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The God of Monkey Science: People of Faith in a Modern Scientific World
How to hold true to your faith and embrace modern science Ever since the Scopes Monkey Trial in the early twentieth century, American evangelicals have considered scientists public enemy #1. But this antipathy to modern science turned deadly during the COVID-19 crisis, when white evangelicals snubbed precautions and vaccines. Herself an evangelical Christian and a science educator, Janet Kellogg Ray explains how we got here and how to fix it. As the follow-up to Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark? , this lively volume covers evolution as well as the coronavirus pandemic, vaccines, climate change, and the frontiers of genetic research. Ray explains the facts accessibly and with verve. Along the way, she vividly narrates the scientific achievements—and political and religious drama—that got us to where we are today. Ultimately, Ray calls for evangelicals to speak to science, rather than deny it. We need Christian ethics now more than ever to determine how best to act in light of current scientific data and for love of neighbor. If you’re afraid of science hurting your faith, this book will show you how to be true to both.
248 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 6, 2023
This book will upset many of my tribe…and you know what? Good. The last 20 years has produced some truly incredible takes from so-called “apologists”, many of whom are trying to peddle a program. Perhaps an honest reflection is in order.
One critique: I would have liked to have seen a better defense of science and it’s compatibility with Scripture, but Janet Kellogg Ray’s first book does a good job of that.
One critique: I would have liked to have seen a better defense of science and it’s compatibility with Scripture, but Janet Kellogg Ray’s first book does a good job of that.
September 23, 2023
Finished it. I couldn't put it down. Do you remember how they traced the origin of HIV to Africa or the origin of COVID 19 to Wuhan, China. Well, Dr. Ray traces the origins of anti-science back to the source (No spoiler alert. I won't reveal it.) You might say she has outlined the "evolution" of the movement.
It answers so many questions I've had over things I see and hear.
She connects the dots on so many opinions I never understood. How was God or a lack thereof ever injected into science? Wouldn't you like to know?
It answers so many questions I've had over things I see and hear.
She connects the dots on so many opinions I never understood. How was God or a lack thereof ever injected into science? Wouldn't you like to know?
December 17, 2023
I remember back during my teen years that I encountered Creation Science. When I was in college I attended a debate between a scientist from one of the state universities who debated Duane Gish, one of the leading "Creation Scientists," and Gish seemed to have all the right answers. I later learned that most science professors aren't proficient debaters but Gish and others in his group were well trained. While I would eventually let go of my "creation science" devotion, I remember the attractiveness. Evolution seemed to contradict my theological presuppositions, that is until I learned how to better read the Bible. I should have known better in college since my professors weren't young earthers. I just didn't connect the dots early on. My first step away from this view involved reading a book by Calvin College geology professor Davis A. Young, who demonstrated how geology revealed an old earth, and that this reality need not undermine my belief that God is still the creator.
I share this background because Janet Kellog Ray's book "The God of Monkey Science" takes on the creation science folk, showing how their denigration of evolution has led, especially in the hands of people like Ken Ham, to the denigration and distrust of science. It's not just evolution that is at stake. It's climate science, medical science (including dealing with diseases such as COVID-19), stem cell research, and more. For her part, Ray identifies as an Evangelical, whose background is Churches of Christ (non-instrumental). For her part, she is a biologist and a science educator teaching at a state university in Texas. She is an evangelical who acknowledges that evolution is the foundation for much of modern science, including medicine.
Ray's goal here is to help people of faith recognize that they needn't reject modern science to believe in God. In fact, there are good evangelicals who are also scientists, including Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institute of Health. Her goal here is to overcome science denialism and its attendant implications. Science denialism is not just the rejection of scientific facts. It can involve the misuse and misrepresentation of the facts (as we've seen with both climate change debates and the misrepresentation of the COVID-19 virus and vaccines. She starts with Scopes but focuses on the present.
After setting the stage for the conversation in Chapter 1, where she rehearses the movement from Scopes to the present, in Chaper 2, she introduces us to the relationship of science and Evangelicalism. This involves defining evangelicalism, both doctrinally and socially. She also defines Creationism. The focus here is on Young Earth Creationists, those who embrace a literal seven-day creation event that took place no more than seven to ten thousand years ago. A subset of this view is known as Intelligent Design. After describing the players, you might say, in chapter 2, in chapter 3, she asks the question "Who Do You Trust?" Here the question revolves around trusting expertise, something that not everyone embraces. Many have chosen to do their own research, whether they know how to sift through sources or not. One of the ways in which Creationists have attacked scientific expertise is to "teach the controversy." The playbook involves teaching "both sides," as if the "two sides" are equally valid or even plausible. In other words, the goal is not to inform but to confuse. In many cases, teachers just avoid teaching evolution. It's not worth the headaches, especially with parental complaints and students pushing the envelope.
In chapter 4, Ray raises the question of "Scientific Literacy in a Time of COVID." She begins with the antivaccine efforts of Andrew Wakefield who suggested that vaccines led to autism. He got a paper published in a scientific journal, but ultimately he was uncovered to be a fraud, but the cat was out of the bag. Anti-vaxxers have been on the rise since. Of course, we saw this up close with the COVID vaccines. The most resistant have been white evangelicals, who have been influenced by creation science. Of course, leading the charge have been people like Ken Ham. So in this chapter, Ray gives us a brief reminder of the scientific method, including double-blind testing.
Chapter 5 addresses Faith over Fear, addressing the pseudo-science of certainty, including the certainty that faith would protect against COVID. The faith that Ray invokes is one that is God-honoring and neighbor-loving. Interestingly, with COVID, White evangelicals who rejected vaccines, social distancing, and masking, were immune to suggestions that using these forms of protection were neighbor-loving. They were concerned only for themselves and their right to do as they pleased. From there we move in Chapter 6 to the emergence of Christian anti-intellectualism. Then in chapter 7 Ray connects the anti-science efforts with the ongoing culture wars. Thus, the anti-science efforts are just part of a larger effort, such that the argument against evolution was no longer a matter of science but cultural decay. With the culture wars driving the conversation, in Chapter 8 the topic is Christian embrace our "Constitutional Rights." This involves such things as demanding "equal time." If you teach evolution I want creationism. It's my right. Then there's COVID. It's my right to have church even if it's a superspreader, without masks. It's my right to reject vaccines, even if I work in health care. Thus, the evangelical embrace of politics.
In Chapter 9, she reveals how Anthony Fauci, the face of the fight against COVID was smeared by Right-Wing Culture warriors who suggested that he hates puppies. While Fauci focused on medicine and science he was attacked politically, and his reputation was damaged, often by Christian operatives. After dealing with the ways in which COVID science was undertaken, in Chapter 10, we move to attempts to show that Climate Science is also a hoax. Again, evangelicals have been at the ground level of climate denialism. Chapter 11 is interesting because it deals with cloning and genetic engineering. That leads to a conversation about stem cells and their value to medical science. All of this of course has roots in evolution. Here is where Ray wants Christians to recognize that people of faith have something to offer to science, and that is ethics (if we're willing to be ethics). Science can do a lot of things, not all of which are wise. People of faith can speak to this, but we can't be anti-science and do so.
The final chapter invites us to take our place in the scientific conversation, both respecting its expertise and offering our own ethical contributions. But, to do so we must abandon science denialism, an effort that is damaging to so much of our society. Not only that, one of the contributors to the rejection of Christianity by teens and young adults is this rejection of science. She writes that "The culture warriors tell us that evolution is causing atheism. Quite the Opposite---the denial of evolution and other aspects of science is shipwrecking faith" (p. 176). If for no other reason than this, evangelicals might want to rethink their science denialism.
