Exploring the Nexus: Table of Contents

Welcome to our resource pages that will help you explore the nexus between science and theology.

What You'll Find

The Sections of this (evolving) Website

1. Complementary Disciplines. We open with an introduction to thinking of science and theology not as enemies but as complementary ways of viewing the world. This page offers sounding from the past as well as voices from the present. 
2. What Christians in Science Can Teach Us. Here you will be introduced to a variety of excellent academic organizations both here and abroad that explore the constructive nexus between science and theology. Many of them will link you to essays, audio lectures, and book recommendations for further study. The resources they offer are rich and abundant. 
3. What Churches Have to Say. Many Christian denominations tell us how they have integrated these two ways of understanding the world.
4. More on Creation through Evolutionary Means. Theology tells us who created and sustains the world...and why. Science begins to explain how. Here various Christians offer their explanations of this integrated model of complementarity.
5. The Science Undergirding Evolution. This strong evidence in support of evolution is explained in many of the resources found in the links from the sections above. Here we highlight but a few recent publications. 
6. The Education Debate. The contentious debate in North America is inflamed by two polarized extremes. On the one hand are the anti-theists who assume science tells us all we need to know about life--everything else is irrational nonsense and inherently dangerous. On the other hand are the equally passionate religious anti-evolutionists whose particular interpretation of the biblical account of creation precludes any natural explanation that science can provide (I know; I've been there...see my story below). This section lists a few valuable resources that shed new light on this fascinating cultural phenomenon. Also here is information on the 2008 Ben Stein movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." 

My Background

As a typical American conservative evangelical, I spent over 20 years thinking that the only proper Christian approach to biological evolution was to denounce it, despite my training in physiology (UC Berkeley) and medicine (UC Davis) and an ongoing vocation as clinician and research scientist. I had been led to believe (1) that evolution theologically was inherently atheistic (as is claimed by the brilliant anti-theist Richard Dawkins, an articulate popularizer of evolutionary theory) and (2) that evolution scientifically was altogether unsupportable (in keeping with our 'creation science' and  'Intelligent Design' brothers and sisters). From this vantage point, evolutionary science and the Christian faith were situated at poles far apart from one another in irreconcilable opposition. To be faithful to one system of thought required the rejection of the other. There were only two options...or so I imagined.

A Third Option

Then, several years ago, I read a fictional book whose erudite protagonist had easily integrated these disciplines. He understood that the Creator had worked his wonders through evolutionary means. From this perspective, all truth was God's truth, and different aspects of truth, be they religious or scientific, didn't need to be played off against one another. This complementarity approach was new to me, but strangely attractive. Until this time, I didn't even know it was an option. But was it a viable option? Weren't evolutionists by definition necessarily anti-God? And wasn't evolution as a science untenable? With these two questions in mind, I set out to examine afresh the theory of evolution and to grapple with the ways in which it might more constructively interface with the Christian faith. 

Evolutionary Science is Not Anti-God

After years of study, conversation, and conferences, what have I discovered? To my surprise (and relief!) I found that both of my presuppositions were neither necessary nor sensible. For starters, evolutionary science is not inherently atheistic. Rather, like all of science, including medicine, it seeks to provide natural explanations for the way things work. It is not suited to speak to supernatural causes or purposes. Let's say I have recently developed severe right-sided lower abdominal pain. Would I want my physician to forego the search for a natural explanation, to attribute my appendicitis pain to "the stars," and to suggest as the treatment that I more faithfully comply with my horoscope? No. I'd prefer a CT scan and a surgical consultation. Some questions are better answered with the tools of science. When I realized that science and theology were approaching life from different angles and with different sets of questions, I became comfortable letting them co-exist, and even complement, one another. Together I found they provided a more holistic understanding of the world around me. And from this holistic vantage point I could thank God for healing my appendicitis AND thank the surgeon whom God used to do it. A complete scientific explanation of the "natural mechanism" by which God healed my disease does not impede my song of thanksgiving to God. I can echo the words of the ancient Hebrew psalmist who sung:

Let all that I am praise the Lord;
      with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
      may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
      and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
      and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things (Ps 103).

