BioLogos is always a good source for information from scientists about God’s creation. A couple of articles we have noted recently:

If you have struggled with jet lag (many Pollinator readers have!), you might appreciate learning more about the different ways that God has embedded clocks within his creation.

Or how about a little microscopic weirdness? “There might not be spinning planets and singing blackholes in the microscopic world, but there are spinning atoms, dancing and singing molecules, and microbes with comet tails that zoom around. If you ask me this is just as exciting and spectacular as the grandeur of the cosmos…” Check out Seven Wonders of the Microcosm.

Or in a different direction, but just as important, the podcast series Creation Groans | World of Wounds. Here’s the description:

How should we respond to a problem that seems unsolvable? This is the question we ask in a series about the environmental crisis as we explore the fine line between hope and despair. In this episode we explore some of the wounds to the planet that often go unseen and we realize that the path to hope begins with the acknowledgement that the wounds are deep and troubling. 

We have long appreciated Biologos for their leadership in bridging the perceived but largely imaginary gap between faith and science. And we’ve noticed recently that they are doing more and more in the area of creation care.

We are thus pleased to be able to point readers of The Pollinator to a recent series of podcasts on the topic of Creation Groans. The three episodes cover

• World of Wounds: We explore some of the wounds to the planet that often go unseen and we realize that the path to hope begins with the acknowledgement that the wounds are deep and troubling. 
• Into the Darkness: We allow ourselves to fully contemplate the woundedness of the planet and we reach into the Christian practice of lament as a way to find hope in the midst of the suffering we see around us.
• Hope on the Other Side: In this episode we explore what exactly hope is, how it relates to optimism, and how, when we find hope, we might also find repentance, forgiveness, joy, and love.

The featured guests are names well-known in the US, though perhaps not as well known to readers in other countries. Transcripts are available if your internet connection won’t handle the audio.

Here’s the first episode: World of Wounds:

Along the same lines, we also salute the National Association of Evangelicals in the US (part of the World Evangelical Alliance) for their recent issue of their magazine, Evangelicals, also on the topic of creation care. Again the writers are exclusively from the US, as is to be expected, but the material should be of interest to all of us – and an encouraging sign that evangelical care for God’s creation is not completely absent from the American evangelical scene.

Download the PDF here.

Biologos is becoming one of our go-to sites for solid scientific *and* biblical resources. These two articles showed up recently and are worth your time:

End Times and the Environment: Steven Bouma-Prediger from Hope College tackles the perennial dilemma confronting evangelical Christians: what to do (or think) when traditional interpretations of the end of history (eschatology) seem to conflict with caring for God’s creation. If it’s all going to burn up anyway, what then?

A view of the world (an ontology) in which spirit is separate from matter, and a view of humans (an anthropology) in which soul is separate from body, with the former in each case more valuable than the latter, easily leads to a view of the future (an eschatology) in which there is no reason to care for the earth. Eschatology shapes ethics. (emphasis ours)

So what does the Bible really teach about the future of Creation? Bouma-Prediger has answers for you. Read it here.

How to Spot Fake Science: What’s more dangerous than Fake News? You’re right, Fake Science can be even more deadly. Christy Hemphill, a Linguistic Consultant in Southern Mexico, explores the difference between “real” science and pseudo-science, and offers some easy to follow guidelines to figure out which is which:

A good first step is to become aware of the difference between science and what we call pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is difficult to define, and people may disagree on where to draw the line. Usually scientists label a claim as pseudoscience when the researchers don’t follow the usual methods for obtaining and reporting evidence. Often these suspect claims are used to sell products or validate a certain ideology or lifestyle.

Weight-loss programs and vitamin supplements are often rife with pseudoscientific claims. People may waste money, but these claims are usually not too harmful. Today’s misinformation about COVID-19 is another story. It is a matter of life and death for hundreds of thousands of people. If you learn to recognize some common red flags, you can avoid confusing pseudoscientific ideas with solid science.

Read the article here.

Tom has been busy – that article is already a book, “God and the Pandemic“. It’s not long, and in classic NT Wright style, takes us deep into the scriptures to understand how to view our current situation biblically. As the book’s website says, “God and the Pandemic will help you to understand how we are to talk about God, how we are to live in the present pandemic, how we recover from it, and what is the church’s calling in the midst of it all.”

Even better, Wright and Francis Collins, Director of the US National Institutes of Health, will appear together in a live recording of the Language of God podcast from Biologos on July 12 at 17:55 pm UTC. Event details are here. From the Biologos blurb:

This live stream event, moderated by host Jim Stump, will feature Wright’s new book, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath. Collins, who heads our country’s biomedical research, will also share the latest on COVID-19. Viewers will also have the opportunity to ask questions!

And here is Tom Wright himself introducing the new book: