Origins & Lemons, Riding Lights at Christ Church

As I walked into church I was greeted enthusiastically by my ever so slightly sarcastic daughter.  "May I take your ticket, sir?"  The church was already filling up, and was full of the warm red glow that we get with all the overhead radiant fires on.  I must be careful where I sit, or my head will be grilled.  Forced to sit in the back half because the front was already full, I chose a centre seat near the aisle.  Some one big immediately sat in front of me, but it didn't matter. At the front of church at raised stage took the Riding Lights Theatre Company players high enough to be easily seen.  We were promised a review sub-titled extracting the juice from Genesis 1-11.

Right from the off we were in the midst of the science vs. religion debate. Each short sketch covering one or more of the points of the debate.  Each with a punch line, and next to no gap between sketches.  There is barely time to laugh, let alone think seriously about the points being made.  While we don't have too many fundamentalists, or too many liberals, I had wondered just what the target of the debate would be.

In the introduction the song oranges and lemons was used to ask the questions.  We were promised a look at all of Genesis 1-11 - except perhaps the bits were relatives are listed.  At various time we were in a school room, or on the Ark with Captain Noah and his crew - Ham, Shem and Japheth, in IKEA or in the garden of Eden with Adam and God, Adam and Eve, Eve and a snake, Adam and Eve and a bouncer.  All good stuff and often very funny.  I had read reviews that suggested there was a Monty Python'ish flavour.  There certainly was when we came to the Nephilim.  Arguments among the cast, blackouts, and multiple attempts by the Nephilim to get some nookie!  This was by far the funniest sketch of the evening.  We ended with Noah sharing his home-made wines with Darwin.

Riding Lights as always are brilliant and never to be missed.

Get a flavour of it here:

The Cell

This three part miniseries exploring the history of the science around the cell was very interesting and well presented by Adam Rutherford. The slow discovery of the microscopic and the demonstration of the first microscopes and what could be seen through them was in the best history of this type of BBC documentary.

Adam is a real enthusiast for his topic. This has its drawbacks. He is so amazed and enthralled by what he sees, and refuses to touch ("these are Darwin's original books, I don't feel I can touch them"), that by the third program it's starting to wear a bit thin.

The second program dealt with what's inside the cell and taught me a lot about biology that I wasn't too clear on. Some of the historic TV clips I recognised, and this was a good way of showing how quickly this particular branch of science has progressed.

The third program was more disturbing. Now we are at the stage of producing diesel from modified bacteria, and cloning sheep and long horn cattle. The promise of what can be done with cells is endless - a new dawn in science. It is clear from the presenter that there is no limit to what is permissible to us. Adam's article in the Guardian makes that quite clear. There are so many benefits to be had.

The questions posed by these capabilities are more serious than those posed by the nuclear revolution. If the planet had been destroyed by the first nuclear explosion (and the scientists weren't that sure it wouldn't be - but went ahead) there would have been a few seconds of extreme suffering and that would be that. The potential for error, mistake, or malice in the biological field is enormous. What will be the biological equivalent of Chernobyl?

Every science and technology has had its disasters. This topic was completely overlooked. No dangers were even mentioned.

This was a major failing of the series and left me feeling quite scared that we put our trust in such people - Adam is a scientist as well as a presenter.