This complementarian perspective however was unknown to me years ago. The only advocates of evolution to which I was exposed were those who misused it as a club to bludgeon the "ignorant" claims of religionists. This provoked us religious extremists to react in kind, demonizing our scientific opponents and asserting that evolution was the root of all evil. But evolutionary science, I have learned, like the theories of plate tectonics and gravitation, is religiously neutral, and therefore fairly pliable. As the history of the interaction between science and theology makes plain, evolution can be employed with equal deftness by atheists and theists alike. Those who bring to the scientific evidence the presupposition of atheism find in evolution a sufficient accounting of life without the need to take recourse to the supernatural. This is little different than explaining how colliding plates on the earth's surface account for the formation of mountain ranges--all without the need to invoke the divine. Strangely, we don't accuse the geologists of trying to remove God from the classroom. On the other side of the religious spectrum are those who come at the data for evolution with a theistic presupposition and discover in evolution the marvelous means by which the Creator works his wonders in the world. The fact that evolution as a science is itself religiously neutral explains why scientists come in all religious varieties. Some are atheists, many agnostic, and a sizeable proportion are theistic. Forty percent of contemporary scientists, in fact, believe in a personal, prayer-answering God and even an afterlife (Larson EJ, Witham L. Nature. 1997;386:435-6). It was refreshing to realize that science and religion were not incompatible as I had suspected.

Why the Battle Rages

There need be no battle between science and religion. Rather, the confrontation lies between some creationists who misunderstand science and some scientists who have made evolution into a comprehensive 'secular religion.' Thus it is not creation and evolution that are are at odds, but their totalitarian counterparts--anti-scientific Creationism and anti-religious Evolutionism, whose fiery advocates are staunch incompatibilists. Neither can tolerate the "absurd" claims of the other, nor can they envision any sort of peaceable co-existence, much less some kind of integration. The clear lines of separation have been drawn; the impregnable defenses have been built; the battle plans are set. The enemy must be defeated! No wonder that those of us in the middle--the happy complementarians--appear to the extremists as anomalies, wildly inconsistent and irredeemably compromised. Distinguishing science from antireligious Scientism and creation from antiscientific Creationism was a critical step in getting this former pugilist to untie his boxing gloves and step out of the ring. And now, as a recovered boxer, I wonder if I can help deliver a few bloodied bodies from further needless trauma. 

"It is a misconception to oppose the concepts of creation and evolution. ‘Creation’ is a theological term acknowledging the dependence of all that exists upon the authorship of the Creator. ‘Evolution’ refers to our current understanding as to how God has brought biological diversity into being." Professor R. J. Berry, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College, London.

You will find the irenic complementarian paradigm embraced and explained by many scientists and theologians in the pages that follow.

Evolutionary Science is Not in Doubt

And what about the claim made by some creationists that biological evolution is "only a theory," and one in crisis at that? It didn't take much reading for me to learn that evolution is one of the most well-established and widely endorsed facts of contemporary science. The more recent DNA evidence has cinched the case. (See, for example, Sean Carroll's fascinating and easy-to-follow The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution [New York: Norton, 2006], described on our Science Undergirding Evolution page).

When scientists employ the term "theory" we don't mean "hunch" or "guess." According to the National Academy of Sciences, a scientific theory is "a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses." So when scientists talk about the theory of evolution--or the atomic theory or the theory of relativity, for that matter--they are not expressing reservations about its truth. To the contrary, the multiple layers of corroborating evidence in its favor are extensive, and, for me, were compelling. Evolutionary theory is as solidly validated as germ theory, which is why both are accepted by 99% of biologists. Like me not long ago, the few (but vocal!) dissenters often have some ulterior motive for wanting to dismiss or discount the evidence. And I bet that if I still felt that evolution was inherently anti-God and nothing but an ungrounded, pseudo-scientific fabrication that was threatening to undo the moral fabric of the universe, as some aver, I'd probably also try to come up with creative ways to explain evolution away. Fortunately, I found that "evolution as a science" (as opposed to Evolutionism) poses no threat to either my Christian faith or its moral and social outworking. Am I alone in this discovery? Far from it! There is a large, world-wide community of Christians in science and scientifically-minded theologians that not only explores the nexus between science and theology, but celebrates it. For them--no, now I can say, for us--evolution is not opposed to creation, but is accepted as the best current understanding of the method our endlessly resourceful Creator has chosen to fashion this good, beautiful, and amazingly integrated world.

Come Explore the Nexus

It’s been an intriguing and exciting investigation for me. Much has been learned. And I know that more, far more, awaits me. The resources you'll encounter on the following pages are those that helped guide me out of the world of polarized and polemic (and often pointless) debate to a place of congenial and constructive dialogue.

Enjoy the journey!