Quentin de la Bedoyere, Author at Catholic Herald

Quentin de la Bedoyere

Science and faith: The advice no one wants to hear

March 22, 2018

Look at the date, and subtract it from April 5 this year. You will know now how many days you have to make a decision which may save you from unnecessarily losing money. Read on. Fortunately, I receive a pension: I worked for 40 years and I have been retired for 21 years. It did

Science and faith: Success is about more than talent

February 22, 2018

How attractive are you? The question was sufficiently important for the Times to publish two articles in January and to devote a leading article to the issue. It appears that good-looking people are more likely to be right wing than left wing: the Tories are simply more attractive. The reason, it seems, is that attractive

Science and faith: Who is in the mob?

February 08, 2018

In January President Trump presented his Fake News Awards. The New York Times led the list. Fake news is all the rage: a modern phenomenon which seems to have been born at the last presidential election. Pope Francis dedicated this year’s World Communications Day message to it. It is true that the modern world is

Science and faith: The rules of engagement

January 18, 2018

Last week Hollywood stars made global headlines with a protest against men who make unwanted approaches to women. And of course we share their outrage, particularly when the male is in a senior position and can influence the fortunes of others. Yet it seems to me that allegations of sexual misbehaviour do not require the

Science and faith: How to bluff your way through an interview

December 07, 2017

Most of us have attended at least one selection interview in our time. If we got the job, we benignly approve the good judgment of the selectors. And there is good reason to learn how this judgment works. It has been valuable to me because in recent years I have needed to coach several of

Science and faith: A moral compass in your pocket

November 16, 2017

At what level does stealing constitute a mortal sin? The answer as I write is £155.02. I say this with confidence because the good Jesuits taught me, in 1944, that £5 constituted “grave matter”, and so potentially a mortal sin. It may even have altered a penny or two by the time you read this.

Abortion Act at 50: The day abortion supporters couldn’t believe their luck

October 26, 2017

We might date the modern view of abortion to the Rex v Bourne case of 1938. British law already allowed abortion where the mother was in danger of death. The case extended this to a qualified doctor who in good faith removed a pregnancy for the purpose of preserving the mother’s life. The distinction between

Science and faith: Learning to think radically

October 05, 2017

I have a young relative who is severely dyslectic. Now well into his twenties, he is a top designer currently working on a prestige project in London. That may seem an unlikely career for a dyslexic, but I know why because he addressed it in his university dissertation. He explained that dyslexia can produce a

Science and faith: Can robots be evil?

September 21, 2017

Over supper a few nights ago I had a conversation with Damien (not his real name) which roamed around the relationship between science and philosophy. Damien is a young man highly educated in the sciences and with, I suspect, an IQ which would give me an inferiority complex. He told me that he avoided philosophy

Science and faith: Where Christianity meets Stoicism

August 24, 2017

Nowadays if we use the word “stoic”, we do so informally. Perhaps it refers to someone who bears up despite hard times, or takes pride in bearing pain. At its worst, it may be associated with the ethos of the public school when the cane was the primary instrument of education. And that’s a pity

Science and faith: Rhythm and truths

August 10, 2017

Tum-diddyumtum-tumtum. Yes, a simple pattern of taps. But it has asignificance. Try it out with your fingers. The neurologists tell us that our brains respond to such rhythms and form corresponding patterns in our neurons. This is why marching and dancing are not only synchronised, but also its participants become consciously aware of the group

Science and faith: Is Ian Brady in hell?

July 13, 2017

In May this year an unrepentant Ian Brady, the Moors murderer, died. Terry Kilbride, the brother of a victim, hoped that Brady would “rot in hell”. Perhaps we agree: Brady would appear on many people’s short list of the wicked. We sympathise with Kilbride’s immediate reaction. But then, perhaps, we think about it. If you

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