About the BioLogos Forum
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The BioLogos Forum is designed to foster a serious and comprehensive discussion of Christian faith and the sciences. We believe that charitable engagement of different perspectives within the Church helps sharpen our thinking and deepen our commitment to the truth that is hidden in Christ. So while many of the articles and videos under the distinctive Forum banner come from BioLogos staff and Senior Fellows, we feature a range of voices, including those that disagree with us and with each other. Unless otherwise noted, views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of The BioLogos Foundation. You can read more about what we believe here, and join the conversation in the comments section at the end of each post.
Karl Giberson
Karl Giberson directs the new science & religion writing program at Gordon College in Boston. He has published more than 100 articles, reviews and essays for Web sites and journals including Salon.com, Books & Culture, and the Huffington Post. He has written seven books, including Saving Darwin, The Language of Science & Faith, and The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age.
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3 Part Series: The Wonder of the Universe
BioLogos is pleased to share excerpts from Karl Giberson’s book The Wonder of the Universe: Hints of God in a Fine-Tuned World. It presents a two-part argument: in the first section Giberson outlines the history of our understanding of the universe, emphasizing the reliability of our knowledge of its properties and its history. In particular he outlines the remarkable evidence of design. In part two of the book, however, he discusses the complexities of drawing inferences from the design of the universe, cautioning against arguments that fine-tuning of the universe proves the existence of God.
6 Part Series: Quantum Leap
Dean Nelson and Karl Giberson address the warfare mentality present at the intersection of science and Christian faith through the story of John Polkinghorne: one man who dared to cross the boundary from physics into priesthood. Through a series of extensive interviews with Polkinghorne himself, Nelson and Giberson are able to examine the deeper questions of “how do we know Truth?” and “how does a leading scientist think about the more mysterious aspects of faith -- prayer, miracles, life after death, resurrection?” The series enriches the discussion about science and religion through the voice of this generation’s most significant thinker on this topic.
6 Part Series: Francis Collins and Karl Giberson Interview
In this six part series, Karl Giberson discusses evolution with BioLogos founder Francis Collins as it relates to the scientific community and the church. Their conversation addresses Collins’ scientific perspectives, his Christian faith, and the abundant evidence for evolution. Throughout, the two critique various unscientific approaches to evolution such as Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design. Overall, they both express the deep need for the Church in America to accept evolution as a valuable, true theory as well as to cultivate a richer understanding of the Bible among the people.
6 Part Series: Exposing the Straw Men of New Atheism
This six part series by Karl Giberson exposes several “straw-man” arguments that New Atheists, especially Jerry Coyne, use when attacking religion. He first describes logical fallacies and then explains the nature of a straw-man argument. Throughout the posts, Giberson addresses claims made by Coyne such as “science uses evidence and religion uses faith” and “religion represents a fossilized set of ideas that only reluctantly change in the face of overwhelming pressure from science.”
5 Part Series: Would You Like Fries with that Theory?
In this series, Karl Giberson addresses lay people’s irrational mistrust of “scientific orthodoxy” in response to this question: “Can we no longer confront the data on our own?” Giberson responds with a decisive “no” as he explains the long history of science as well as the extensive measures taken by the scientific community to develop and scrutinize a theory.
The Beauty of Being a Scientist and a Christian
I am a Christian. I believe that God is the ultimate reality and that the world, including me, was created by God. But this is not just an idle affirmation, a faith statement to be recited in church on Sunday.
“Centered”: The Language of Science and Faith
In a recent interview with the Sirius XM radio show Centered, Karl Giberson sat down with host Don Belanus to discuss the book The Language of Science and Faith.
What, Exactly, is the Secular World? A Response to Mark Mann
We can say—and I have said this—that “All Truth is God’s Truth,” but such a claim turns out to be quite empty in helping us figure out which claims are actually true.
An Invitation to Write about Science & Religion
Unfortunately our educational system is structured to provide training in science or religion but not both. The result is a stilted and uninformed cultural conversation with a high level of illiteracy on both sides of the table.
The Language of Faith and Science: Some Closing Discussion Questions
To help get those conversations started, here are a set of “talking points” that engage the material in a way that promote discussion.
What Do We Hope to Accomplish with “The Language of Science and Faith”?
A friend asked me what I might suggest was the primary purpose. After thinking about this a bit, I would put it like this: the most desired outcome or effect of this book is a reduction of the tension and hostility between science and religion.