Janet Ray does us a great service in revealing the dangers of science denialism to our future as a planet and to the Christian faith itself. So, hopefully, this will get a wide readership so we can turn the tide.
I share this background because Janet Kellog Ray's book "The God of Monkey Science" takes on the creation science folk, showing how their denigration of evolution has led, especially in the hands of people like Ken Ham, to the denigration and distrust of science. It's not just evolution that is at stake. It's climate science, medical science (including dealing with diseases such as COVID-19), stem cell research, and more. For her part, Ray identifies as an Evangelical, whose background is Churches of Christ (non-instrumental). For her part, she is a biologist and a science educator teaching at a state university in Texas. She is an evangelical who acknowledges that evolution is the foundation for much of modern science, including medicine.
Ray's goal here is to help people of faith recognize that they needn't reject modern science to believe in God. In fact, there are good evangelicals who are also scientists, including Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institute of Health. Her goal here is to overcome science denialism and its attendant implications. Science denialism is not just the rejection of scientific facts. It can involve the misuse and misrepresentation of the facts (as we've seen with both climate change debates and the misrepresentation of the COVID-19 virus and vaccines. She starts with Scopes but focuses on the present.
After setting the stage for the conversation in Chapter 1, where she rehearses the movement from Scopes to the present, in Chaper 2, she introduces us to the relationship of science and Evangelicalism. This involves defining evangelicalism, both doctrinally and socially. She also defines Creationism. The focus here is on Young Earth Creationists, those who embrace a literal seven-day creation event that took place no more than seven to ten thousand years ago. A subset of this view is known as Intelligent Design. After describing the players, you might say, in chapter 2, in chapter 3, she asks the question "Who Do You Trust?" Here the question revolves around trusting expertise, something that not everyone embraces. Many have chosen to do their own research, whether they know how to sift through sources or not. One of the ways in which Creationists have attacked scientific expertise is to "teach the controversy." The playbook involves teaching "both sides," as if the "two sides" are equally valid or even plausible. In other words, the goal is not to inform but to confuse. In many cases, teachers just avoid teaching evolution. It's not worth the headaches, especially with parental complaints and students pushing the envelope.
In chapter 4, Ray raises the question of "Scientific Literacy in a Time of COVID." She begins with the antivaccine efforts of Andrew Wakefield who suggested that vaccines led to autism. He got a paper published in a scientific journal, but ultimately he was uncovered to be a fraud, but the cat was out of the bag. Anti-vaxxers have been on the rise since. Of course, we saw this up close with the COVID vaccines. The most resistant have been white evangelicals, who have been influenced by creation science. Of course, leading the charge have been people like Ken Ham. So in this chapter, Ray gives us a brief reminder of the scientific method, including double-blind testing.
Chapter 5 addresses Faith over Fear, addressing the pseudo-science of certainty, including the certainty that faith would protect against COVID. The faith that Ray invokes is one that is God-honoring and neighbor-loving. Interestingly, with COVID, White evangelicals who rejected vaccines, social distancing, and masking, were immune to suggestions that using these forms of protection were neighbor-loving. They were concerned only for themselves and their right to do as they pleased. From there we move in Chapter 6 to the emergence of Christian anti-intellectualism. Then in chapter 7 Ray connects the anti-science efforts with the ongoing culture wars. Thus, the anti-science efforts are just part of a larger effort, such that the argument against evolution was no longer a matter of science but cultural decay. With the culture wars driving the conversation, in Chapter 8 the topic is Christian embrace our "Constitutional Rights." This involves such things as demanding "equal time." If you teach evolution I want creationism. It's my right. Then there's COVID. It's my right to have church even if it's a superspreader, without masks. It's my right to reject vaccines, even if I work in health care. Thus, the evangelical embrace of politics.
In Chapter 9, she reveals how Anthony Fauci, the face of the fight against COVID was smeared by Right-Wing Culture warriors who suggested that he hates puppies. While Fauci focused on medicine and science he was attacked politically, and his reputation was damaged, often by Christian operatives. After dealing with the ways in which COVID science was undertaken, in Chapter 10, we move to attempts to show that Climate Science is also a hoax. Again, evangelicals have been at the ground level of climate denialism. Chapter 11 is interesting because it deals with cloning and genetic engineering. That leads to a conversation about stem cells and their value to medical science. All of this of course has roots in evolution. Here is where Ray wants Christians to recognize that people of faith have something to offer to science, and that is ethics (if we're willing to be ethics). Science can do a lot of things, not all of which are wise. People of faith can speak to this, but we can't be anti-science and do so.
The final chapter invites us to take our place in the scientific conversation, both respecting its expertise and offering our own ethical contributions. But, to do so we must abandon science denialism, an effort that is damaging to so much of our society. Not only that, one of the contributors to the rejection of Christianity by teens and young adults is this rejection of science. She writes that "The culture warriors tell us that evolution is causing atheism. Quite the Opposite---the denial of evolution and other aspects of science is shipwrecking faith" (p. 176). If for no other reason than this, evangelicals might want to rethink their science denialism.
Janet Ray does us a great service in revealing the dangers of science denialism to our future as a planet and to the Christian faith itself. So, hopefully, this will get a wide readership so we can turn the tide.
February 29, 2024
Excerpts:
---
You may not accept evolution, or you may accept evolution, or you may be some gradation in between.
. . .
Acceptance, or not, doesn’t change the fact that evolution theory continues to be a powerful predictor of new knowledge.
---
is the argument they are making backed by the consensus of scientists in that field? What is the collective position of experts based on the body of evidence? The consensus position is not the final word in the matter, but it is definitely the starting point.
. . .
It is tempting to cherry-pick an authority with an appealing minority position. But if you ignore the consensus of experts, you are likely judging an idea on the source of the idea, rather than on its merits.
---
What does personal research look like? Firsthand accounts from those who “think like me”? Do we gravitate toward sources that mirror the prevailing opinion of our group -- religious, cultural, or political? Do we pass all subsequent information through the filter of our initial opinion?
Without a doubt, we can find websites and blogs affirming ideas outside the consensus of a scientific field. We can always find people with advanced degrees championing outlier opinions. And in the end, it may feel as if we’ve done the hard work of wading through the weeds and digging up the real truth.
. . .
When did science become an exercise in beliefs and values instead of evidence?
---
Evolution, like all other sciences, has frontiers. There are things at the edges of our knowledge about which we are still learning. Biologists are debating the mechanisms, patterns, and details of evolution, but the fact of evolution is not in question. As we gather more evidence, ideas at the frontiers of any scientific field adapt, change, and adjust.
When everyone decides for themselves, values and beliefs trump facts.
What doesn’t change are the foundations of a field of science. The foundations of science are the theories—atomic theory, gravity theory, germ theory, cell theory, evolution theory. The frontiers are in flux. The theories are not.
When legitimate areas of discussion at the frontiers of science are exaggerated, we open the door to alternative explanations for the foundations of science. We cry “teach the controversy” when there is, in fact, no controversy. If the experts in the field are not debating it, it’s not a debate.
Teaching the “controversy” of evolution opened the door to a choose-your-own—adventure approach to all science.
---
Legitimate science, therefore, is done in community. Hypotheses succeed or fail depending on repeatability by others in the scientific field.
When there is legitimate disagreement, scientists take another look. They go back to the natural world, collect more data, and make their case.
But it’s still not over. Scientists love to prove each other wrong.
In the end, it’s not the opinions of the scientists that matter. The evidence decides the answer to the question at hand. Science tells us when we need to change our minds.
