Gerald Gabrielse, a physicist from Harvard and a Christian and Roald Hoffman, a chemist/poet and a Jew talked about science and religion.  Well, that was how it was billed.  Gabrielse joked at the beginning that being asked to talk about religion was a sure sign his scientific career was on a downward path.

He talked about his research and matter and antimatter.  Hoffman talked about the colour indigo derived from snails and also from plants, how it was produced in ancient times and its significance as a colour and also its chemistry.   Both were fascinating speakers and the religion aspect was rather tacked on at the end. The 2.5 hours passed quickly.  No chance of dropping off to sleep as the air conditioning was turned to 'Glacial' and we haven't yet remembered to take warm clothes to wear indoors.  Questions at the end were rather off the wall..."Was the cloud that appeared when Moses received the 10 Commandments antimatter?" The speakers dealt with such questions by simply answering a different question!