“The fact is that there are many steps on the pathway from chemistry to life that we do not currently understand. To me, and I suppose to you, these are the steps that are scientific questions to be addressed by the methods of science. To use gaps in our understanding as the basis for or as support for any kind of religious belief is hard for me to understand. As these gaps are gradually filled, the basis of that religious belief disappears. Why would someone base their religious beliefs on such a sandy foundation?” molecular biologist Jack Szostak, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, tells Darrel Falk of The BioLogos Foundation.
“As science advances and our understanding grows, religions must either accommodate the change or enter a phase of denial, as the ‘young earth’ and anti-evolution ID movements have done. I agree with you that this kind of denial is a dangerous thing; denial of reality is extremely bad for the future of our country (and our world). The fact that large numbers of people take their moral guidance from leaders who are in willful denial of reality is quite frightening.”