The Modern Creation Story
We conclude the book with a reflection on what the modern creation story looks like, through biblically informed eyes.
The Relationship Between Science and Religion
Ian Barbour—arguably the first true scholar of science-and-religion—identified four ways that science and religion could relate.
Celebrate Science, Don’t Fear It
Francis Collins and I make a familiar but under-emphasized theological point: the world cries out for explanation at both a scientific and an emotional level, and the latter must not be reduced to the former.
Two Languages, Two Books: One Creator
"Two challenging languages, one old and wise, one modern and awesome. Two very different accounts of human origins. Can the book of Scripture and the book of nature both be true in the age of science?"
The Language of Science and Faith: A Brief History
This book shares and even embodies the very inspiration that launched BioLogos—the desire to help people find answers to “Genuine Questions” about relating scientific accounts of origins to their faith in God as creator.
The God of the Old Testament
Many contemporary Christians struggle to understand the message of the Old Testament, in the light of challenges from higher criticism and science, not to mention internal issues, like the complicated portrayals of God.
Polkinghorne’s Masterful Reminder
Sir John Polkinghorne’s brief survey Theology in the Context of Science should be required reading for anyone engaging the religious implications of contemporary science, regardless of their personal beliefs.
“I’d Like to Have an Argument, Please”
I continue to be surprised—and I mean that honestly—at the incoherent way that Coyne engages these topics. He reminds me of that great Monty Python skit about the customer who pays to have an argument, and then is frustrated because his sparring partner just sits there, responding with variations on “No, it isn’t.”
Are We “Cramming Religion Down Our Children’s Throats”?
There is a strange, hyperbolic expression favored by the New Atheists: "cramming religion down the throats of children." This language evokes the harshest of images.
Hawking’s Speculation: Everything Happens
Stephen Hawking is talking about God again. His new book, due in America in September 7, has the champions of atheism all excited.
Darwin and Dr. Mohler: The Truth Comes Out
Our mission here at BioLogos is to seek God’s truth as best we can, a humbling enterprise. I imagine that you would say the same thing about your seminary.
How Should BioLogos Respond to Dr. Albert Mohler’s Critique: Karl’s Response
Dear Dr. Mohler: I watched your presentation on the importance of Young Earth Creationism with great interest and some questions occurred to me.
A Tale of Two Skeptics
The ideas of arch-skeptic Richard Dawkins are quite familiar to BioLogos readers. I was reminded of them recently because of their remarkable contrast with the beliefs of another notorious skeptic who passed away last month—Martin Gardner.
Jerry Coyne’s Insufferable Argument
The theodicy problem has been around forever and is rife with nuance and subtlety. Great philosophers and theologians have explored it at great length, as has every freshman philosophy major in their first course.
Science - Now and Then
A common argument against evolution as science is that science can study only present-day processes. Claims about what happened in the past are just conjecture, since we were not there and thus cannot confirm that processes of the past were the same as those in the present.
Through a Glass Darkly
BioLogos enthusiastically endorses the idea that the universe is intelligently designed and we certainly believe that the creator of the universe is intelligent. I want to acknowledge the real similarities between fine-tuning arguments and arguments made by ID.
The Proof is in the Pudding, Not the Recipe
Recently a biology teacher inquired of Casey Luskin at the Discovery Institute how science works in the Intelligent Design paradigm. How, the teacher asked, does one “test intelligent design using the scientific method?”
Does Intelligent Design Really Explain a Complex and Puzzling World?
If we say that an intelligent agent has produced certain strings of DNA, are we more or less puzzled by the problem of DNA when we are all done? Frankly, this “explanation” generates a set of questions even more troubling than our original query about how information-rich strings of DNA came to be.
What Does it Mean to Believe in God the Creator?
In this video conversation, Karl Giberson notes that have to be careful about projecting our idea about human creation onto God because the notion of a human creator is an entirely different concept.
Mythology in the Making
Unfortunately, the mythology about Darwin and the implications of evolution creates confusion, and muddled commentators continue to perpetuate misunderstandings from the past.
Evolution Matters
People often ask me why it matters so much what they think of evolution. Many parents don’t even want their kids to learn about it—evolution is like pornography, not to be trifled with under any circumstances and certainly not something to be “integrated” with the Christian faith.
