This Lent we’re reading reflections from Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing, by Gayle Boss. We’ll end with an interview with Gayle Boss in the last week of Lent. The reflections from Wild Hope are grouped into five different weeks, with four creatures in each week, through the season of Lent and four more during Holy Week. Week two is "the Sick" and the story is about the Indiana bat. Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss, illustrated by David G. Klein Copyrigh...
Mar 06, 2023•10 min
We welcome our first non-human guest to the podcast, the language model ChatGPT. The chatbot joins us to answer questions about science and faith. ChatGPT draws on extensive digital information to answer the same kinds of questions we have been asking our human guests over the past few years. The results are…interesting. Jim and Colin reconvene afterward to talk about what to take from it all. The voice of ChatGPT in this episode is given by Steven McClure. A note about the role of AI in making ...
Mar 02, 2023•42 min
This Lent we’re reading reflections from Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing, by Gayle Boss. We’ll end with an interview with Gayle Boss in the last week of Lent. The reflections from Wild Hope are grouped into five different weeks, with four creatures in each week, through the season of Lent and four more during Holy Week. Week one is "Tthe Hungry" and the story is about the red knot. Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss, illustrated by David G. Klein Copyrigh...
Feb 27, 2023•10 min
Jimmy Lin calls himself a scientific doxologist. The science part of that title describes his work to find cures and treatments for cancer and rare diseases and he talks about the real progress that has been made to that end. But for him, the science is merely his path toward doxology, the praise of God, and in this way, his work becomes a kind of hymn of praise. Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum....
Feb 23, 2023•46 min
We welcome back host Jim Stump after having been away for several months. We hear about where he's been, what he's seen, and what will become of his wanderings and wonderings.
Feb 16, 2023•19 min
Every human bears the image of God and in God’s good future there will be a great diversity of people from all nations and tribes. But we don’t always live as if that were the case. Jemar Tisby joins us to talk about the church’s complicity in racism and what we can do about it. Jemar Tisby is the author of The Color of Compromise, a New York Times bestseller, and How to Fight Racism, as well as the recently published How to Fight Racism Young Reader’s Edition. He’s also the co-founder of The Wi...
Feb 09, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Each February, on the podcast, we make a point of increasing our comprehension about issues of race in America from within the BioLogos mission of exploring God’s word and God’s world. As Dr. David Anderson points out, conversation is an important step toward comprehension. Dr. Anderson tells his own story of how he came to be a pastor of a large multi-cultural church and bridge builder, and how he has integrated science and scientists into that work. Dr. David Anderson's books Praying for Scien...
Feb 02, 2023•58 min
In a world of increasing division, Mónica Guzmán offers advice for approaching conversation with curiosity. When we attempt to understand those who we disagree with, instead of merely attempting to change their beliefs, we are able to see people more fully and to even learn more about our own beliefs and ideas. Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum. Donate to BioLogos...
Jan 26, 2023•50 min
A reflection on dragonflies, neurobiology, attention and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Support BioLogos Music in the episode is by Brian Mulder . ( Spotify ) Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum....
Dec 22, 2022•13 min
Larry Molnar spent years with his astronomy students studying a contact binary star system. Their observations and data eventually led them to make the claim that the stars were headed toward an explosion called a luminous red nova, a major discovery. The story of these stars and of the scientists who study them highlight the ways that science leads to knowledge about the world, and not always in straightforward ways. Support BioLogos Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum....
Dec 15, 2022•45 min
The church has had a complicated relationship with mental health. Research shows that 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness in a given year and yet 66% of pastors talk about mental health in sermons only once a year or less. In the episode we break down what exactly mental illness and mental health are, what is happening in the brain, and how the church can respond in ways that help us all to be healthier individuals and begin to build a more understanding, empathetic and healthy community. Th...
Dec 08, 2022•53 min
Biblical interpretation is all about asking questions—How did Ancient Israel understand the book of Genesis? How much context do we, as modern readers, need to discover the intended meaning of the text? Does the text hold the answers to the questions we are asking? Jim and guest host Rebecca McLaughlin discuss these thorny questions with biblical scholar John Walton and explore the answers his work offers them. This episode was originally aired on September 19, 2019 Support BioLogos Join a conve...
Dec 01, 2022•50 min
Katey Walter Anthony has done much of her research deep in the arctic, studying the methane bubbles that are released in thawed permafrost lakes. What she has learned helps us to better understand the complexity of earth’s climate and how it might change in the future. But alongside the exciting story of her scientific journey is a story about how she has come to understand God’s place in it all. Support BioLogos Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum....
Nov 17, 2022•53 min
Both science and the Christian faith share a commitment to humility. Each also provides us with a perspective of the world which we believe to be true. How then do we hold onto these things we believe to be true and be open to the fact that we can’t know everything? In this episode we explore that tension, looking into the deeper meaning of humility in the realms of both science and faith. Thanks to our guests in exploring these ideas: psychologist, Charlotte vanOyen-Witvliet; theologian and poe...
Nov 10, 2022•39 min
Charles Foster has spent a lot of time trying to deeply understand what it is like to be other than himself. It has led him to explore and emulate the life of badgers, foxes, and swifts as well as the lives of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. In doing so he hopes to better understand all the people in his world and ultimately himself. He talks about his journey from a curious and wandering child to who he is today, including the place of religion and the place of science, both of which have the opp...
