Academic Organizations that Explore the Nexus

Christians in Science

Christians in Science (CiS) is an international network of those concerned with the relationship between science and Christian faith, open to scientists, teachers, students and all those with an interest in this dialogue.

The common misperception that there is always conflict between science and faith can be abused by those with anti-Christian or anti-science agendas. In reality science has always been the domain of many committed Christians such as the astronomer Johannes Kepler who dedicated one of his papers with a prayer, saying "I have here completed the work of my calling, with as much intellectual strength as you have granted me." This same attitude is shared by many Christians who work in science today. CiS exists to support such Christians and their aims.

Among our 650+ members are scientists engaged in research & development, science lecturers, teachers, administrators in university, school or industry, science writers, philosophers, theologians and others who have an interest in the relationship between science and Christian faith. Members include highly distinguished senior scientists, bench scientists, students and school pupils. CiS is a member of the Evangelical Alliance.

Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge University

The Faraday Institute is an academic research enterprise based at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. The Institute has four main activities:

1. Scholarly research and publication on science and religion, including the organisation of invited groups of experts to write joint publications.
2. To provide short-term courses in science and religion.
3. To organise seminars and lectures on science and religion.
4. To provide accurate information on science and religion for the international media and wider public.

The Faraday Institute derives its name from Michael Faraday, one of Britain's best-known scientists, who saw his faith as integral to his scientific research. The Faraday Institute has a Christian ethos, but encourages engagement with a wide diversity of opinions concerning interactions between science and religion, without engaging in advocacy. It aims to provide accurate information in order to facilitate informed debate.

American Scientific Affiliation

The American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) is a fellowship of men and women of science and disciplines that can relate to science who share a common fidelity to the Word of God and a commitment to integrity in the practice of science. ASA was founded in 1941 and has grown significantly since that time. The stated purpose of the ASA is "to investigate any area relating Christian faith and science" and "to make known the results of such investigations for comment and criticism by the Christian community and by the scientific community."

Science has brought about enormous changes in our world. Christians have often reacted as though science threatened the very foundations of Christian faith. ASA's unique mission is to integrate, communicate, and facilitate properly researched science and biblical theology in service to the Church and the scientific community.

ASA members have confidence that such integration is not only possible but necessary to an adequate understanding of God and His creation. Our total allegiance is to our Creator. We acknowledge our debt to Him for the whole natural order and for the development of science as a way of knowing that order in detail. We also acknowledge our debt to Him for the Scriptures, which give us "the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ."

We believe that honest and open study of God's dual revelation, in nature and in the Bible, must eventually lead to understanding of its inherent harmony.

The ASA is also committed to the equally important task of providing advice and direction to the Church and society in how best to use the results of science and technology while preserving the integrity of God's creation.

Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Graduate Theological Union, UC Berkeley

The mission of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) is to promote the creative mutual interaction between theology and the natural sciences.

The CTNS mission is carried out through three program areas: research, teaching and public service.  The central scientific focus of these programs is on physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, and genetics, with additional topics in the neurosciences, technology, the environmental sciences, and mathematics. The central theological focus is on Christian theology, ethics and spirituality, with additional attention to the theological issues arising from the engagement between the sciences and world religions.

International Society for Science & Religion

International Society for Science & Religion (ISSR) was established in 2002 for the purpose of the promotion of education through the support of inter-disciplinary learning and research in the fields of science and religion conducted where possible in an international and multi-faith context. ISSR was begun under the inaugural presidency of mathematical physicist and Anglican priest Sir John Polkinghorne. The presidency then passed to Professor George Ellis and the current president is Sir Brian Heap.

Our central aim is the facilitation of dialogue between the two academic disciplines of science and religion, one of the most important current areas of debate in terms of understanding the nature of humanity. This includes both the enhancement of the profile of the science-religion interface in the public eye, as well as the safeguarding of the quality and rigour of the debate in the more formal, academic arena.

While maintaining rigorous qualifications for membership (membership is through nomination by existing members only) the Society has now grown to over 140 members, including many of the leading scholars in the science and religion field. Indeed the last two presidents, George Ellis, a theoretical cosmologist and Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, and John Polkinghorne, are both recipients of the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities - the world's best-known religion prize, awarded each year to a living person to encourage and honour those who advance spiritual matters.

Membership of the society is truly universal: the society incorporates, and welcomes, representatives from a variety of faith traditions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam in addition to Christianity. Membership is also widely distributed geographically, with representatives from countries as diverse as South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as well as from Europe and America.

ISSR   Recommended books    ISSR Statement on the Concept of 'Intelligent Design'

The American Association for the Advancement of Science

The Evolution Dialogues: Science, Christianity, and the Quest for Understanding (New York: AAAS, 2006). Table of Contents. This book provides an excellent introduction to these ongoing "dialogues."

This unique and extraordinary resource presents in plain language and in under 200 pages a new conversation on evolution and Chrisitianity:

• a description of the development of evolutionary theory from before Darwin to the present.
• the rich and complex historical interaction of evolution and Christianity.
• accounts of the nature of science and of Christian approaches to understanding.
• the history of life as revealed through the evolutionary sciences.

As an introduction to each chapter, the book features a narrative about the personal dilemma of a fictional college student, Angela Rawlett, as she struggles to reconcile her traditional Christian upbringing with her keen interest in biology. Prologue.

National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is an honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. 

The NAS was signed into being by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863, at the height of the Civil War. As mandated in its Act of Incorporation, the NAS has, since 1863, served to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government. Scientific issues would become even more contentious and complex in the years following the war. To keep pace with the growing roles that science and technology would play in public life, the institution that was founded in 1863 eventually expanded to include the National Research Council in 1916, the National Academy of Engineering in 1964, and the Institute of Medicine in 1970. Collectively, the four organizations are known as the National Academies. Link to NAS

Science, Evolution and Creationism (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2008). News Release. Here's a preview. This book provides a very nice introduction to the topic. The full-text in pdf is available for free here.

Evolution Book Sees No Science-Religion Gap

By Cornelia Dean. New York Times. January 4, 2008

In 1984 and again in 1999, the National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s most eminent scientific organization, produced books on the evidence supporting the theory of evolution and arguing against the introduction of creationism or other religious alternatives in public school science classes.

On Thursday, it produced a third. But this volume is unusual, people who worked on it say, because it is intended specifically for the lay public and because it devotes much of its space to explaining the differences between science and religion, and asserting that acceptance of evolution does not require abandoning belief in God.

“We wanted to produce a report that would be valuable and accessible to school board members and teachers and clergy,” said Barbara A. Schaal, a vice president of the academy, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University and a member of the panel that produced the book.

The panel, convened by the academy and the Institute of Medicine, its medical arm, was headed by Francisco Ayala, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine, and a former Dominican priest.

The 70-page book, “Science, Evolution and Creationism,” says, among other things, that “attempts to pit science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist.” And it offers statements from several eminent biologists and members of the clergy to support the view.

In the book, which will be available on the Web site of the National Academies (www.nas.edu), the panel reports that evidence for the theory of evolution is overwhelming and growing. It cites findings from DNA research, fossil discoveries and the observations scientists have made about emerging diseases, like SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

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