Wednesday, March 3, 2010

BioLogos in the Creation/Evolution Debate

The BioLogos Foundation was founded by Francis Collins as a result of the runaway success of his 2006 book The Language of God. Francis Collins, currently Chairman of the National Institutes of Health in the United States is a committed Christian who believes that it is possible to harmonies science and Christian theology. He led the International Genome Project in 2003. Collins coins the word "BioLogos" which is similar to theistic evolution.

Theistic Evolution, therefore, is the belief that evolution is how God created life. Because the term evolution is sometimes associated with atheism, a better term for the belief in a God who chose to create the world by way of evolution is BioLogos. BioLogos comes from the Greek words bios (life) and logos (word), referring to the gospel of John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”


The difference between theistic evolution, intelligent design (ID) and creationism may be found here. The main work of The BioLogos Foundation is in its website which was launched almost a year ago on 28 April, 2009. The work of the Foundation to "reconcile God with science" was highlighted in the May 2, 2009 TIME magazine. I have found its resources useful in helping me to understand the relation between science and Christianity.

Some notable articles from the website on BioLogos are
  • "Biblical Creation and Storytelling: Cosmogony, Combat and Covenant"
    by Brian Godawa

    Download full PDF

  • "Science as an Instrument of Worship: Can recent scientific discovery inform and inspire our worship and service?"
    by Jennifer Wiseman

    Download full PDF

  • "Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution"
    by Denis O. Lamoureux

    Download full PDF

  • "Scientific Fundamentalism and its Cultural Impact"
    by Karl Giberson

    Download full PDF

  • "Evangelicals, Creation, and Scripture: An Overview"
    by Mark Noll

    Download full PDF

  • "Barriers to Accepting the Possibility of Creation by Means of an Evolutionary Process: I. Concerns of the Typical Evangelical Theologian"
    by Bruce Waltke

    Download full PDF

  • "Barriers to Accepting the Possibility of Creation by Means of an Evolutionary Process: II. Concerns of the Typical Parishoner" or "Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople"
    by Tim Keller

    Download full PDF

  • "Barriers to Accepting the Possibility of Creation by Means of an Evolutionary Process: III. Concerns of the Typical Agnostic Scientist"
    by Darrel Falk

    Download full PDF

  • "Adventist Origins of Young Earth Creationism" by Karl Giberson
    Download full PDF

2 comments:

  1. This foundation is another party to enter the already congested debate on science and religion in America. They are doing many interesting works though still behind and not as influential as Discovery Institute (yet). Hopefully one day they can be as popular.

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  2. Hi Sze Zeng,

    Yes, I see that this Foundation is entering into an already crowded field. Reading their offerings on their website, I find I do resonate more with their thinking than with others.

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