Augustine, who articulated the doctrine of original sin most clearly, did not envision original sin as causing structural changes in the universe, and he suggests that the bodies of Adam and Eve were created mortal before the Fall.

In fact, when we turn to these Dutch Calvinists, we see that they were actually critical of their own tradition for failure to develop an “organic” doctrine of Scripture, i.e., one that takes account of its humanness as well as its divine authority.

Old Princeton and the Dutch Calvinists understood that the human dimension of Scripture—which pervades Scripture thoroughly—is not merely tolerable of a divine book, but a necessary component of what inspiration means.

IDers formulate statistical arguments to show how mathematically improbable it is that random genetic variations plus natural selection, even over great spans of time, could result in the highly complex structures they identify. These arguments involve lots of zeroes after a decimal point.

Humanity, created as it is in the image of God, craves transcendence regardless of our technological advancement.

Over the past two decades, the intelligent design movement has been working diligently to offer a parallel version of modern science, one that can scientifically show God at work in creation.

With Christ, his humanity is essential to who he is. Likewise, the Bible’s “human side” is an essential part of what Scripture is, and recognizing this has practical implications.

With Christ, his humanity is essential to who he is. Likewise, the Bible’s “human side” is an essential part of what Scripture is, and recognizing this has practical implications.

Contrary to what is often said or implied, Copernicus had full freedom to pursue his ideas while working for the church and was even encouraged to publish them.

In our first Distinctions video -- featuring biologists Sean Carroll and Kerry Fulcher, Smithsonian Human Origins Program director Rick Potts, and Old Testament scholar John Walton -- we look at the concept of randomness.

C.S. Lewis stands within the long Christian tradition of natural theology: the enterprise of giving reasons for the existence of an Ultimate Being or God, reasons that are based on some feature of the world rather than on special revelation.

Are all proteins so connected? If evolution has produced the diversity in protein form and function that we observe today, this pattern should be common.

The culmination of Lent and our collective ruminations on new life through death, Easter has several emblems of its own—other natural symbols that can give a physical shape to our theology.

This may seem like a rather obvious statement from our vantage point, but in Green’s day, reading the Bible in its historical context was a cause of concern for many.

The religion-environmental movement is powerful exactly for these reasons. When people are motivated by a deep-rooted desire to worship God, they are willing to invest time, energy and emotion to what they believe is the right thing to do.

Seven years ago, fellow filmmaker Terry Kay Rockefeller and I set out on a voyage of discovery that would result in RENEWAL, the first feature-length documentary about America’s religious-environmental movement.

This video offers a striking visual metaphor for the spiritual death of sin. The unsettling music and vivid depictions of decay remind us of what was at stake as Christ hung high on Calvary.

If you want to know the worldview that a filmmaker is affirming, look at the good guys. Look at the hero and how he ends up seeing the world.

Isaac Newton is famous for his work on universal gravitation, optics, and calculus (much to many college students’ dismay!), but he actually wrote more about theology and alchemy than about science.

Old Princeton was very keen to defend the essential historical value of the Old Testament, but that does not mean that its scholars were oblivious to the need to treat new and challenging data fairly and to adjust views when needed.

Ask the person on the street for an opinion about science and religion, and you are likely to hear something about a confrontation, perhaps combined with a reference to Galileo’s trial for heresy by the Roman Inquisition in 1633.

To help get those conversations started, here are a set of “talking points” that engage the material in a way that promote discussion.

I think many Evangelicals are under the false impression that until the advent of modern geology in the nineteenth century there was only one interpretation of Genesis 1.

Palm Sunday forms a turning point in the season of Lent—a promise of the victory and coming Kingship of Jesus, but also a false climax of the story of His resolute march towards Jerusalem...

There were three intellectual challenges to Christianity in the nineteenth century: European Higher Criticism, Biblical Archaeology, and Evolution. These issues were pressing matters for the theologians and biblical scholars at Old Princeton, and they handled these challenges differently.

Those who attack its faults are missing a much more important point: Avatar’s success cannot be dismissed. It is resonating with tens of millions of people around the planet.

The crucial question here is this: Is there some happy medium between the kind of control that ends up making God the efficient cause of evil, and the kind of freedom that leads to a nihilistic view of the universe that undergirds evolutionism?

John Calvin was not a Calvinist. Many of the marks of Calvinism today are theological developments intended by Calvin’s followers to maintain trajectories that Calvin began. However, Calvin and Calvinism are not the same thing.

Christian unity is a unity with diversity, not uniformity: it involves valuing the person-in-community, the “each” in the community, especially with respect to their giftedness and contribution to the whole.

Because I am a poet, I’ve been involved all my life in paying attention to the details of what I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel, then clothing those observations in words.

So, how much of this, do you think, derives from peculiarly Christian concerns and how much arrives from just a general lack of appreciation and respect for science and the scientific community?

We know that the Israelites were not the first to make this deduction, but Babylonian and Egyptian stories were there long before. This, of course, raises the perennially troubling issue for some: that Israel’s Scripture contains ways of thinking that it shares with pagan religion.

For many people it is the extraordinary beauty of the world that strikes them as evidence that God has designed it. However, I cannot find this stated in the Bible either explicitly or even indirectly.

Bringing an ancient gene back to life starts with determining what its DNA sequence was. While researchers usually don’t have direct access to ancient DNA, we have the next best thing.

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis has entitled a recent blog, “Do two Nazarene professors endorse the idea that rejecting Christianity is more viable than believing Paul in the New Testament?” He never comes back to address the lead question of his blog. Since he didn’t, let me answer his question here.

How do the Old and New Testaments relate to each other, especially when we try to respect each in their historical context ?

This individual was nicknamed “Lucy” after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" which played in the camp during the analysis of the remains.

He only gives us the promise that in the end there will be justice, in the end there will be redemption from all pain, in the end all will be put to right -- but he doesn’t explain to our modern scientific minds just how that will be or through what mechanism.

Our new comment system will open up the comment sections to even more visitors and also provide our loyal commenters with some new tools and features to streamline their discussions.

With Jesus, becoming like a buried seed is more about smallness and seeming insignificance than it is about bodily suffering, though the two are inescapably related: the seed must fall to the ground and be buried in order to live again.

What an awful circumstance we’ve put young people in. Many of them who are sending emails every week in crisis trying to figure out whether, if the church is lying to them about the origins, has the church lied to them about the whole thing?

The biblical idea of creation and providence as fulfilling God’s good purposes implies, as we have said, that the world is designed by him. But we have to ask: Designed for what?

Among the biggest news in the science and faith dialogue last week was the announcement that Mr. Ken Ham, President of Answers in Genesis, has been disinvited from participating in two upcoming homeschooling events thanks in no small part to his harsh criticism and unkind words about The BioLogos Foundation.

If God wishes to speak to us, he must bridge this gulf by descending into our world and speaking our language. In other words, God accommodates himself to our ability to comprehend.

According to Calvin, accommodation is a pedagogical tool that God employs to communicate to human beings. If God wishes to speak to us, he must bridge the gulf by descending into our world and speaking our language. In other words, God accommodates himself to our ability to comprehend.