Where Did the Science and Religion Rift Come From?

ON A RECENT morning run, I saw a yard sign that began, “We believe ...” and included a list of creedal-like commitments. One stood out: “Science is real.”

Science? I thought. Does belief in science really need front-yard creedal affirmation?

One trend of the recent divisions in our nation is a heightened distrust in science among evangelicals and the Religious Right. This pattern has been acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, when research by epidemiologists and other members of the scientific community has been increasingly called into question by conservative pundits, political officials, and religious leaders. The costs of this rhetoric and its effects have grown far beyond alarming.

Where did this science and religion rift come from? And how can we speak into the fear and mistrust in the work of science that has taken root in recent years in a way that cultivates trust and encourages mutual concern?

The origins of this rift are not easy to trace, fed as they are by a variety of sources. Thomas Dixon, in the book Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction, attributes the science-religion conflict narrative to three sources: Enlightenment rationalists in the late 1700s, Victorian “free-thinkers” in the mid-1800s, and modern-day scientific atheists at the end of the 1900s to the present. “Few things make thinking like a scientist more difficult than religion,” wrote Sam Harris, a prominent atheist, in The New York Times in 2009.

Great numbers of contemporary Christians have arrived at the opinion that their faith tenets and the work of science are in conflict, though this is far from a homogenous view. According to Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Wellcome Global Monitor, there is a wide variation in views among global Christians on the relationship between science and religion. Christians in the U.S., for example, far exceed Christians in other parts of the world in reporting that science has conflicted with their religion’s teachings: 61 percent of U.S. Christians reported such conflict, compared to 22 percent in Singapore, 18 percent in Sweden, and 12 percent in the Czech Republic. According to the National Association of Evangelicals, evangelicals in the U.S. are more than twice as likely as the general public (29 percent vs. 14 percent) to hold the view that science and religion are in conflict.

At the same time, for many other Christians science represents a path toward God, not away. “Doing science to me is a search for God,” George Coyne, a Jesuit priest, astronomer, and former director of the Vatican observatory told On Being podcast host Krista Tippett. “And I’ll never have the final answers, because the universe participates in the mystery of God.”

The growing distrust in science among some people of faith has become a matter of life and death during the COVID-19 pandemic. White evangelical Christians represent the highest rates of vaccination hesitancy among religious groups in the United States. How, then, are we to engage our neighbors, aunts, brothers, or parents in a way that counters misinformation and rebuilds trust?

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Dr. Francis Collins has spent years addressing presumptive conflicts between faith and science in conversations, lectures, and interviews. Years after overseeing, as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, the historic, collaborative achievement of sequencing the human genome, Collins—a self-described evangelical Christian—recounted the event as “both a stunning scientific achievement and an occasion of worship.” Collins’ The Language of God (2006) recounts his journey from atheism to Christianity and argues for the compatibility of science and religious faith. In 2007, Collins founded BioLogos, a Christian advocacy group that strives to encourage a vision of science and faith working together.

Dr. Deborah Haarsma, an astronomer and former chair of the physics and astronomy department at Calvin University, is president of BioLogos. She is co-author of Origins: Christian Perspectives on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design and co-editor of Delight in Creation: Scientists Share Their Work with the Church. I spoke with Collins and Haarsma on the work of bridging the perceived divide between science and faith.
—Ryan J. Pemberton

Ryan J. Pemberton: Dr. Haarsma, you recently said, “Students today need to see science and faith working hand in hand.” Why does it feel like the stakes have never been higher for the relationship between faith and science?

Deborah Haarsma: This work matters so much. One thing that’s always on my heart is the number of Christian young people who are being discouraged in this process. They see the church as rejecting a lot of science. A study from Barna shows that 50 percent of young people think the church has rejected much of what science has to say about the world.

I grew up in an evangelical church; I was interested in science. Fortunately, I was encouraged in my career, but I still had to work through some things. Today’s young people need better equipping to be able to navigate this world, to be the leaders we need them to be.

Francis Collins: Deb says it well in terms of the next generation and our hopes that the Integrate curriculum [created by BioLogos] will provide an opportunity for them to see that science and faith do work together, and we won’t lose the next generation at a time when science is moving forward in so many exciting ways—everything from neuroscience figuring out how the brain works and [making progress toward] curing Alzheimer’s to gene therapy and everything else.

But it also is important when you consider the circumstances right now. Look at the COVID-19 situation. Or the distrust between faith and science. It’s not just an unfortunate circumstance. It’s actually costing lives. Evangelical Christians, and I am one of them, are in particularly difficult places because of all the misinformation and disinformation that’s come at them, getting them confused about who to trust and what to believe. If there’s not a sense that science is going to be their friend in this situation, then you’re more easily swindled into various conspiracies, which in many instances have caused people to turn down things that could have saved them. And we know that tens of thousands of people have died as a result. That is heartbreakingly tragic, and it is an indictment about just how much of a gap exists between science and faith at a time when we need them more than ever to be joined together.

In addition to faith and science, we might well add politics into this relationship, as the three now seem inseparably intertwined in our national rhetoric. What is the uniquely Christian duty of scientists in America?