---
Andrew Wakefield is a cautionary tale in the importance of peer review.
Peer review initially failed. Wakefield’s study made the pages of the prestigious Lancet journal, but the second phase of peer review exposed the fraud.
---
In the Chicago Statement, rejection of inerrancy is declared to be a refusal of the “true Christian faith.” The Chicago Statement remains a litmus test and a contractual requirement in many evangelical seminaries, colleges, and churches.
---
Living inside the (really large) evangelical bubble, we never have our presumptions challenged. Working inside the bubble, evangelical content producers never have to engage non-evangelical positions from the actual position-holders themselves.
Oh, we have apologetics. We can refute and rebut with the best of them. And in doing so, we argue against our interpretations of what these positions are. We build a straw man, tear him down, and think we’ve done the work of looking outside our camp.
---
Training evangelical leaders, teachers, and preachers in academic exile preserves doctrinal purity, a priority for most Bible colleges, seminaries, and schools of preaching. But an insular education comes at a cost. The price is a loss of “cross fertilization” between theological thinking and thinking in other academic fields—including the sciences
An education in isolation provides no opportunity for scholarship in science to inform theology. It is no surprise, then, that evolution denial and a young earth are the norm in evangelical Bible colleges, preaching schools, and seminaries. The price we pay is perpetuating anti-intellectual, antiscience mindsets in our leaders, teachers, pastors, and preachers.
---
Creation science and intelligent design are not, by their nature and definition, subject to investigation by the scientific method. Instead of researching, writing, and creating new knowledge, evangelicals redefined science. In wedding the terms creation and science, evangelicals intuitively understood the authority of science, even as they rejected it.
---
An extensive study published in 2020 by professors and researchers in higher education is particularly eye-opening. The researchers are not theologians, nor are they professionally associated with any religion. Over one thousand college biology students (both majors and nonmajors) across multiple large public research-intensive universities participated in the study. The researchers found that among self-identified religious students, 49 percent believe that evolution requires atheism, which probably doesn’t surprise you. But this surprised me: 47 percent of nonreligious students also believe that evolution requires atheism.
Evangelicals have done such a good job coupling evolution with atheism that even nonreligious people think the same.
---
In the first century, they knew we were Christians by our love. In the twenty-first century, they’ll know we are Christians by our fight for rights.
The COVID pandemic exposed an evangelical fervor for personal rights and freedoms. Birthed in the fight against evolution in schools, the fight for rights took on an overtly political mood during the pandemic. And what do you get when you mix religion with politics?
You get politics.
---
John MacArthur: “God intended us to use this planet to fill this planet for the benefit of man. Never was intended to be a permanent planet. It is a disposable planet. Christians ought to know that.”
. . .
God cursed the earth and is going to fix it all in the end, MacArthur continues, so “we need not repent of the way we have polluted, distorted and destroyed the Creator’s work.” Let that sink in.
---
Not only does science denial thwart an evangelical presence in the sciences, but science denial damages the witness of evangelicals, and by association, Christianity in general.
The Barna Group has told us for years that science denial is wrecking the faith of teens and young adults. Barna studied young adults who were regular churchgoers in their early teens but dropped out after age fifteen. The reasons for dropping out are varied and complex, but six themes consistently top the list. Always among the top six is the tense relationship between the church and science.
The culture warriors tell us that evolution is causing atheism. Quite the opposite—the denial of evolution and other aspects of science is shipwrecking faith.
---
White evangelicals are the least likely of all religious demographic groups to be vaccinated for COVID. Drilling down into the rationale behind vaccine refusal reveals a troubling trend. White evangelicals are also the religious demographic least likely to consider the health of their community in making a vaccination decision.
Read that last sentence again and let it sink in.
Less than 50 percent of white evangelicals said they would consider the health of their community “a lot” when making a vaccination decision. Black Protestants and Catholics were much higher at 70 percent and 65 percent.
There is another religious demographic who likewise laps white evangelicals: atheists, agnostics, and those who identify as “nothing in particular.” Sixty-eight percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans would consider the health of their community in making a vaccination decision.
Yale researchers wanted to know what, if anything, would reduce evangelical vaccine hesitancy. Maybe it was the messaging. The researchers tried a message of reciprocity: Vaccination protects others in your community, who, in turn, protect you. They tried a message of responsibility: Wouldn’t you feel bad if you infected someone else? They tried a message of values: Refusing a vaccine makes you reckless; don’t you want to be brave and protect your community?
Nothing worked. Unvaccinated white evangelicals did not find any of these community—care, neighbor—loving messages persuasive.
---
---
You may not accept evolution, or you may accept evolution, or you may be some gradation in between.
. . .
Acceptance, or not, doesn’t change the fact that evolution theory continues to be a powerful predictor of new knowledge.
---
is the argument they are making backed by the consensus of scientists in that field? What is the collective position of experts based on the body of evidence? The consensus position is not the final word in the matter, but it is definitely the starting point.
. . .
It is tempting to cherry-pick an authority with an appealing minority position. But if you ignore the consensus of experts, you are likely judging an idea on the source of the idea, rather than on its merits.
---
What does personal research look like? Firsthand accounts from those who “think like me”? Do we gravitate toward sources that mirror the prevailing opinion of our group -- religious, cultural, or political? Do we pass all subsequent information through the filter of our initial opinion?
Without a doubt, we can find websites and blogs affirming ideas outside the consensus of a scientific field. We can always find people with advanced degrees championing outlier opinions. And in the end, it may feel as if we’ve done the hard work of wading through the weeds and digging up the real truth.
. . .
When did science become an exercise in beliefs and values instead of evidence?
---
Evolution, like all other sciences, has frontiers. There are things at the edges of our knowledge about which we are still learning. Biologists are debating the mechanisms, patterns, and details of evolution, but the fact of evolution is not in question. As we gather more evidence, ideas at the frontiers of any scientific field adapt, change, and adjust.
When everyone decides for themselves, values and beliefs trump facts.
What doesn’t change are the foundations of a field of science. The foundations of science are the theories—atomic theory, gravity theory, germ theory, cell theory, evolution theory. The frontiers are in flux. The theories are not.
When legitimate areas of discussion at the frontiers of science are exaggerated, we open the door to alternative explanations for the foundations of science. We cry “teach the controversy” when there is, in fact, no controversy. If the experts in the field are not debating it, it’s not a debate.
Teaching the “controversy” of evolution opened the door to a choose-your-own—adventure approach to all science.
---
Legitimate science, therefore, is done in community. Hypotheses succeed or fail depending on repeatability by others in the scientific field.
When there is legitimate disagreement, scientists take another look. They go back to the natural world, collect more data, and make their case.
But it’s still not over. Scientists love to prove each other wrong.
In the end, it’s not the opinions of the scientists that matter. The evidence decides the answer to the question at hand. Science tells us when we need to change our minds.
---
Andrew Wakefield is a cautionary tale in the importance of peer review.
Peer review initially failed. Wakefield’s study made the pages of the prestigious Lancet journal, but the second phase of peer review exposed the fraud.
---
In the Chicago Statement, rejection of inerrancy is declared to be a refusal of the “true Christian faith.” The Chicago Statement remains a litmus test and a contractual requirement in many evangelical seminaries, colleges, and churches.
---
Living inside the (really large) evangelical bubble, we never have our presumptions challenged. Working inside the bubble, evangelical content producers never have to engage non-evangelical positions from the actual position-holders themselves.
Oh, we have apologetics. We can refute and rebut with the best of them. And in doing so, we argue against our interpretations of what these positions are. We build a straw man, tear him down, and think we’ve done the work of looking outside our camp.