Nov 03, 2022•55 min
Andy Gosler is an ethno-ornithologist, studying the relationships between people and birds. We talk about what that means and the importance of knowing the names of the living creatures around us, as we walk through an ancient hay meadow on a gray day in Oxfordshire, UK. Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.
Oct 27, 2022•43 min
Kids ask a lot of questions. When those questions come to hard topics about science and faith it can be tempting to dismiss them or brush them off or to think they are too young to engage with the questions. But often this shows children that their questions are not welcome and that their curiosity is dangerous. Lizzie Henderson and Faith Stults both work on developing resources for children to engage in the science and faith conversation and they sit down to talk about ways to encourage questio...
Oct 20, 2022•46 min
We’re trying a new segment on the podcast where we walk with someone, letting the place inspire the conversation. Today we take a walk with historian Stan Rosenberg and talk about the history of science and faith, inspired by some of the buildings built in the 19th century at the University of Oxford that show the often blurry lines between the sacred and the secular. Then, the conversation moves back all the way to the 4th and 5th century with a discussion about science and faith in the mind an...
Oct 13, 2022•30 min
There are many biological structures in our bodies, things like proteins, DNA and RNA, and they do amazing things. How these structures came to self-assemble is somewhat of a mystery, but Ard Louis has been studying just that question and his works has shown that qualities like symmetry and function tend to show up quite a lot, more than a purely random process might predict. Ard helps us understand what this means for science and then discusses what it might mean for theology, while being caref...
Sep 29, 2022•55 min
For the past three years, the Faraday Institute and Theos have undergone a large-scale research project to find out how people in the UK understand and think about science and religion. They found that the conversation is much deeper and much more interesting than is often portrayed. Nick Spencer, one of the co-authors of the report and Bethany Sollereder, a theologian and one of the interviewees from the report discuss the findings and how to move into the deep end of the science and religion c...
Sep 22, 2022•45 min
David grew up exploring the natural places where there were few people. But his love for nature led him back to people and to a deep desire to understand why we have the ideas that we have about the world. His training in both philosophy and biology has given him an ability to explore these questions from many different angles. In the episode, David tells of his circuitous journey, from childhood to his current career, and how his scientific view of the world and his spiritual view of the world ...
Sep 08, 2022•56 min
Deb Haarsma visits the studio to talk to Jim about the James Webb Space Telescope and some of the first images that it has sent back to earth. Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.
Aug 25, 2022•47 min
Denis Alexander has been writing about science and religion for over 40 years. That work eventually led him to found the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He tells of his scientific career and his faith upbringing, which brings to light some differences in the relationship between science and religion in the United Kingdom and the United States. He also discusses the topic of scientific determinism which has been the focus of some of his more recent ...
Aug 18, 2022•58 min
In this conversation with acclaimed Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Bill Newsome, we hear about his journey to becoming a neuroscientist, how hundreds of millions of neurons enable the fantastic emergence of a unified visual world, and how free will might operate in relation to the seemingly infinite causal chains which bring us all to this moment. Along the way, Dr. Newsome shares his own experiences with science and faith and why biological explanations should not be seen as weapons beating back t...
Aug 04, 2022•58 min
Water is mysterious. It is cleansing, it is dangerous, and it is life-giving. In our everyday life we can tend to overlook just how fascinating and important water is. Water is interesting both scientifically and biblically, so it’s only fitting that we explore it. And in this episode we do just that. Because this is a complex topic, we asked several experts to join us in this episode. You’ll hear from Kent Frens, Jenni Brandon, Sandra Postel, and Ben McFarland who each talk about water through ...
Jul 21, 2022•45 min
The science of evolution in general has been solidified for a long time now, but there are still plenty of new discoveries and implications being drawn out of the specific details of how our world evolved. Among the scientists doing fascinating work in these areas is Simon Conway Morris, who has become relatively famous both in and outside the professional scientific community for his work on fossils from the Burgess Shale, the Cambrian Explosion, and convergent evolution. Morris’ new book, From...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr
Medicine is an amazing gift from God. But there are limits to what medicine can do, and when we forget those limits, we forget that God is acting both when bodies are healed and when bodies deteriorate. Todd Billings shares his depth of thought on healing, medicine and chronic disease, which is informed by his own experiences with cancer. Music in this episode by Joseph McDade. Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum....
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min
How should we respond to a problem that seems unsolvable? This is the question we ask in a series about the environmental crisis as we explore the fine line between hope and despair. After having delved into the hard reality of the environmental crisis for the previous two episodes, we spend this episode with our focus on hope. We explore what exactly hope is, how it relates to optimism, and how, when we find hope, we might also find repentance, forgiveness, joy, and love. This is the last of th...
Jun 30, 2022•41 min
How should we respond to a problem that seems unsolvable? This is the question we ask in a series about the environmental crisis as we explore the fine line between hope and despair. In this episode we allow ourselves to fully contemplate the woundedness of the planet and we reach into the Christian practice of lament as a way to find hope in the midst of the suffering we see around us. The episode ends with a guided lament liturgy. This is the second of three episodes in the Creation Groans ser...
Jun 23, 2022•37 min
How should we respond to a problem that seems unsolvable? This is the question we ask in a series about the environmental crisis as we explore the fine line between hope and despair. In this episode we explore some of the wounds to the planet that often go unseen and we realize that the path to hope begins with the acknowledgement that the wounds are deep and troubling. This is the first of three episodes in the Creation Groans series. Check out the list of related resources from this series her...
Jun 16, 2022•36 min
