Christianity and Science: Is There a Gulf? [1951]

This exchange with Canon Charles E. Raven (1885–1965) was not the first time that Russell debated a distinguished theologian on BBC radio. It is far less known, however, than his earlier discussion of “The Existence of God” with the Jesuit philosopher Frederick Copleston (68 in Papers 11). In fact, no transcript of the Russell–Raven debate has hitherto appeared in print. The two men recorded their conversation on 16 August 1951 for the BBC’s long-running series London Forum; it aired on the General Overseas Service three days later, and was rebroadcast months later by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, on 26 May 1952. Russell was a frequent guest on London Forum, appearing at least twenty-seven times between June 1949 and December 1957. It is difficult to gauge the size of the audience reached by him and his many fellow contributors to this popular panel programme. In addition to the repeat transmission of each London Forum on the BBC’s General Overseas, Pacific and North American Services, the series had been picked up since 1947 for rebroadcast by eight American radio stations and another fourteen in Canada (see Briggs 1979, 150). The programmes were unscripted, but the participants usually met briefly and informally before entering the studio—as Russell and Raven did prior to their debate. Their moderator was the educator, classical scholar and university administrator Sir William Hamilton Fyfe (1878–1965), another familiar voice on the BBC in the 1950s.