---
Training evangelical leaders, teachers, and preachers in academic exile preserves doctrinal purity, a priority for most Bible colleges, seminaries, and schools of preaching. But an insular education comes at a cost. The price is a loss of “cross fertilization” between theological thinking and thinking in other academic fields—including the sciences
An education in isolation provides no opportunity for scholarship in science to inform theology. It is no surprise, then, that evolution denial and a young earth are the norm in evangelical Bible colleges, preaching schools, and seminaries. The price we pay is perpetuating anti-intellectual, antiscience mindsets in our leaders, teachers, pastors, and preachers.
---
Creation science and intelligent design are not, by their nature and definition, subject to investigation by the scientific method. Instead of researching, writing, and creating new knowledge, evangelicals redefined science. In wedding the terms creation and science, evangelicals intuitively understood the authority of science, even as they rejected it.
---
An extensive study published in 2020 by professors and researchers in higher education is particularly eye-opening. The researchers are not theologians, nor are they professionally associated with any religion. Over one thousand college biology students (both majors and nonmajors) across multiple large public research-intensive universities participated in the study. The researchers found that among self-identified religious students, 49 percent believe that evolution requires atheism, which probably doesn’t surprise you. But this surprised me: 47 percent of nonreligious students also believe that evolution requires atheism.
Evangelicals have done such a good job coupling evolution with atheism that even nonreligious people think the same.
---
In the first century, they knew we were Christians by our love. In the twenty-first century, they’ll know we are Christians by our fight for rights.
The COVID pandemic exposed an evangelical fervor for personal rights and freedoms. Birthed in the fight against evolution in schools, the fight for rights took on an overtly political mood during the pandemic. And what do you get when you mix religion with politics?
You get politics.
---
John MacArthur: “God intended us to use this planet to fill this planet for the benefit of man. Never was intended to be a permanent planet. It is a disposable planet. Christians ought to know that.”
. . .
God cursed the earth and is going to fix it all in the end, MacArthur continues, so “we need not repent of the way we have polluted, distorted and destroyed the Creator’s work.” Let that sink in.
---
Not only does science denial thwart an evangelical presence in the sciences, but science denial damages the witness of evangelicals, and by association, Christianity in general.
The Barna Group has told us for years that science denial is wrecking the faith of teens and young adults. Barna studied young adults who were regular churchgoers in their early teens but dropped out after age fifteen. The reasons for dropping out are varied and complex, but six themes consistently top the list. Always among the top six is the tense relationship between the church and science.
The culture warriors tell us that evolution is causing atheism. Quite the opposite—the denial of evolution and other aspects of science is shipwrecking faith.
---
White evangelicals are the least likely of all religious demographic groups to be vaccinated for COVID. Drilling down into the rationale behind vaccine refusal reveals a troubling trend. White evangelicals are also the religious demographic least likely to consider the health of their community in making a vaccination decision.
Read that last sentence again and let it sink in.
Less than 50 percent of white evangelicals said they would consider the health of their community “a lot” when making a vaccination decision. Black Protestants and Catholics were much higher at 70 percent and 65 percent.
There is another religious demographic who likewise laps white evangelicals: atheists, agnostics, and those who identify as “nothing in particular.” Sixty-eight percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans would consider the health of their community in making a vaccination decision.
Yale researchers wanted to know what, if anything, would reduce evangelical vaccine hesitancy. Maybe it was the messaging. The researchers tried a message of reciprocity: Vaccination protects others in your community, who, in turn, protect you. They tried a message of responsibility: Wouldn’t you feel bad if you infected someone else? They tried a message of values: Refusing a vaccine makes you reckless; don’t you want to be brave and protect your community?
Nothing worked. Unvaccinated white evangelicals did not find any of these community—care, neighbor—loving messages persuasive.
---
January 1, 2024
This book was an answer to prayer!
The evangelical UNT biology professor, a real down to earth Texas gal with a disarming charm, shows the thread of science denial that runs through American evangelical identity: from denial of biological evolution, through denial of human causes of modern climate change, to denial of pandemic science, rejection of COVID vaccines, and government enforced public health measures.
I realized this myself a couple of years ago. I’m convinced science denial is an evil tree, and since 2021, it has borne the evil fruit of contributing to the elevated number of deaths during the recent pandemic. A few weeks ago I prayed for a book like this, and the very next day I heard her interview on the Language of God podcast by BioLogos. I ordered both of her books, and just finished the one below. That’s why I say Janet Kellogg Ray’s The God of Monkey Science: People of Faith in a Modern Scientific World is an answer to prayer.
I hope you’ll read this book yourself one day, and learn that denying the facts may be a shortcut to preserving your own faith, but at the same time it often destroys the faith of others, and when you can no longer deny the facts, it may even undermine your own.
The evangelical UNT biology professor, a real down to earth Texas gal with a disarming charm, shows the thread of science denial that runs through American evangelical identity: from denial of biological evolution, through denial of human causes of modern climate change, to denial of pandemic science, rejection of COVID vaccines, and government enforced public health measures.
I realized this myself a couple of years ago. I’m convinced science denial is an evil tree, and since 2021, it has borne the evil fruit of contributing to the elevated number of deaths during the recent pandemic. A few weeks ago I prayed for a book like this, and the very next day I heard her interview on the Language of God podcast by BioLogos. I ordered both of her books, and just finished the one below. That’s why I say Janet Kellogg Ray’s The God of Monkey Science: People of Faith in a Modern Scientific World is an answer to prayer.
I hope you’ll read this book yourself one day, and learn that denying the facts may be a shortcut to preserving your own faith, but at the same time it often destroys the faith of others, and when you can no longer deny the facts, it may even undermine your own.
January 2, 2025
The discussions in this book are paramount and more churches, pastors, Christian leaders, and lay people need to consider the cost of decades of science denial within the American Evangelical culture. Janet Kellogg Ray writes as an insider who has observed this pattern of science denial in her own religious background. She examines the history, causes, and effects of rejecting evidence-based science and implores the Christian community to reconsider their attitude towards science and scientists, for the good of their families, their church, their community, and the world. The following are summaries and notable quotes from the 12 chapters in the book.
Chapter 1: The Playbook
Ray introduces her Christian heritage, love of science, and journey to understand both. While writing and publishing her first book (which is fantastic, by the way), she noticed trends related to American Evangelical Christians rejecting evolution, COVID preventions, and climate science. She started researching, going back to the Scopes Monkey Trial and its influence on how Christians think and talk about science and scientists. The same tactics that William Jennings Bryan used in 1925 are still used today but include many more scientific disciplines than just evolution. Any science that is perceived as threatening to faith, morality, personal freedom, or personal belief is, by default, wicked and hostile to God. p9-10.
Chapter 2: Science and the Evangelicals
“The purpose of this book is to explore evangelical science denial, and that conversation begins with evolution. How evangelicals talked (and still talk) about the science of evolution shapes the way evangelicals talk about other areas of science.” p21. “And when rank and file evangelicals wanted to sort it all out, they did not turn to scientists. Those scientists, after all, want to tell our children that they came from monkeys.” p23. “And when they speak against any field of science in the modern era, they still use Bryan’s outline: danger to families, to faith, to freedoms. … The COVID pandemic revealed a deeply ingrained and carefully cultivated distrust of science by those in the evangelical world.” p24.
Chapter 3: Whom Do You Trust?
