A weekly dose of science for the church

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More Than a Hoax: Creation Groans for Redemption

Reading Paul’s ideas of a creation that groans for its redemption and incorporating an understanding of the book of nature can help us see the adverse effects of human activity on God’s creation in a new light. It may even suggest a new domain of action where we can become catalytic agents and partners in God’s redemptive impetus.

You Asked For It

We take your feedback seriously. You repeatedly said you want video resources. You repeatedly said, you want materials that link science to the Bible. You identified a lack of good materials to use in small groups, Bible studies, and Sunday school classrooms. While it has taken a while for us to get to the finish line, we listened and are pleased to announce the first of several new products.

God Wired Us for Love: My Conversation with Leonard Matheson

One of the gifts that’s come to my pastoral ministry at Bidwell Presbyterian Church is neurorehabilitation psychologist Leonard Matheson. Len and I began by talking about a “biopsychosocial” approach to medicine. We also looked at the role of oxytocin and the hippocampus and connected all of it to scripture and faith.

An Easter Reflection on AI and Technology

An Easter Reflection on AI and Technology

As I look at our previous newsletter article, it is clear that AI can effectively collect, organize, and present information in written form. However, in its current iteration, this technology cannot embody the elements that make for effective human communication and interaction. While ChatGPT suggested that the events surrounding Holy Week are a simple matter of religious belief and cultural significance, the truth is that they are far more than that.

The Crucifixion: A Scientific Perspective

The Crucifixion: A Scientific Perspective

In the spirit of true scientific inquiry, we’ve decided to use ChatGPT to write this week’s newsletter. So, here is the first installment of a two-part series, as we attempt using AI-driven tools to write about the implications of Jesus’ death.

Raising Our Spirits Together: Q&A with Dr. Addie Weaver

Raising Our Spirits Together: Q&A with Dr. Addie Weaver

Addie Weaver, assistant professor of social work at the University of Michigan, believes churches can be part of the solution to our mental health crisis. For her, the delivery of mental health care to underserved groups, particularly those in rural areas, is a justice issue.

The Neuroscience of Teaching Christian Formation

The Neuroscience of Teaching Christian Formation

Our human brains are made to grab onto knowledge that we can both apply in our lives and that is also efficacious—it makes a difference. It strikes me that too often when I’ve mentioned science and faith, people tell me, “That’s too heady for me,” which can mean that it seems abstract and academic, not related to the lives we actually live 24-7. Applicability and efficacy seemed like antidotes.

Conflicted about the Conflict

Conflicted about the Conflict

This has me conflicted about the conflict between science and religion. How do we extract it from our churches, especially those that witness the ways science works alongside the Christian faith? Will it go away if we focus on the cooperation and don’t give voice to the opposition? Or must we acknowledge the conflict and work to reframe it?

A Hard Question from Scientists in our Churches

A Hard Question from Scientists in our Churches

What is needed for the Standard Model to work is trust between church leaders and scientists and then between them as a group and the wider congregation. Building trust is hard in this day and age, but begin by sharing your love for Christ and for your church.

C.S. Lewis and Real Progress

C.S. Lewis and Real Progress

The Bible often talks about not primarily forging ahead but about “return” as the way to grasp real progress. We have to get back to God… Since tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, I’ve been wondering about what science and Scripture tell us about it means to turn around and make real progress.

But the Greatest of These is Love

But the Greatest of These is Love

While we tend to see love as an emotional imperative rooted in our human identity, science seems to pursue a logical argument to explain it away as a natural phenomenon stemming from biochemical processes in our brains. However, even as recent advances in cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience unravel human emotion’s complexities and provide a unique perspective into how we experience love, there is more to this equation.

Our Common Humanity

Our Common Humanity

Together, scripture and science, tell a remarkably similar story—despite all the difference and variation we see among humans—we share a common humanity. For science, it is known through our DNA. For faith, it comes from our unity in Christ and the image of God granted to each and every one us.

It is a simple story that binds us together in our common humanity. But do we really believe it?

How Technology Disciples Us: An Interview with Felicia Wu Song (Part Two)

How Technology Disciples Us: An Interview with Felicia Wu Song (Part Two)

Today, our digital technologies are discipling us in ways that outstrip what our churches are doing. Technology is outdoing the very Christian discipleship that so many of us long to engage. Each time we pick up the phone and text. It’s all those small things built into the way we relate with each other, the way we work, and the way we do church. It is a competition between the way technology forms us and the way disciples of Christ are formed.

How can our team help your church engage science?

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Science for the Church

280 Chico Canyon Rd.

Chico, CA 95928

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