A Muddled Theist to the End: The Missing Darwin of “Creation”
So kudos to the producers [of Creation] who gave us the first big screen look at the most controversial scientist in history. And kudos for making Darwin into a sympathetic and fully human character, in contrast to the sinister portraits provided by so many of his anti-evolutionary critics.
Believing in God and Evolution
I was raised to believe that evolution was a conspiracy to undermine faith in God and had no evidence to support it. Like many young people today, I thought of Darwin in the same negative way that I thought of Hitler—simply evil.
Emerging Voices
There were several interesting developments in 2009. For starters, the New Atheists set much of the agenda, aligning themselves against both creationism and religion in general.
Crossing the Bridge
"Creationism can be hard to dislodge", writes Karl Giberson in his book Saving Darwin. How can one make people cross the bridge and finally see the compatibility between evolution and their religious beliefs?
Belief, Guidance, and Evolution
In part one of his interview with Marcio Campos for the Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo's Tubo De Ensaio (i.e. "Test tube") section, Karl Giberson discusses whether we can "believe" in evolution and what it means to say God guides evolution.
With God All Things Are Possible
"Christianity," wrote someone who likes to comment under the cover of an alias on the Science and the Sacred blogs, "is extremely anti-science. Every single Christian belief, especially the disgusting childish belief in the Resurrection, is scientifically impossible."
Tiny Tails Wagging Gigantic Dogs
I want to suggest that anti-evolutionists don't actually use evidence as evidence. Rather they use evidence as rhetoric--a debating tool designed to score points in arguments. Evidence is not, by these defocused lights, a pointer toward truth. Rather evidence is a distraction, undermining truth.
Chopping Logic
Two curiously related things happened to me last month. The first was a request from the college bookstore for my book orders for the Logic course I will be offering this spring. The second was an "Open Letter to Karl Giberson" posted on an anti-evolution site accusing me of not understanding elementary Logic!
A House of Sand and Fog
The message of the creation museum is clear--too clear in fact. None of the ambiguities that make science, biblical studies, history or theology so interesting are present. There simply aren't any real questions in this slick packaging of all-that-matters.
Who Cares About Darwin?
There is an odd rearguard action to undermine evolution taking place that I don't quite understand.
Decent Swordfish
The label "accommodationist" is being applied as if it were a warning from the FDA that these ideas are not fit for human consumption. But accommodationism, like "decent swordfish," should not be sneered at.
Christian Faith and World Class Science
Watching the discussion surrounding Francis Collins's National Institutes of Health (NIH) appointment has been enlightening in so many ways. Especially interesting are the arguments by critics such as Sam Harris that someone with faith in God cannot be a good scientist.
The Necessity of Faith
Some Christians apparently believe that faith is a bad word.
At least it seems this way when they ridicule science because it is based on probabilities and celebrate the "absolute" truth of their religious convictions, happy that none of those beliefs are simply based on faith.
Blessed is the Peacemaker
The news these days -- especially in the BioLogos part of the world -- is all about Francis Collins being tapped as possible head of the National Institutes of Health. If confirmed by the Senate, he will disengage from BioLogos and head a somewhat larger and more complicated entity.
Word Games
"Why would the omnipotent Creator of the universe use such a wasteful (and cruel) process of survival of the fittest to bring about the higher forms of life? This view of 'theistic evolution' goes against God's very nature -- and logic itself."
Saving Faith
The popular organization Answers in Genesis, led by Ken Ham, warns that BioLogos and like-minded organizations are "destructive to biblical authority and are leading so many people astray."
God or Matter?
The University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne recently objected to the suggestion that humans might actually be a part of God's creative plan.
The Road Less Traveled
What is the most fascinating question in all of science?
Adventist Origins of Young Earth Creationism
Many evangelicals believe that Young Earth Creationism is the only authentic, biblical way for Christians to understand origins, and that until the advent of Darwin's theory of evolution, it was the only view held by Christians. However, in this excerpt from Saving Darwin, Karl Giberson explains that Young Earth Creationism's origins are surprisingly recent.
Scientific Fundamentalism and its Cultural Impact
Giberson's essay makes the case that scientific fundamentalists are not merely arguing for the supremacy of science but also presenting science as a quasi-religious replacement. The agenda of the "New Atheists" is not merely to refute mainstream religion but to replace it. Unfortunately, the scientific community is poorly represented by these aggressive public figures.