This chapter did an excellent job explaining the limits of science, the ability of science to incorporate new evidence, and the strength of basing conclusions on evidence. “In a country where everyone’s vote counts the same, anyone can be an expert. As long as I “research both sides,” my conclusions are as good as yours, or those of any scientist for that matter.” p32. “The lukewarm treatment of evolution in the classroom sends the unmistakable message: when it comes to science, you can decide for yourself. Evidence is optional – believe it, or don’t. When everyone decides for themselves, values and beliefs trump facts.” p33. This reminds me of Judges 21:25.
Chapter 4: Scientific Literacy in a Time of COVID
The author describes the scientific process and explains that just memorizing facts isn’t the same as scientific literacy. Ray highlights anti-vaccine proponents Andrew Wakefield and America’s Frontline Doctors and how their messages, unsupported by evidence, became widely heard and trusted. “Without an understanding of how science works, we go with what makes sense. What feels right. What our heart tells us. We go with our team.” p57.
Chapter 5: Faith Over Fear
Not all Christians are opposed to evidence-based science. Dr. Corbett, the lead researcher in the NIH Vaccine Research Center’s lab says “My [Christian] religion tells me why I should want to help people make the world a better place. Science shows me how to study the coronavirus and do the work that one day, hopefully, will prevent people from dying of COVID-19.” p60. But the overall culture in many conservative Christian churches is one of hostility and distrust. “Add decades of mistrust in science by evangelicals to uncertain times, and the stage is set for science denial.” p63. “Pseudoscience provides the simplicity and certainty we crave in uncertain times.” p62. “The mRNA from a vaccine never even gets close to your DNA much less changes it. But in an evangelical world primed for science denial, the claim took root.” p69.
Chapter 6: Life in the Bubble
“There is an unfortunate thread of anti-intellectualism running throughout the history of the evangelical movement.” p74. Bob Jones, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson are examples of men without educational credentials who started evangelical colleges/universities that purposely took a different, less scholarly path than Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. “Evangelicals needed places to train ministers, teachers, and leaders where inerrancy and special creation weren’t questioned.” p79. “Teachers and professors in their institutions research, study, write, and teach in isolation from scholarly thinking in all other academic fields.” p81.
Chapter 7: You and Me Against the World
“Evangelicals are steeped in a “David versus Goliath” mindset and we are always David. … We assume the underdog is always right and the crowd is always wrong.” p88. “Over the years, evangelicals have fought many enemies, but no enemy has drawn as much evangelical fire or for as long as science, and specifically, the science of evolution.” p88. “When faced with twenty-first-century scientific problems like climate change and pandemics, we take up battle stations. Evangelicals have been conditioned: we are suspicious of the evidence, suspicious of the experts, suspicious of the majority position.” p99.
Chapter 8: They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Constitutional Rights
“Evangelical resistance to COVID safety measures, and in many cases outright refusal to comply, was couched in terms of individual rights and freedoms.” p105. “Ever since the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, evangelicals have tried to keep evolution out of schools through legal battles. “The fight is usually in the form of a curricular requirement to teach the “controversy” of scientific theories, without specifically mentioning evolution. Undeniably, the theory in mind is evolution – nobody wants to debate gravity or molecules.” p107.
Chapter 9: Anthony Fauci Hates Puppies
“The messaging that science and scientists are not to be trusted ranges from subtle to flagrant,” p128, and a common method to discredit them is to label them as “secular” in contrast with “biblical” where “biblical” refers to a particular literalistic interpretation of Genesis 1-11. They even claim scientists fake the evidence. “Unfortunately, what most people who reject evolution know about evolution comes from anti-evolution apologetic sources.” p128. “Some of the most egregious denigrations of secular scientists can be found in popular homeschool and Christian private school curricula.” p129. The Evangelical Christian community’s treatment of Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins, and other scientists was hostile, even vitriol. “How we characterize the messenger determines how we receive the message.” p130.
Chapter 10: The Earth is Running a Fever
This chapter includes what is meant by climate and weather and what the causes and effects of rising temperatures are. “The overwhelming consensus – essentially 100 percent of working, publishing, climate scientists agree – global warming is real, and humans are the cause.” p134. “If someone objects to the science of climate change, it is likely for a reason that is not scientific.” p135. “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts it this way: climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” p135. “Global warming disproportionally affects the most vulnerable.” p136. “Poverty, hunger, disease, access to clean water, political unrest, refugee crises – all are exacerbated by global warming.” p137. “Two-thirds of white evangelicals reject human involvement in global warming. Given the biblical command to be stewards of creation, this is a puzzle.” p139.
Chapter 11: Hello, Dolly!
Here we receive an introduction to cloning, stem cells, and fetal cell lines. “In addition to vaccine and drug development, fetal cell lines are critical in disease research. Much of what we know about the causes, prevention, and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Zika, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), diabetes, blindness, cancers, birth defects, and heart disease comes from fetal tissue research.” p159. With gene editing tools like CRISPR and science continuing its march forward, will Christians listen and be an influence or remain fixated on pseudoscience and be left behind?
Chapter 12: Living as People of Faith in a Modern Scientific World
“We can choose to look away, but the earth is not flat, the climate is warming, evolution is real, and the scientific method works. Given the facts, how will our faith inform our response?” p172. “Instead of insisting on our own set of alternative facts, we could be leading with a faith-informed voice.” p173. “Vilifying science deprives the field of bright evangelical minds. Science denial robs the world of Christian voices in some of the most important issues of our time.” p175. “White evangelicals are also the religious demographic least likely to consider the health of their community in making a vaccination decision.” p176. “What does it mean to have a mind for Christ, specifically in a world of modern science? What, besides denial, are we adding to the conversation?” p181.
This is an excellent book, easy to read (though discouraging at times), that covers an important subject – the perceived conflict between science and faith – which is one of the top reasons cited by people for leaving the church. I strongly recommend this book and hope many will read it. We need to do better in this area and reading this book is a great place to begin.
Chapter 1: The Playbook
Ray introduces her Christian heritage, love of science, and journey to understand both. While writing and publishing her first book (which is fantastic, by the way), she noticed trends related to American Evangelical Christians rejecting evolution, COVID preventions, and climate science. She started researching, going back to the Scopes Monkey Trial and its influence on how Christians think and talk about science and scientists. The same tactics that William Jennings Bryan used in 1925 are still used today but include many more scientific disciplines than just evolution. Any science that is perceived as threatening to faith, morality, personal freedom, or personal belief is, by default, wicked and hostile to God. p9-10.
Chapter 2: Science and the Evangelicals
“The purpose of this book is to explore evangelical science denial, and that conversation begins with evolution. How evangelicals talked (and still talk) about the science of evolution shapes the way evangelicals talk about other areas of science.” p21. “And when rank and file evangelicals wanted to sort it all out, they did not turn to scientists. Those scientists, after all, want to tell our children that they came from monkeys.” p23. “And when they speak against any field of science in the modern era, they still use Bryan’s outline: danger to families, to faith, to freedoms. … The COVID pandemic revealed a deeply ingrained and carefully cultivated distrust of science by those in the evangelical world.” p24.
Chapter 3: Whom Do You Trust?
This chapter did an excellent job explaining the limits of science, the ability of science to incorporate new evidence, and the strength of basing conclusions on evidence. “In a country where everyone’s vote counts the same, anyone can be an expert. As long as I “research both sides,” my conclusions are as good as yours, or those of any scientist for that matter.” p32. “The lukewarm treatment of evolution in the classroom sends the unmistakable message: when it comes to science, you can decide for yourself. Evidence is optional – believe it, or don’t. When everyone decides for themselves, values and beliefs trump facts.” p33. This reminds me of Judges 21:25.
