Geoff W. Sutton Blog

  Connecting Faith and Science 2024 Geoffrey W. Sutton & Designer AI In this post, I consider analogies as an aide to understanding potential relationships between psychology and theology. I am writing a series of volumes on  the relationship between Christian Theology and Psychology. What's different about my approach is a focus on how the two disciplines are different and ways some Christians have attempted to find a no conflict relationship. The title of the series is:  Irreconcilable Differences? Puzzles When a theological perspective and a psychological perspective seem close, the puzzle analogy seems apropos. For example, the Genesis creation story seems world's apart from Evolutionary Psychology, but both influence how Christians view human nature. Francis Collins founded the BioLogos website. As a Christian and a scientist (he led the US genome project), he and his colleagues propose a view of Evolutionary Creation. For them, evolution provides the detail expl...

  Evolving 2023 Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI Evolution, Psychology, and Christianity Irreconcilable Differences Barriers and Bridges The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published 24 November 1859. Scientists have built on the solid foundation laid by Charles Darwin 165 years ago. New discoveries have refined the theory and expanded our understanding of the evolution of life. For example, we know a lot more about genetics than scientists did in the 1800s. As is commonly known, Christian leaders have denounced evolution and fought the teaching of evolution in American public schools for more than a century. Clearly, the evolutionary explanation of the origins of life, including human beings, is not compatible with traditional Christian teaching about the creation. Evolution explains the diversity of life through such processes as natural selection, mutation, and genetic drift. All species evolve and those that survive to reproduce pass along their gen...

                  Einstein and the God Problem Barriers to the Integration of Christianity and Science —Including Psychological Science Every so often, the famous German scientist, Albert Einstein makes news. He’s been quoted and misquoted on a variety of subjects outside his area of expertise. It is not surprising to read what Einstein said about God or religion if a quote suggests that such a brilliant scientist believed in God. Earlier this year, one of Einstein’s letters valued at $125,000 was for sale. The RNS story title is eye-catching ( Karmarkar, 2023 ): “Rare Einstein letter rebutting biblical creation story for sale.” Perhaps it shouldn’t matter what Einstein thought about creation. Afterall, Einstein was a theoretical physicist—not a religious scholar. Nevertheless, the biblical creation story has been around for well over two thousand years and many continue to argue for a literal interpretation of the Genesis text rather t...

                           7 Perspectives on Human Nature, God, and Violence     Previously I asked the question  “Why did God order the killing of so many people ?” See the previous post for context. In this post I look at human nature and consider how understanding people might apply to understanding old texts like those in the Bible. As I said before, I am not a biblical scholar so I shall leave the evaluation of my ideas up to those who are experts in both biblical studies and behavioural science. I can offer the perspective of someone who has studied human nature in the present as well as in historical narratives. Instead of assuming that the biblical writers were telling their audience what God literally said and did, is it possible the biblical texts are a true record of how the ancient Israelites interpreted events in their lives? For Christians, the perspective of Jesus t...