Karl W. Giberson Explained

Karl Giberson
Birth Date:	13 May 1957
Birth Place:	Bath, New Brunswick, Canada
Field:	Physics, Theology
Work Institutions:	Eastern Nazarene College, Stonehill College
Alma Mater:	Eastern Nazarene College, Rice University
Doctoral Advisor:	Barry Dunning
Website:	http://www.karlgiberson.com

Karl Willard Giberson (born May 13, 1957) is a Canadian physicist, scholar, and author, specializing in the creation–evolution debate (see Creation–evolution controversy). He has held a teaching post since 1984, written several books, and been a member of various academic and scientific organizations. He formerly served as vice president of the BioLogos Foundation.^[1]

Education

Giberson holds two bachelor's degrees (in philosophy and in physics/math) from Eastern Nazarene College, and both a master's degree and a PhD in physics from Rice University.

Career

Giberson was a member of the faculty at his alma mater, Eastern Nazarene College, from 1984 to 2011. In that time, he taught courses on physics, astronomy, and science and religion, as well as directing the Honors Scholar Program. His strong support for evolution made him increasingly controversial^[2] and played a role in his departure in 2011.^[3]

Giberson is also a fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA). He co-directed the Venice Summer School on Science and Religion,^[4] and has lectured on science and religion at Oxford University, the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture in Sicily, and various colleges and universities in the United States. In 2006, he was invited to speak at the Vatican on "America's Ongoing Hostility to Darwinism" and at the Harvard Club of New York City in 2008.

In early 2009, Giberson became the Executive Vice President of The BioLogos Foundation, founded by Francis Collins.^[5] He served briefly as president before leaving the foundation in 2011 to further pursue his passion for writing.^{[6] [7]}

In 2012, Giberson became a faculty member at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, where he is a scholar-in-residence in science and religion.^[8]

In 2013, Giberson was elected to the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR).^[9]

Published works

Giberson is a contributing editor to Books & Culture, where he has published many essays on science. He was the founding editor of Science & Theology News, the leading publication in the field until it ceased publication in 2006, and editor-in-chief of Science & Spirit from 2003 to 2006 for the John Templeton Foundation.^[10]

Giberson has published over two hundred articles, reviews, and essays, both technical and popular. In addition to blogging regularly at the Huffington Post,^[11] Giberson has written for The New York Times,^[12] Salon.com,^[13] Discover, Perspectives on Science & Faith, CNN.com,^[14] Quarterly Review of Biology,^[15] Weekly Standard,^[16] Christian History, Christianity Today, Zygon, USA Today^[17] and other publications. He has appeared on many radio shows including NPR's Talk of the Nation.^[18]

His essay "Say it Ain't So: America's Ongoing Hostility to Religion" appears in the college reader What Matters in America.^[19]

Books

• Worlds Apart: The Unholy War between Religion and Science, (Church of the Nazarene and Beacon Hill Press, 1993)^[20] has, despite controversy, been used at various Nazarene and other evangelical colleges to counter Christian Fundamentalist approaches to "origins".
• Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002),^[21] coauthored with Don Yerxa, garnered recognition as one of the most balanced treatments of the creation–evolution controversy in print. America's leading scholar of creationism, Ronald Numbers, described it as "accessible, accurate, and even-handed."^[22] It is used as a textbook and has been translated into Polish for an inclusion in a contemporary philosophy series.^[23]
• The Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists Versus God and Religion (Oxford University Press, 2006),^{[24] [25]} co-authored with Spanish philosopher Mariano Artigas, examines the purported "abuse of science" in the service of secularism by six scientists of this generation: Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, E.O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg, and Stephen Hawking. The book has been translated into Italian, Spanish and Polish.^[26]
• Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (HarperOne, 2008),^[27] was recognized by the Washington Post Book World as "One of the best books of 2008."^[28]
• The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions (InterVarsity Press, 2011),^[29] coauthored with Francis Collins, aims to show Christians why they need not reject science nor God.^[30]
• Quantum Leap: How John Polkinghorne Found God in Science and Religion (Lion UK, 2011),^[31] coauthored with Dean Nelson, examines the science-and-religion relationship through the lens of the life of physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne.
• The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age (Harvard University Press, 2011)^[32] coauthored with Randall J. Stephens, explores how intellectual authority is applied and misapplied in Evangelicalism. The authors wrote an op-ed for The New York Times summarizing some of the issues that the book raises.^[33]
• The Wonder of the Universe: Hints of God in Our Fine-Tuned World (IVP Books, 2012),^[34] is an exploration of the religious resonances of our modern understanding of cosmology.
• Seven Glorious Days: A Scientist Retells the Genesis Creation Story (Paraclete Press, 2012),^[35] explores what the Biblical creation story would look like if it were written within the framework of modern science.
• Saving the Original Sinner: How Christians Have Used the Bible's First Man to Oppress, Inspire, and Make Sense of the World (Beacon Press, 2015),^[36] explains how the idea of the Biblical Adam has evolved throughout the ages and explores the influence that the fall of Adam has had on Western ideas. Giberson contends that the attempts of Evangelical Christians to preserve a literal interpretation of the Biblical creation story have contributed to them becoming intellectually isolated in a variety of fields.

