Christian biologists??

Question

I have always been curious to know what religious people who are well-educated believe-- especially those who are in the life sciences. Do you believe in evolution? How do you justify your faith in light of human knowledge and the scientific method?

Thanks for all the answers...

Jim... your arguement about chirality is interesting, but I do not understand how it disproves that life was formed through natural selection. Both isomers form during random processes. This very fact paves the way for natural selection to occur since either isomer can exist naturally.... But it seems to me that there would be no end to rational arguments on this topic and I have a feeling Solaris' answer is what most religious scientists believe. I understand that religion has enriched the lives of many people and I don't want to undermine that. I appreciate your answers and I am keeping an open mind.

Answer 1

It's hard to explain, but I tend to see matters of faith as being a different matter from scientific rationalism. I personally lean more toward a belief in evolution; however, I'm a Roman Catholic, not a Fundamentalist Christian. I see no reason whatsoever why religion should be the enemy of science. My faith is something that I feel in a very deep, personal and internalized sense, and has little to do with test tubes and dissection specimens. Some scientists choose to be atheists, and that's their business, but atheism doesn't really work for me.

Answer 2

Christian Biologists

Answer 3

Hi, I am not a biologist but I am a Christian and I work in a small lab. I know you didn't ask me this question, but I have a good friend that has a PH.D. and Ed. S an M.S and a B.S. degree. Various Colleges, Univ. of Mich. CDS school of Engineering, Crown College, Eastern Michigan University, Baptist Bible College and Institute for Creation Research Graduate School. My friend is a Christian and a Principal/Administrator of a Christian High School. He is also a Science and Chemistry Teacher. He does not believe in evolution. When you ask him about evolution, he gives the most amazing answers. If you could hear him speak, you too would be amazed and probably change your stance on evolution. Pretty much all I have is my faith and a small amount of knowledge. He has figures and information I have never heard before. Education is a wonderful thing. So I really hate it when I read here that all Christians are stupid or brainwashed.

Answer 4

In relation to what? If you mean in relation to evolution having no effect, that would be universally rejected. As for the "God effect" having any real statistical meaning, that would tend to be confirmed in pretty much all models. But as you no doubt know, Christian scientists are perfectly capable to do their work, in this context, so long as their conscious of that fact, and that they don't let the "God hypothesis" interfere with their findings, in whatever domain they may choose. This is a rather modern problem in that actually, even the fundamentalists accept the basis on which the scientific revolution is formed, mainly objectivity, rationality, etc... and this is the reason why they argue with scientists in the first place. (We're getting away from Christian scientists here - of course these people are silly). You can find some of that in the medieval discourse as well (except with more discipline), but for the most part the medieval Christians were still openly mystics, which means that they actually quite openly rejected objectivity, rationality, etc... as means to ultimate truths). This position is very hard to hold today, so you find people in strange positions.

Answer 5

Hi Iam what you are looking for a person well acquainted with the various sciences as well as the Bible and as you say in light of all the recent advances in sciences and genetics they all prove evolution to be a collosal fraud al of the so called evidence turned out to be a fraud one was the jaw bone of a jackass the other a carefully orchestrated fraud and the scientist was discedited and all the works od genetics ie the human genome project and some computer specialists have traces the genome sequence back to 2 base pairs of humans a male and female Just as the bible said not monkees or some other nonsense also the laws of Biology, genetics even allowing for mutations like have always produced like and nothing else species dont produce out of their kind and a mathmatical statistician in concert with a biologist and chemist have concluded that just to produce 4 of thousands of amino acids accidentally the odds would be like 1in 1,000,000,000 times 10 to the 23 power thats for 4 amino acids to form separately and come togother for the rest i could type 0s for eternityu and still not come up with a high enough number so to save time lets say it is totally and absolutely impossible for life to have evolved its is far to complex and well thought out most give credit to a higher power with much more wisdom namely God and then we have to consider the rest of creation so that it is inexcusable to believe any thing less tha intelligent design by a loving creator not blind chance hope that helps Gorbalizer

Answer 6

Can one of you Christian biologists explain if there is a difference between micro and macro evolution? Do you believe one kind of species has proven without doubt to evolve into another kind? That is a fish to an ape for instance.

Answer 7

A christian biologist I knew reconciled creation and evolution by citing Genesis 1

1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was F1 on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Before there were Days and nights, who knows how much time past.

Answer 8

I believe that there is a tremendous amount of truth to be gained from the sciences, but... with that in mind, I don't believe that man has all of the answers. Nor do I believe in the inerrency of the scientific method. Carbon dating has been manipulated so often that it is not worth considering, with out honesty in science... there is no reason to hold fast to it.

Answer 9

My biology professor at a Christian University said once that science is one way of discovering God's methods. He believes that God organized the laws of nature to be the way they are, and so do I...and yes, he taught us evolution.

Answer 10

Ever read Job chapter 38?...talk about scientific dialouge, from the balance of the earth to it's weight. Go figure.