Last month, we announced the 37 grantees from our Evolution & Christian Faith program! This month, we take a closer look at the projects and what’s “in the pipeline” over the coming years from these grantees!

Congratulations to the 37 winners of the Evolution & Christian Faith (ECF) grants competition! ECF is a new BioLogos program designed to support projects and network-building among scholars, church leaders, and parachurch organizations.

People hold clearly discordant points of view, and it would be dishonest to ignore the conflict. Yet some voices emphasize the dissonance without any note of harmony to put it in context. Too often, science and faith becomes a hostile battle of worldviews, sounding angry, dissonant chords even among fellow Christians. But civil, gracious dialogue is possible.

With great pleasure, the Board of Directors of The BioLogos Foundation announces the appointment of Deborah Haarsma to become our next President, and of Jeffrey Schloss to the role of Senior Scholar. Professor Haarsma assumes leadership from our outgoing President Darrel Falk, to whom we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude.

My goal in leading this organization for these past three and a half years has been to lay the groundwork to help my fellow evangelicals see that the conflict between our faith and mainstream science is not as great as they thought it was. In the process, my thinking has been significantly shaped by listening to people who think differently than I do

Part of BioLogos mission is to show how all things hold together in Christ—to show how a Christian worldview integrates the knowledge we have of God through the Scriptures with the knowledge we have of God through the other areas in which He reveals himself as Creator and Redeemer.

Throughout my various conversations with fellow believers, the most-mentioned anxiety over accepting an evolutionary creationist paradigm is the fear of losing the Bible as one’s spiritual anchor and source of authority.

How do we give our visitors access to our vast archive of resources, and how do we make sure they are finding the resources that address their most pressing questions?

Noi di BioLogos crediamo che Dio abbia usato il processo evolutivo per creare tutte le forme di vita presenti oggi sulla Terra. Mentre da un lato accettiamo la scienza dell’evoluzione, rifiutiamo nettamente l’evoluzionismo. L’evoluzionismo è una visione atea del mondo ed afferma che la vita si è sviluppata senza Dio, senza un fine e senza intenzionalità. Al contrario, noi siamo d’accordo con i Cristiani che, aderendo al Disegno Intelligente e al Creazionismo, affermano che il Dio della Bibbia ha creato l’universo e tutte le forme di vita. I Cristiani sono però in disaccordo su come Dio ha creato. I Creazionisti della Terra Giovane credono che Dio abbia espletato la sua azione creatrice tra i 6.000 e i 10.000 anni fa e sono in disaccordo con gran parte della scienza tradizionale. I sostenitori del Disegno Intelligente accettano gran parte della scienza dell’evoluzione, ma sostengono che alcune caratteristiche della vita siano meglio spiegate dall’intervento diretto di una entità intelligente, piuttosto che da un normale e regolare modo di operare da parte di Dio tramite i processi naturali. Noi di BioLogos siamo d’accordo con il moderno consenso scientifico riguardo all’età della Terra e dello sviluppo evolutivo di tutte le specie, vedendo queste come descrizioni di come Dio ha creato. Il termine BioLogos deriva dalle parole bios (vita) e logos (parola), e si riferisce all’inizio del Vangelo secondo Giovanni: “Nel principio c’era la Parola, e la Parola era presso Dio, e la Parola era Dio. Essa era nel principio con Dio. Per mezzo di lei tutte le cose sono state fatte”.

As he endeavored to learn more, David was intrigued by Francis Collins book The Language of God because Francis did not present evolution as a rival theory to Christian faith, but as something that described God's method of creation.

In Washington DC, Church of the Advent teamed up with The Trinity Forum to offer a series of lectures exploring the synergy between modern science and Christian Faith. This presentation by psychiatrist Curt Thompson and philosopher James K.A. Smith addressed the process of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation through the lens of neuroscience.

Since the BioLogos/Highway Media collaboration From the Dust made its worldwide debut this year, we’ve been excited to hear how others have been using the film to jump start their own conversations with fellow Christians about science and faith .

What are the best ways to spark productive conversations about science and faith? Certainly there are books, articles, blogs (like this one), and podcasts. But there are particular advantages to using film.

In this series, Ted Davis identifies the history, core tenets and assumptions about the theistic evolution view.

I’m a physicalist when it comes to human persons. I believe, in other words, that we are wholly physical objects. I don’t believe there are non-physical souls in the natural world. So I don’t believe that we are or have such non-physical souls as parts. I believe we are through-and-through physical.

That we are animals is something we hardly needed Darwin to tell us. It is obvious from the fact that, like other animals, we have stomachs and skin, eyeballs and ears, limbs and teeth, muscles, brains, and other organs. Yet it doesn’t follow that we are mere animals.

“Bit by experimental bit,” writes philosopher P. Churchland, “neuroscience is morphing our conception of what we are.” For many, this includes dispensing with the “soul” in favor of biologically anchored processes.

This exchange brings together related essays on death in light of evolution and Scripture from Southern Baptist theologian Dr. John Laing. Laing argues that evolutionary theory requires death to play a central role in the creation of new life, but sees Scripture depicting death only "as an invader, disturber of peace, and a force of evil." A BioLogos response is given by Dr. Jeff Schloss.

Our desire to engage in gracious dialogue with fellow believers who reject biological evolution has been receiving increased attention in both the Christian and secular press. More importantly, we are being joined in this reconciling project by our brothers and sisters in Christ who have often been defined primarily as our “opponents”.

I cannot overstate the joy and privilege of leading an organization that— from the beginning—was so uniquely poised to help the conservative church in its process of coming to peace with science in general, and evolutionary biology, in particular.