Leeds Vineyard

Useful science and faith resources

Here is a collection of the best of the science and faith resources I have found recently, including the best I can find that I disagree with (categorised in line with the colourful diagram - click to expand it).  It's hard to avoid the bias of my own point of view, even though I have tried to take a fair view, so if you know of better sites, let me know.

Science and faith - evolutionary creationist point of view

Science and theology: exploring the nexus, a website with recommendations from NT Wright and John Goldingay, has the best set of links and summaries I've found to interesting and understandable scientific evidence and theology.  Great quotations too.


Creation or Evolution: Do we have to choose? No!  In this 2008 book biologist Denis Alexander argues that a committed Christian need not fear evolution but can embrace it as God's awesome means of creation.  Reviewed recently in Christianity and Third Way magazines (and negatively on a young earth creationist website).  The book has a very clear explanation of the latest evidence supporting evolution from his field of genetic research - I loved this though some might want to skip some of the science detail.  And also the clearest attempt I've seen to deal with the Adam and Eve account in scripture and the implications of an evolutionary creationist way of thinking.  Highly recommended.

The Language of God: A scientist presents evidence for belief by Francis Collins is an easier read and more of a story.  Francis Collins, head of the human genome project describes his own journey from atheism to faith and gives a tour of modern science including much of the same DNA type science, but more briefly.

 

Tom Cameron recommends Can a Darwinian be a Christian? by Michael Ruse as "an excellent resource"


I've enjoyed reading a number of John Polkinghorne's books.  John is a professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge and also an Anglican priest who has an evolutionary creationism viewpoint.  The books assume you have some background in science.  I'd recommend starting with Exploring Reality.  His website is packed with concise answers to tons of questions - very helpful.

bethinking.org has a lot of essays on science and faith from evangelical Christian writers who mostly take an evolutionary creationism point of view.

Old Earth Creationism

The Evidence for God site has the clearest attempt I've seen at the Day-Age theory.

Young Earth Creationism

Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis site is one of the most well-known.

Intelligent Design

In God's Undertaker: Has science buried God, John Lennox tackles the major lines of argument in the science:faith debate.  He argues that there are limits to what science can tackle and that there is evidence for a designer in the structure of the universe, biosphere, DNA and the sheer improbability of what we observe to exist.  He argues against atheism and points out some of the limitations of evolutionary theory.  A great book for anyone involved in the debate. 

In Oct 2007 John Lennox and Richard Dawkins participated in a debate which is available on video which some have used (in sections) as the basis for a small group evening.  Sciligion has helpfully noted down the structure of the debate - it isn't specifically about creation.

West Yorkshire School of Christian Studies (WYSOCS) over in Horsforth, Leeds is running a spring course and an autumn conference on Darwin and Design in 2009.  This team is particularly good at pointing out worldview clashes with scientific materialism.

Atheism

Richard Dawkins' website is prolific in recording his activities and arguments, reviewing books etc.
His book The God Delusion has spawned numerous responses such as The Dawkins Delusion from Oxford theology professor Alister McGrath and Why there almost certainly is a God from Oxford philosopher professor Keith Ward.

In the media

The BBC is running two Darwin seasons in 2009 under the banner "The genius of evolution".  Check out the previews and repeats on iPlayer.  In particular Melvyn Bragg's 4 radio programmes on Darwin's life are highly regarded. 

From the US, I've often enjoyed listening to Krista Tippett's "Speaking of Faith" podcast and that site has one of the few small-group discussion resources I could find.

Definitions

I find Wikipedia's definitions accurate and useful as a reference (e.g. Evolutionary Creationism/Theistic evolution, Young Earth Creationism, Gap Creationism, Day-Age theory, Literary framework interpretation).

Nature magazine did a special Evolutionary Gems article in January 2009 which summarises fifteen lines of evidence for evolution by natural selection.

Personal stories

The Creation of an Evolutionist blog documents the 2008 journey of someone from young earth creationism to evolutionary creationism.  His earliest posts, the "Steps on the journey" in his sidebar tell the story and his recent commentary is very illuminating too.

Children's books

Wonderful earth, sadly out of print, is a book for younger children that describes the "in the beginning" story in a lovely way that allows the science and faith perspectives to be held together, even for the youngest kids.
Boring Bible: Ballistic beginnings is a very accessible series for the 8-11yr-olds but takes a Young Earth Creationist position in this particular book - the rest of the series is great.  Evolve or die has a similar 'Horrible Histories' style and isn't too damning of the church compared to some accounts.

Church statements

Church of England: Good religion needs good science: some rapprochement between Darwin and Christian faith is essential - includes an apology to Darwin for the CoE's initial resistance to his ideas!

Borrowing these books

If budget is a challenge, some of them can be obtained from local libraries, or contact the office to arrange to borrow one of these books for a few weeks (and if you have some to lend, let the office know too).

David Wallace, 07/02/2009