Shilling for “Science”

Is Trust in State Science a Modern Creed for Christians?

Science is Good is a new initiative launched by the nonprofit BioLogos. BioLogos was founded in 2007 by Francis Collins, a medical doctor, former head of the Human Genome Project and longtime director until 2021 of the National Institutes of Health. Collins founded BioLogos following the success of his bestselling book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (2006), in which he articulated histheistic evolutionary harmonization of science and Christian faith and proposed the term BioLogos as a name for it.

In “An Open Letter to People of Faith about Science,” released in May 2025, BioLogos’s newest campaign appeals to Christians everywhere to renew their trust in “science” and to affirm that “science is good”:

This is our considered response to a cultural moment marked by distrust of institutions, suspicion of expertise, and a sharp decline in public investment in scientific research. Federal cuts to life-saving programs and the vilification of scientists are not just political developments, but symptoms of a deeper crisis. As Christians, we cannot be silent about this.

At BioLogos, we affirm that science is a God-given tool for understanding and stewarding God’s world, and we believe that Christians should be among its strongest advocates. To help frame this call, we turn to Matthew 25. We do not take these parables as direct commentary on modern science, but they offer enduring insight about living faithfully in the world. In this spirit, we lift up and apply the Kingdom virtues found in Jesus’ parables: wisdom, stewardship, and mercy. When we stand for science through them, we stand for the Kingdom of God.

Reason for Surveillance

Science is Good casts support of science as a Christian virtue, foregrounding science as a God-given tool for practicing wisdom, stewardship, and mercy. Pointing to the parable of the ten virgins, for example, where Jesus affirmed the five who were prepared as wise, the open letter comments, “It is wise to support [science], just as it is foolish to dismiss it. Wise support includes funding vaccine research [and] listening to climate experts.”

In similar hermeneutical sleights of hand, the letter reinterprets other parables’ spiritual themes as support for resisting perceived “anti-science” sentiment and advocating for federal funding of research—because “Faith compels us to love our neighbor [and] science gives us practical and effective ways to do so at scale.” If that isn’t persuasive enough, citing the parable of the sheep and the goats, the letter waxes coercive, adding, “Jesus suggests that the nations and their people will be judged based on how they treat the hungry, the sick, the stranger, and the prisoner.”

Though Science is Good presents itself as a bridge between faith and science, the initiative implies that Christians who express skepticism toward scientific claims are rejecting science itself, yet this is a false framing. For the most part, neither the Christians for whom this messaging is intended nor BioLogos’s most ardent critics are opposed to science or the scientific method. They are opposed to scientism and the ideological misuse of science as an unquestionable authority.

By portraying skeptics as irrational or anti-science, Science is Good sets up a strawman argument, ignoring the real concerns many Christians and others have raised in recent years, especially those concerning abuses of “consensus” science as authoritative. These concerns include the “expert consensus” on sexually transitioning minors promoted by ostensibly scientific organizations like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH); the ethical and safety concerns surrounding novel gene technologies developed and distributed at breakneck speed; and questions about the certainty or political use of claims related to climate change. Rather than engaging these issues with discernment, Science is Good calls for uncritical support of prevailing narratives. In doing so, it aligns itself more with scientific groupthink than with scientific inquiry.

The Future Campaign

In the months ahead, BioLogos plans to expand its reach by partnering with other organizations and rolling out media and educational materials to promote the idea that its version of science is good. With strong financial backing and institutional support, we can expect this messaging to make its way into churches and Christian communities—presenting acceptance of mainstream scientific consensus as a mark of Christian maturity and virtue using such exhortations as, “Let us affirm science not out of political loyalty, but because it serves life, health, and justice.”

Setting aside questions of “political loyalty,” this appeal for Christians to affirm science is not religiously neutral. Historically, the kind of “consensus” BioLogos has endorsed has often undermined biblical authority, especially by reinterpreting the Genesis account through the framework of evolutionary biology. This shift has subtly but significantly undermined foundational Christian doctrines. Even apart from religious concerns, the campaign is not simply advocating for science. It is advocating for a specific ideological stance, one that dismisses sincere and well-founded concerns by criticizing them as expressions of ignorance or fear.

No one should accept this narrative uncritically. Science is not a God-given tool. It is man’s ability to reason and think critically that is a gift from God. Christians especially should examine such claims with wisdom, humility, and biblical discernment.