External links

• KarlGiberson.com
• Video (with mp3 available) of discussion about religion and God with Giberson and Robert Wright on Bloggingheads.tv

Notes and References

1. Web site: Karl Giberson Moves on to Create More Time for Writing | the BioLogos Forum . 2012-07-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150921231014/http://biologos.org/blog/karl-giberson-moves-on-to-create-more-time-for-writing . 2015-09-21 . dead .
2. Web site: Karl Giberson Promotes "Christian Evolution" at ENC. August 11, 2009.
3. News: 2013 Was a Terrible Year for Evolution. The Daily Beast. January 2, 2014. Giberson. Karl W..
4. Web site: Eastern Nazarene College: News . 2008-12-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080805173808/http://www.enc.edu/news/2008/giberson_yerxa.htm . 2008-08-05 . dead .
5. Web site: BioLogos.org . 2009-05-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090503221613/http://biologos.org/about/team/karl-giberson/ . 2009-05-03 . dead .
6. Web site: Our History: 2006 to Today | BioLogos . 2015-08-11 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150811080251/http://biologos.org/about/history . 2015-08-11 .
7. Web site: Karl Giberson Moves on to Create More Time for Writing | the BioLogos Forum . 2012-07-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150921231014/http://biologos.org/blog/karl-giberson-moves-on-to-create-more-time-for-writing . 2015-09-21 . dead .
8. Web site: Faculty & Staff Directory.
9. Web site: Members Login Fellows & Associates.
10. Web site: American Scientific Affiliation newsletter, Jul/Aug 2001, Vol. 43 No. 4 . 2007-08-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121108201132/http://www.asa3.org/ASA/newsletter/JULAUG01.htm . 2012-11-08 . dead .
11. Web site: Karl Giberson, Ph.D. Huffington Post. March 25, 2012.
12. News: The Evangelical Rejection of Reason. March 25, 2012. The New York Times. October 17, 2011. Karl W. Giberson. Randall J. Stephens.
13. News: Giberson. Karl. What's wrong with science as religion. March 25, 2012. Salon.com. July 31, 2008.
14. News: Giberson. Karl. My Take: Jesus would believe in evolution and so should you. May 19, 2015. CNN.com. April 10, 2011.
15. Giberson. Karl W.. Theology in the Context of Science. The Quarterly Review of Biology. December 2010. 85. 4. 485–486. 10.1086/656832. 10.1086/656832.
16. News: Giberson. Karl. Scientific Methods. March 25, 2012. Weekly Standard. March 8, 2010.
17. News: Giberson. Karl W.. Atheists, it's time to play well with others. March 25, 2012. USA Today. May 27, 2010.
18. News: Evangelical Christians Form Parallel Structure. March 25, 2012. NPR. October 20, 2011.
19. Book: Goshgarian, Gary. What Matters in America. 2010. Longman Publishing Group. 978-0-205-66922-6.
20. Karl Giberson, Worlds Apart: The Unholy War between Religion and Science, Beacon Hill Press, 1993
21. Karl Giberson and Donald Yerxa, Species of Origins: America's Search for a Creation Story, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002
22. http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/Catalog/Reviews.shtml?command=Search&db=%5EDB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0742507645 Reviews for Species of Origins
23. http://wydawnictwomegas.pl/images/uploaded/books/20.jpg Book cover for Polish translation
24. Karl Giberson and Mariano Artigas, The Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientist Versus God and Religion, Oxford University Press, 2006
25. Giberson is, in fact, the first scholar associated with the Church of the Nazarene to publish with the Oxford University Press.
26. Web site: Oxford University Press: Oracles of Science: Karl Giberson . 2007-07-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070701140555/http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/PhilosophyofReligion/?view=usa&ci=9780195310726 . 2007-07-01 . "Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists versus God and Religion"
27. Karl Giberson, Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution HarperOne, 2008
28. Web site: Holiday Guide 2008: Gifts - Best Books of 2008 (washingtonpost.com) . 2023-05-03 . www.washingtonpost.com.
29. Karl Giberson and Francis Collins, "The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions, InverVarsity Press, 2011
30. http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/review/code=3829 The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions Product Details
31. Dean Nelson and Karl Giberson, Quantum Leap: How John Polkinghorne Found God in Science and Religion, Lion UK, 2011
32. Randall Stephens and Karl Giberson, The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age, Harvard University Press, 2011
33. News: The Evangelical Rejection of Reason. March 20, 2012. The New York Times. October 17, 2011. Karl Giberson. Randall Stephens.
34. Karl Giberson, The Wonder of the Universe: Hints of God in Our Fine-Tuned World, IVP Books, 2012
35. Karl Giberson, Seven Glorious Days: A Scientist Retells the Genesis Creation Story, Paraclete Press, 2012
36. Karl Giberson, Saving the Original Sinner: How Christians Have Used the Bible's First Man to Oppress, Inspire, and Make Sense of the World, Beacon Press, 2015