Chapter 4: Scientific Literacy in a Time of COVID
The author describes the scientific process and explains that just memorizing facts isn’t the same as scientific literacy. Ray highlights anti-vaccine proponents Andrew Wakefield and America’s Frontline Doctors and how their messages, unsupported by evidence, became widely heard and trusted. “Without an understanding of how science works, we go with what makes sense. What feels right. What our heart tells us. We go with our team.” p57.
Chapter 5: Faith Over Fear
Not all Christians are opposed to evidence-based science. Dr. Corbett, the lead researcher in the NIH Vaccine Research Center’s lab says “My [Christian] religion tells me why I should want to help people make the world a better place. Science shows me how to study the coronavirus and do the work that one day, hopefully, will prevent people from dying of COVID-19.” p60. But the overall culture in many conservative Christian churches is one of hostility and distrust. “Add decades of mistrust in science by evangelicals to uncertain times, and the stage is set for science denial.” p63. “Pseudoscience provides the simplicity and certainty we crave in uncertain times.” p62. “The mRNA from a vaccine never even gets close to your DNA much less changes it. But in an evangelical world primed for science denial, the claim took root.” p69.
Chapter 6: Life in the Bubble
“There is an unfortunate thread of anti-intellectualism running throughout the history of the evangelical movement.” p74. Bob Jones, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson are examples of men without educational credentials who started evangelical colleges/universities that purposely took a different, less scholarly path than Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. “Evangelicals needed places to train ministers, teachers, and leaders where inerrancy and special creation weren’t questioned.” p79. “Teachers and professors in their institutions research, study, write, and teach in isolation from scholarly thinking in all other academic fields.” p81.
Chapter 7: You and Me Against the World
“Evangelicals are steeped in a “David versus Goliath” mindset and we are always David. … We assume the underdog is always right and the crowd is always wrong.” p88. “Over the years, evangelicals have fought many enemies, but no enemy has drawn as much evangelical fire or for as long as science, and specifically, the science of evolution.” p88. “When faced with twenty-first-century scientific problems like climate change and pandemics, we take up battle stations. Evangelicals have been conditioned: we are suspicious of the evidence, suspicious of the experts, suspicious of the majority position.” p99.
Chapter 8: They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Constitutional Rights
“Evangelical resistance to COVID safety measures, and in many cases outright refusal to comply, was couched in terms of individual rights and freedoms.” p105. “Ever since the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, evangelicals have tried to keep evolution out of schools through legal battles. “The fight is usually in the form of a curricular requirement to teach the “controversy” of scientific theories, without specifically mentioning evolution. Undeniably, the theory in mind is evolution – nobody wants to debate gravity or molecules.” p107.
Chapter 9: Anthony Fauci Hates Puppies
“The messaging that science and scientists are not to be trusted ranges from subtle to flagrant,” p128, and a common method to discredit them is to label them as “secular” in contrast with “biblical” where “biblical” refers to a particular literalistic interpretation of Genesis 1-11. They even claim scientists fake the evidence. “Unfortunately, what most people who reject evolution know about evolution comes from anti-evolution apologetic sources.” p128. “Some of the most egregious denigrations of secular scientists can be found in popular homeschool and Christian private school curricula.” p129. The Evangelical Christian community’s treatment of Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins, and other scientists was hostile, even vitriol. “How we characterize the messenger determines how we receive the message.” p130.
Chapter 10: The Earth is Running a Fever
This chapter includes what is meant by climate and weather and what the causes and effects of rising temperatures are. “The overwhelming consensus – essentially 100 percent of working, publishing, climate scientists agree – global warming is real, and humans are the cause.” p134. “If someone objects to the science of climate change, it is likely for a reason that is not scientific.” p135. “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts it this way: climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” p135. “Global warming disproportionally affects the most vulnerable.” p136. “Poverty, hunger, disease, access to clean water, political unrest, refugee crises – all are exacerbated by global warming.” p137. “Two-thirds of white evangelicals reject human involvement in global warming. Given the biblical command to be stewards of creation, this is a puzzle.” p139.
Chapter 11: Hello, Dolly!
Here we receive an introduction to cloning, stem cells, and fetal cell lines. “In addition to vaccine and drug development, fetal cell lines are critical in disease research. Much of what we know about the causes, prevention, and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Zika, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), diabetes, blindness, cancers, birth defects, and heart disease comes from fetal tissue research.” p159. With gene editing tools like CRISPR and science continuing its march forward, will Christians listen and be an influence or remain fixated on pseudoscience and be left behind?
Chapter 12: Living as People of Faith in a Modern Scientific World
“We can choose to look away, but the earth is not flat, the climate is warming, evolution is real, and the scientific method works. Given the facts, how will our faith inform our response?” p172. “Instead of insisting on our own set of alternative facts, we could be leading with a faith-informed voice.” p173. “Vilifying science deprives the field of bright evangelical minds. Science denial robs the world of Christian voices in some of the most important issues of our time.” p175. “White evangelicals are also the religious demographic least likely to consider the health of their community in making a vaccination decision.” p176. “What does it mean to have a mind for Christ, specifically in a world of modern science? What, besides denial, are we adding to the conversation?” p181.
This is an excellent book, easy to read (though discouraging at times), that covers an important subject – the perceived conflict between science and faith – which is one of the top reasons cited by people for leaving the church. I strongly recommend this book and hope many will read it. We need to do better in this area and reading this book is a great place to begin.
September 9, 2025
Summary: An evangelical Christian science educator explores anti-science beliefs and being true to both faith and science.
“There she goes again… Janet and her monkey god science” (p. 3)
Janet Kellogg Ray is a science educator. The quote is an edited response from a person who disagreed with her concerning an article about public health and explains the title of this book. This is, sadly, the way evangelicals have dismissed science-based argument, even from other evangelicals. It is an example of the growing anti-science bias of many who identify as evangelical.
It also represents the leading edge of an anti-science playbook, which Kellogg identifies:
1. The scientific evidence is sketchy, misrepresented, or simply wrong.
2. Science threatens faith and morality.
3. Acceptance of science comes at a cost to personal freedoms or personal beliefs.
Kellogg Ray writes as an insider, a member of an evangelical church in which many members would disagree with her views. She’s loves Jesus. And she is also a scientist who would affirm what many in her congregation would deny. God made life in the world through evolutionary processes. God works for good to save lives through vaccine research and public health measures. And God has given insight to climate scientists of how we may care for a rapidly warming world. She also explores why many evangelicals don’t believe and often actively resist these ideas.
It goes back to evolution and a fight that began with the Scopes trial and continues through a number of well-funded organizations that use the playbook identified above, first used by William Jennings Bryan. She shows how the same arguments have been used in the resistance to public health measures and vaccines during the COVID pandemic and in resistance to scientists seeking to warn the public about human induced climate change.
Along the way she explores how the anti-science groups capitalize on “research” that is flawed in methodology and not reproducible, yet presented as credible by figures in lab coats like America’s Frontline Doctors. Not only that, many are dismissive of the work, done consciously to God’s glory, by researchers like Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, the lead NIH researcher behind development of the COVID vaccine, Dr. Francis Collins, who headed the NIH and sequenced the human genome, or Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, an environmental scientist and spouse of an evangelical pastor. Instead of celebrating how these and many other Christians have brought faith and science together, they attack them.
Kellogg Ray shows how opponents not only attack science but arouse fears that constitutional and religious freedoms will be taken away. (The irony is that many leverage social media and freely give away vast amounts of personal information while using technology that is the fruit of sophisticated scientific research!)
