Why Must the Church Engage in Scientific Discourse?

Today’s entry is part of our Video Blog series. For similar resources, visit our audio/video section, or our full "Conversations" collection. Please note the views expressed in the video are those of the author, not necessarily of The BioLogos Foundation. You can read more about what we believe here.

Today's video features Os Guinness. Os Guinness is an author, social critic, and founder of the Trinity Forum. He has been a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and a guest scholar and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is a frequent speaker at political and business conferences around the world and has written or edited more than 25 books.

In this video conversation, Os Guinness addresses the question of why it is essential for Christians to engage in scientific discourse. He points out that science is “at the very heart of the modernizing world” and as such, it is all around us.

We cannot ignore it.

Resistance, skepticism, and hostility to science, however, are not biblical precepts. Such a myopic ideology originates from Christian movements that emerged in the 19th century, and they are just that, movements—they are not scriptural.

In the scriptures, science is a source of worship and praise, not argument and controversy.

Also, these movements are driven by fear, which as Guinness points out runs counter to the message of “do not fear” that permeates the scriptures.

The current antipathy by some Christians towards science is not productive and Guinness even characterizes it as “sub-Christian”. In regard to this trend, Guinness remarks, “I hope in the next generation we will overcome it.”

Commentary written by the BioLogos editorial team.