These two biological processes alone show just how epic nature truly is, and the more I learn about Biology, the more I’m entranced by nature. However, there’s one aspect of science, for lack of better words, that has been nagging me for awhile, but I’ve been ignoring it because I thought (wrongly) that I put it to rest years ago:

For whatever reason, almost all of the most popular/famous scientists I’ve learned about, so far (including in my Biology class), have been very outspoken atheists. 

Meanwhile, here I am. I’m no atheist. I have a lot of tough questions for and about God, many of which I wrestle with daily. But, as angry and resentful towards God I can be, I still believe that He exists, and think about Him every time I study His creation both inside and outside the classroom. And I believe that He cares about His creation and interacts with us every day, both in big and small ways. 

However, in all of my college classes so far, and even in some of my science classes from K-12, all but one of the modern scientists I’ve learned about have been staunch atheists. The one outlier was (and is) Dr. Francis Collins, the leader of the Human Genome Project and the head of the National Institutes of Health until he retired in 2021. 

But, I’ll admit, I didn’t learn about Dr. Collins through school. I learned about him through my experience with Cystic Fibrosis. Hell, he’s the guy who signed some of the paperwork enabling me to combat my Pseudomonas infection with phage viruses (which I still can’t believe actually happened, but it did). 

However, everyone else, from science educators like Bill Nye and Adam Savage, to famous scientists such as Lynn Margulis (wife of Carl Sagan), and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, have been very outspoken atheists. And, that bothers me a little. 

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being an atheist/agnostic, or even with criticizing religion. I understand wholeheartedly where most atheists are coming from, because I too, wrestle with the existence of God and all that God’s existence implies. I also don’t like many aspects of the conservative Christian faith I grew up with, especially the evangelical tendency to distrust much of science (such as evolution and the reality of climate change). 

At the same time, as I prepare to enter university as a Biology major, I don’t know how my education will interact with my faith. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I worry about how learning about science will interfere with my faith. If I come out of university a staunch atheist like so many great scientists have, so be it. At the same time, I don’t see how my Christian faith, as it stands currently, conflicts with modern science. 

After all, I think science is the study of how God made the natural world. Theology, on the other hand, is humanity’s attempt to study the supernatural, which can’t be studied scientifically, which is then applied to the wider world. But like science, Theology changes overtime as people learn more about it and grow in their own faiths. 

Yet, for some reason, both atheists and Christian fundamentalists seem to believe that modern science is diametrically opposed to the Christian faith; that if science contradicts with the literal reading of Scripture in any way, shape, or form, then either Scripture must be incorrect and thrown out, or or science has to go out the window. But, one can’t claim both science and Scripture are true. 

In other words, I have to have some severe cognitive dissonance going on if I’m gonna believe in God as I do, while going to university as a Biology major of all things. At least, according to the new atheists and fundamentalist Christians of the world (and in my family).