2012 Blog Highlights

Southern Baptist Voices

This year has seen a particularly fruitful dialogue between BioLogos and Southern Baptist scholars on topics that usually lead to consternation and ridicule. Born out of a conversation between BioLogos president Darrel Falk and Dr. Kenneth Keathley of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, this series has addressed how evolution relates to a number of major issues, including the interpretation of Genesis, the image of God, death, the problem of evil, and Darwinism. While these scholars were not in complete agreement about all of the details, they celebrated their unity as Christians and their love of Jesus Christ.

Science and the Bible: Five Attitudes and Approaches to Origins

This year we welcomed historian of science Ted Davis as a Senior Fellow to BioLogos. Christians have been debating the topic of origins for a very long time, and Davis has been teaching on this topic for 35 years. For BioLogos he designed an online course that enables readers to explore the wide variety of Christian perspectives on origins. He organized his posts to explore five main views: scientific creationism (Young Earth Creationism or YEC), concordism (Old Earth Creationism or OEC), the framework view, theistic evolution (TE), and intelligent design (ID). Davis’s goal is for readers to become better informed about the range of opinions regarding science and the Bible among Christians, and for us to respond with compassion and grace in situations where we don’t entirely agree.

Understanding Evolution: Theory, Prediction, and Converging Lines of Evidence

Senior Fellow Dennis Venema is a genetics professor and longtime contributor to the BioLogos blog. His series, titled “Theory, Prediction, and Converging Lines of Evidence”, shows that evolution is not “just” a theory proposed in the 19th century by Charles Darwin but an insightful explanatory framework for making sense of the peculiar and counterintuitive aspects of living creatures. Venema looks specifically at the unusual features of whales that suggest they descended from four-legged, land-dwelling mammals. But if that’s the case, then where did their hind limbs go? How did they acquire a blowhole on the top of their heads when other mammals have two nostrils on the front of their faces? How did they transition to giving birth in the water? What happened to the teeth of the baleen whales? Why don’t whales have hair like other mammals? If you are curious about these questions, be sure to read Venema’s series!