Collins: Consider the words of Jesus: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Scientists are, in their role, trying to discover the truth about nature. That is basically reading one of God’s two books—the book of God’s works—as well as we read the book of God’s words, the Bible, and we see them as harmonious and compatible. To the extent that science can provide that kind of trustworthy interpretation of how nature works, in a way that helps people save lives, that’s a gift that we’re trying to give to all people, including people of faith.

I think it’s a deeply troubling development now that faith and politics have gotten so tangled up together. A lot of the messages that white evangelicals are wrestling with, which seem somehow to be messages from faith, are not. They’re messages from politics, with all kinds of overlay, of people who are seeking various forms of power over one another, and that is a heartbreaking situation. Again, if science can help by giving people better tools to discern what is true and who you can really trust, that is a good thing. I hope the young generation is in a better position to do that.

Haarsma: We want young people to go into the sciences so they can live out their Christian values, their value for truth, their public service—all those things that arise naturally from our Christian faith—connecting the dots to show students [that] in a science career you can be living out your faith.

How have you learned to be in conversation with those with whom you disagree, considering, for example, discussion of COVID-19 and vaccines? Have your views changed about how to be in dialogue with those with whom you disagree?

Haarsma: BioLogos has engaged in dialogue with people who disagree with us. We have an extensive project with another organization called Reasons to Believe. I did learn a lot through that. It’s not that my views changed so much as they were sharpened. People asked me questions about my views I had never thought about, so I was able to flesh them out, explain them a little better. I learned more about their views than I had understood. I had a lot of misconceptions about their views. And most of all, we became friends through the process!

When Christians refuse to talk to each other, to talk across disagreement, we miss out on the beauty of the unity of the body of Christ that can overcome our differences. There are precious few role models for that these days in our culture.

Collins: BioLogos, from the very outset, has had this as one of its prime, defining features: Gracious dialogue. Mudslinging is not allowed! Personal ad hominem attacks are simply not allowed. We are all going to try to learn from each other.

For me, trying to wrestle with the COVID circumstance, trying to understand resistance and concern about things like vaccines, I’ve learned that the first step is just to listen. Starting off with a lecture is not going to get anywhere, except cause people to feel somehow disregarded or even denigrated. So listen. Hear what the concerns are. Take that on, bit by bit. Then maybe you have some chance of meeting in the middle.

What I’ve learned is that while we all have different webs of beliefs, things that have seemed to be true that we’re kind of attached to, those are all based upon shared foundations: about faith, about family, about freedom, about truth, about goodness, and beauty—those six characteristics that all Christians really adhere to. But we build on top of that various belief systems that may not be entirely fact-based. To the extent that we can go back to the foundations, maybe we can get somewhere useful.

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Thinking specifically about our Christian sisters and brothers who have developed a critical view of science, what will help to rebuild a sense of confidence and credibility in scientific work?

Haarsma: I think that’s going to be a real challenge. With the level of vitriol we have reached, and the level of distrust we have reached, it takes a lot of time to rebuild trust. I think it’s going to come through relationships. It’s going to come through both sides being able to say, “I don’t always have it right, and I have room to improve.” That kind of humility goes a long way.

A lot of leaders feel they’re in a hard spot because they feel attacked by one side or the other. For them to get to a place where they can build some of those bridges is really going to be a challenge. We want to equip people to do that—pastors, leaders—and we’re doing our best to come alongside them, to provide them with the information they need that’s reliable, that’s pastoral, to let them know there are people trying to bridge these divides. They are not alone. There are many people working on this.

Collins: It helps a lot to point out that the stereotype many believers have that all scientists are atheists is simply not true. An organization like BioLogos, which has thousands of people who are part of our community, working scientists who are also Christ-centered believers, is an antidote, perhaps, to that stereotype.

There was an interesting paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They interviewed evangelicals who were opposed to vaccines, trying to understand what kind of information might in fact be something they could think about again. They had a control group, and they had a group that got the same information of me talking about vaccines and saying, “Yes, and I am a follower of Jesus.” There was a significant difference in the receptivity after they finished the interview, which said that believers do want to learn that scientists are not all opposed to believers. [Scientists] don’t all think [evangelicals] are all just a bunch of closed-minded Neanderthals. We’re them! We’re a part of this community, too, as scientists who are also believers.

The more we can get that out there, the more people know that there is this interesting, gracious dialogue going on, and that people are finding harmony between science and faith, it maybe puts down this sense that science is something to be afraid of and not to trust.

What is helpful for you right now, in terms of your own reading or what you’re listening to?

Haarsma: In my daily devotions, reading scripture itself is incredibly helpful. I had a chance to do a sabbatical last summer, and I read through the entire scripture in three months. That gave me this incredible picture of the goodness and love of God displayed throughout all of scripture. It’s amazing what our God has done for us. And I play piano a lot; that is wonderfully restorative for me as well.

Collins: Music also for me is a balm to the soul in a difficult time. As is scripture. The psalms have meant so much to me in the last two years, when we’ve been going through such struggles. I keep coming back to verses like Psalm 46, where you have this confidence that God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in trouble. Because we’re in trouble, and we need that help. God doesn’t promise we’re not going to have trouble, but God promises to be there with us.

And Deb recently reminded me about some verses from Proverbs, from chapter 6, so I’ve gone back to Proverbs a little bit since then. There’s a lot of wisdom there as well that I hadn’t thought of in quite the same context until now. The Bible is an infinite source of richness in terms of insights into God and into ourselves.