This seminar was held on 9 February 2026 at the Old Fire Station and was led by Dr Ariel Dempsey.
An Ian Ramsey Centre Fellow, Dr Ariel Dempsey, is a physician and scholar fascinated by the topic of uncertainty. She earned her MD from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and DPhil in Science & Religion from the University of Oxford, where she studied uncertainty in end-of-life care.
Human responses to uncertainty are not only intellectual, but also emotional, social, and physical. She would like to thank all those who attended her Science & Religion Seminar for their willingness not only to discuss uncertainty but also to move into it and explore it together. Dr Dempsey guided the group through an exercise from professional dance, and they used the experience to reflect on uncertainty together.
She’s grateful for the insights shared by participants: To sit more comfortably in uncertainty without rushing after a conclusion. Science is driven by uncertainty. Uncertainty doesn’t have to paralyse, but one can take action despite it. You can find your direction while you move through it. The importance of humility in religious life, scientific practice, and academia.
She is grateful to be part of a faculty that would support such a session and, once in a while, break out of the structures of lecture and Q&A and let their thoughts dance.
This lecture was organised as part of the termly Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion Lectures. For more information join our mailing list by registering on this form: Click here to access the mailing list registration form.