So, how then ought people of faith live in the modern scientific world? First of all, she calls for mutually respectful listening and conversation instead of a climate of suspicion and fear. She proposes that we speak to facts with faith. Instead of denying evolution, why not admit what science tells us but explore how Christ offers our lives meaning? How does Christianity call us beyond a “me-first” survivalism? She challenges us to step back and see the damage of science denialism in those leaving evangelical churches and others dismissive of Christianity altogether. Above all, she reminds us that if all truth is God’s truth, we need never fear the findings of science.
This was a hard book to read. It brought to mind the many fine Christians I know working in scientific research who bear wounds from the “friendly fire” of fellow believers. I’m reminded of how troubling I’ve found Christian misrepresentation, and sometimes, outright lies. It is not that others never lie, but this is never warranted by followers of the one who is Truth. I’ve watched students walk away from faith, not because of the science, but because of how their churches have dismissed their questions. It reminded me of online conversations with Christians during COVID where a reading of Constitutional rights took pre-eminence over the love of neighbor.
I have questions about how fruitful Kellogg Ray’s recommendations will be. But her concluding chapter reminds us that our call is to faith and faithfulness. But that may very well mean being the minority even in our own Christian communities. It could also mean finding common ground with non-believing but spiritually seeking people. In reading the gospels, I’m encouraged that this is where we find Jesus.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Speakeasy for review.
“There she goes again… Janet and her monkey god science” (p. 3)
Janet Kellogg Ray is a science educator. The quote is an edited response from a person who disagreed with her concerning an article about public health and explains the title of this book. This is, sadly, the way evangelicals have dismissed science-based argument, even from other evangelicals. It is an example of the growing anti-science bias of many who identify as evangelical.
It also represents the leading edge of an anti-science playbook, which Kellogg identifies:
1. The scientific evidence is sketchy, misrepresented, or simply wrong.
2. Science threatens faith and morality.
3. Acceptance of science comes at a cost to personal freedoms or personal beliefs.
Kellogg Ray writes as an insider, a member of an evangelical church in which many members would disagree with her views. She’s loves Jesus. And she is also a scientist who would affirm what many in her congregation would deny. God made life in the world through evolutionary processes. God works for good to save lives through vaccine research and public health measures. And God has given insight to climate scientists of how we may care for a rapidly warming world. She also explores why many evangelicals don’t believe and often actively resist these ideas.
It goes back to evolution and a fight that began with the Scopes trial and continues through a number of well-funded organizations that use the playbook identified above, first used by William Jennings Bryan. She shows how the same arguments have been used in the resistance to public health measures and vaccines during the COVID pandemic and in resistance to scientists seeking to warn the public about human induced climate change.
Along the way she explores how the anti-science groups capitalize on “research” that is flawed in methodology and not reproducible, yet presented as credible by figures in lab coats like America’s Frontline Doctors. Not only that, many are dismissive of the work, done consciously to God’s glory, by researchers like Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, the lead NIH researcher behind development of the COVID vaccine, Dr. Francis Collins, who headed the NIH and sequenced the human genome, or Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, an environmental scientist and spouse of an evangelical pastor. Instead of celebrating how these and many other Christians have brought faith and science together, they attack them.
Kellogg Ray shows how opponents not only attack science but arouse fears that constitutional and religious freedoms will be taken away. (The irony is that many leverage social media and freely give away vast amounts of personal information while using technology that is the fruit of sophisticated scientific research!)
So, how then ought people of faith live in the modern scientific world? First of all, she calls for mutually respectful listening and conversation instead of a climate of suspicion and fear. She proposes that we speak to facts with faith. Instead of denying evolution, why not admit what science tells us but explore how Christ offers our lives meaning? How does Christianity call us beyond a “me-first” survivalism? She challenges us to step back and see the damage of science denialism in those leaving evangelical churches and others dismissive of Christianity altogether. Above all, she reminds us that if all truth is God’s truth, we need never fear the findings of science.
This was a hard book to read. It brought to mind the many fine Christians I know working in scientific research who bear wounds from the “friendly fire” of fellow believers. I’m reminded of how troubling I’ve found Christian misrepresentation, and sometimes, outright lies. It is not that others never lie, but this is never warranted by followers of the one who is Truth. I’ve watched students walk away from faith, not because of the science, but because of how their churches have dismissed their questions. It reminded me of online conversations with Christians during COVID where a reading of Constitutional rights took pre-eminence over the love of neighbor.
I have questions about how fruitful Kellogg Ray’s recommendations will be. But her concluding chapter reminds us that our call is to faith and faithfulness. But that may very well mean being the minority even in our own Christian communities. It could also mean finding common ground with non-believing but spiritually seeking people. In reading the gospels, I’m encouraged that this is where we find Jesus.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Speakeasy for review.
May 23, 2025
title: The God of Monkey Science
author: Janet Kellogg Ray
date: 2023
publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Janet Kellogg Ray's book "The God of Monkey Science" examines the history of science denial and anti-intellectualism in USA Evangelical churches beginning with the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 through its contribution to modern-day denial of evolution, climate science, vaccines and masks, and stem cell research.
Ray covers a lot of ground. I think she does an excellent job connecting the history of science denial in USA white evangelicals over the past 100 years, beginning with the Scopes Monkey Trial to the rejection of evolution, climate science, vaccines, masking, and other evidence-based COVID-19 treatment and prevention measures.
Since this is the same demographic that largely aligns with patriarchy, Christian Nationalism, and far-right-wing politics, it would be interesting to explore these associations, which cannot be explained merely by the science denial initiated by the Scopes Monkey Trial.
This is an important book to read, even if the ones who most need to examine these issues will probably not read it. "The God of Monkey Science" is easy to read. Ray communicates well.
The bigger issue that is in the background throughout the book is the perceived (by some) conflict between science and faith, which is often a reason given for leaving the church.
What is refreshing is her emphasis that this isn’t simply a battle of facts; it is a question of trust.
Who do we believe when science shifts or evolves?
Whose story gets centred?
Who mediates reality—pastor or professor?
Politician or peer-reviewed journal?
Ray understands that this is as much about formation as information. The North American evangelical mind has been shaped by decades of messaging around the threat of evolution. It's not as simple as saying “just follow the science.” Ray reminds us that even saying that phrase has become politicised.
So Ray, she offers not just critique, but tools: discussion prompts, condensed and understandable explanations of core scientific principles, and gentle questions meant to spark real conversation.
Ray closes not with certainty, but with invitation:
As disparate as world religions are, people of all religious faiths agree on this one point: science doesn’t have all the answers. What are followers of Jesus contributing to the conversation?
As Christians, we are called to truth. Speaking it. Defending it. Living it. Why be afraid of science? If God is truth, all truth is God’s truth, including scientific truth.
Christians are called to have the mind of Christ. Noll describes this as a mind for Christ, thinking like a Christian across the spectrum of modern learning, from economics to history to the arts. What does it mean to have a mind for Christ, specifically in a world of modern science? What, besides denial, are we adding to the conversation? Are there things that the Bible simply does not speak to? How can we approach these things with a mind for Christ?
Science and faith are not enemies. Science does not have all the answers. With a mind for Christ, may we live as people of faith in a modern scientific world. [emphasis mine]
I recommend this book.
The church needs to do better in this area, and reading this book is a great place to begin.
This book was provided free of charge by Speakeasy and Mike Morrell.
The views expressed here are my opinion.
author: Janet Kellogg Ray
date: 2023
publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Janet Kellogg Ray's book "The God of Monkey Science" examines the history of science denial and anti-intellectualism in USA Evangelical churches beginning with the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 through its contribution to modern-day denial of evolution, climate science, vaccines and masks, and stem cell research.
