Formation 2007 President Deborah Haarsma | Legal status Non-profit Website www.biologos.org | |
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Purpose "BioLogos invites the church and the world to see the harmony between science and biblical faith as we present an evolutionary understanding of God's creation." Headquarters Grand Rapids, MI, United States | ||
The BioLogos Foundation is a Christian advocacy group established by Francis Collins in 2007. BioLogos aims to contribute to the discussion on the relationship between science and religion and emphasize a compatibility between science and Christian faith.
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Francis Collins served as its president until he resigned on August 16, 2009 to become the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health. The presidency was then assumed by Darrel Falk, who left the position at the end of 2012 after three years. On January 28, 2013, Deborah Haarsma was announced as the new president, and Jeffrey Schloss the new Senior Scholar. Karl Giberson was also a prominent member before leaving BioLogos in 2011.
Background and goals
After his book The Language of God was published in 2006, Collins says that he received thousands of e-mails from individuals seeking to explore the relationships between scripture and science. Collins established the BioLogos Foundation to provide responses to these questions and promote a view of harmony between science and faith.
The foundation promotes theistic evolution, but maintains separation from the label to avoid being associated with atheism in some religious communities. Evangelicals are the foundation's primary audience; however, Collins says that he hopes that skeptics, seekers and believers of other faiths will find the website to be helpful.
Response
The BioLogos Foundation has drawn criticism from both creationists and atheists. In response to a Time Magazine article about the foundation, Ken Ham, a young-earth creationist, said “it is compromisers like Collins who cause people to doubt and disbelieve the Bible—causing them to walk away from the church.” Ham discussed his opposition to The BioLogos Foundation in detail during his second annual "State of the Nation" address on February 17, 2009. Jerry Coyne, a professor of biology at the University of Chicago and secularist, calls the foundation the “latest endeavor to forcibly marry science and faith” and “embarrassing in its single-minded fervor to prove that conservative Christianity and evolution are really good buddies.”
BioLogos has also received praise and positive responses. Supporters of the BioLogos Foundation include Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker, who claims the Foundation’s goal of “helping fundamentalists evolve can only be good for civilization," and Timothy Keller, author of The Reason for God and pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in New York City, who has stated that “the BioLogos foundation provides an important first step towards (a thoughtful dialogue between science and faith).”