How Science Can Inspire Faith
Today's video features Daniel Harrell. Please note the views expressed here are those of the author, not necessarily of The BioLogos Foundation. You can read more about what BioLogos believes here.
In this video “Conversation,” Daniel Harrell, Senior Minister of Colonial Church in Edina, Minnesota, discusses what often gets in the way of getting Christians to consider evolutionary science.
Christians immediately see it [evolutionary science] as a challenge to the biblical authority because it upsets a literal interpretation of the creation narrative found in Genesis. They might say, “If I can’t read six days as twenty-four hour periods, then how do I know what to believe?” In cases like these, there is just some education that needs to occur, says Harrell. For example, if Christians are shown that there is not just one definition for “day” in the Bible, or if they are given some analogies to common experience this could be helpful.
It is also important to “draw a distinction between scientific data and its interpretation,” notes Harrell, because the science has nothing to say about Genesis 1 and how it should be read. Problems arise when Christians try to take on the scientific data itself.
If indeed the world is the handiwork of God, says Harrell, then this [evolutionary science] is the handiwork of God—and to challenge that “is just not necessary.”
Commentary written by the BioLogos editorial team.
Daniel Harrell is the Senior Minister of Colonial Church in Edina, Minnesota. Before stepping into this role, Harrell served as associate minister at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts for over twenty years. He is the author of the book Nature’s Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith, and is author of the forthcoming book How To Be Perfect: One Church’s Experiment with Living the Book of Leviticus.