Ray covers a lot of ground. I think she does an excellent job connecting the history of science denial in USA white evangelicals over the past 100 years, beginning with the Scopes Monkey Trial to the rejection of evolution, climate science, vaccines, masking, and other evidence-based COVID-19 treatment and prevention measures.
Since this is the same demographic that largely aligns with patriarchy, Christian Nationalism, and far-right-wing politics, it would be interesting to explore these associations, which cannot be explained merely by the science denial initiated by the Scopes Monkey Trial.
This is an important book to read, even if the ones who most need to examine these issues will probably not read it. "The God of Monkey Science" is easy to read. Ray communicates well.
The bigger issue that is in the background throughout the book is the perceived (by some) conflict between science and faith, which is often a reason given for leaving the church.
What is refreshing is her emphasis that this isn’t simply a battle of facts; it is a question of trust.
Who do we believe when science shifts or evolves?
Whose story gets centred?
Who mediates reality—pastor or professor?
Politician or peer-reviewed journal?
Ray understands that this is as much about formation as information. The North American evangelical mind has been shaped by decades of messaging around the threat of evolution. It's not as simple as saying “just follow the science.” Ray reminds us that even saying that phrase has become politicised.
So Ray, she offers not just critique, but tools: discussion prompts, condensed and understandable explanations of core scientific principles, and gentle questions meant to spark real conversation.
Ray closes not with certainty, but with invitation:
As disparate as world religions are, people of all religious faiths agree on this one point: science doesn’t have all the answers. What are followers of Jesus contributing to the conversation?
As Christians, we are called to truth. Speaking it. Defending it. Living it. Why be afraid of science? If God is truth, all truth is God’s truth, including scientific truth.
Christians are called to have the mind of Christ. Noll describes this as a mind for Christ, thinking like a Christian across the spectrum of modern learning, from economics to history to the arts. What does it mean to have a mind for Christ, specifically in a world of modern science? What, besides denial, are we adding to the conversation? Are there things that the Bible simply does not speak to? How can we approach these things with a mind for Christ?
Science and faith are not enemies. Science does not have all the answers. With a mind for Christ, may we live as people of faith in a modern scientific world. [emphasis mine]
I recommend this book.
The church needs to do better in this area, and reading this book is a great place to begin.
This book was provided free of charge by Speakeasy and Mike Morrell.
The views expressed here are my opinion.
May 4, 2024
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
The God of Monkey Science is an interesting and layman accessible monograph on the intersections of science and how people of faith "make it all fit together" presented by Dr. Janet Kellogg Ray. Released 10th Oct 2023 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, it's 248 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
The author writes well and eloquently on the antiscience messaging rampant in the (American) evangelical movement. Evangelical people are significantly more likely to reject evolution, earth science (ancient earth), and epidemiology and vaccine science, as witnessed, with devastating consequences during the pandemic.
She's a trained scientist and examines (and does a pretty good job of finding some common ground on) some of the more contentious points familiar to folks who lived through covid in an age of social media. She's intelligent and comprehensible and, like many scientists, saddened and perplexed by the rampant rise of anti-science feeling.
Mostly she does a good job of saying "science and religion answer *different* questions and aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. People of faith *can* be (and are) scientists. They can co-exist peacefully.
Although it's not a rigorous scientific work, and is perfectly accessible to laypeople, it is well annotated throughout, and the chapter notes and bibliography will give readers a wealth of further opportunity for study.
Four stars. Well done and worthwhile. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition and home use.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The God of Monkey Science is an interesting and layman accessible monograph on the intersections of science and how people of faith "make it all fit together" presented by Dr. Janet Kellogg Ray. Released 10th Oct 2023 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, it's 248 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
The author writes well and eloquently on the antiscience messaging rampant in the (American) evangelical movement. Evangelical people are significantly more likely to reject evolution, earth science (ancient earth), and epidemiology and vaccine science, as witnessed, with devastating consequences during the pandemic.
She's a trained scientist and examines (and does a pretty good job of finding some common ground on) some of the more contentious points familiar to folks who lived through covid in an age of social media. She's intelligent and comprehensible and, like many scientists, saddened and perplexed by the rampant rise of anti-science feeling.
Mostly she does a good job of saying "science and religion answer *different* questions and aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. People of faith *can* be (and are) scientists. They can co-exist peacefully.
Although it's not a rigorous scientific work, and is perfectly accessible to laypeople, it is well annotated throughout, and the chapter notes and bibliography will give readers a wealth of further opportunity for study.
Four stars. Well done and worthwhile. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition and home use.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
June 3, 2024
A very depressing book about the closing of the evangelical mind with regards to science. So many Christians have it backwards, thinking science will drive faith out of young believers, when in fact denial of basic science (and a dependence on a false dogma) is instead a primary factor in why open-minded believers distance themselves from communities of Faith and eventually Christianity itself. With example after example of 'Christian' leaders holding to interpretations of the Bible that mock science, the author paints a picture of Christianity that the world is (rightly) rejecting.
October 4, 2024
Absolutely critical reading for the American church!
This outline of how science denial developed in, and influenced the development of, American evangelical culture is a must-read for people concerned about the direction the church should take in the future. For the church to remain viable in the future (let alone a relevant force for cultural change) it must fight the attitude that science by necessity weakens faith. The discussion questions at the end of the book can serve to foster some deeper thinking on many of today's issues.
This outline of how science denial developed in, and influenced the development of, American evangelical culture is a must-read for people concerned about the direction the church should take in the future. For the church to remain viable in the future (let alone a relevant force for cultural change) it must fight the attitude that science by necessity weakens faith. The discussion questions at the end of the book can serve to foster some deeper thinking on many of today's issues.
March 3, 2024
This is a really good book for anyone who has conversations with people in their life who deny science for religious reasons. It might also be good for Bio teachers who have frustrating conversations with students about certain science topics. It shows the connection between the denial of evolution, climate change, and COVID vaccines / masking mandates. I always instinctively understood that these ideas were linked somehow for my evangelical friends and family, but I didn’t understand why.
July 14, 2024
Great book! Christians can accept evolution, get the Covid vaccine, believe scientists that climate change is real! Once we trust the science we can work towards reversing climate change, eliminating COVID, and see how humanity is a part of all life through evolution.
October 17, 2023
No es interesante
Dedicó demasiado tiempo a la COVID y no el suficiente a explicar su postura sobre la evolución. Dedicó demasiado tiempo a las controversias. Aburrido
Dedicó demasiado tiempo a la COVID y no el suficiente a explicar su postura sobre la evolución. Dedicó demasiado tiempo a las controversias. Aburrido
January 3, 2024
Highly relevant and timely.
A must read for any who are desperate to understand science-denial and how we as Christians can live e in light of the truths science reveals.
A must read for any who are desperate to understand science-denial and how we as Christians can live e in light of the truths science reveals.
December 30, 2024
See my review on my blog: https://winsomewomen.blogspot.com/202...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 18, 2025
Such an important topic! Need to not discount science just because of faith or vice-versa.
December 26, 2024
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!
The author claims to be an evangelical Christian but appears to have partaken of the Luciferian Koolaid of "evolution is science," "COVID was a real disease; not a planned control move," "masks save lives," and the C-9 "vax" was efficacious. Probably a lot more non-science BS, but I bailed after page 38.
I marked this as READ because there's no option for ABORTED.
The author claims to be an evangelical Christian but appears to have partaken of the Luciferian Koolaid of "evolution is science," "COVID was a real disease; not a planned control move," "masks save lives," and the C-9 "vax" was efficacious. Probably a lot more non-science BS, but I bailed after page 38.
I marked this as READ because there's no option for ABORTED.
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