Deborah Haarsma is an American astrophysicist, philosopher of religion and science author and activist. She is the former president of BioLogos, a Christian advocacy organization promoting

evolutionary creationism Theistic evolution (also known as theistic evolutionism or God-guided evolution), alternatively called evolutionary creationism, is a view that God acts and creates through laws of nature. Here, God is taken as the primary cause while natural cau ...

and discourse on

science and religion The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the Ancient history, ancient and Middle Ages, medieval worlds did not have conc ...

. She contributes to the intersection of modern science and Christian faith, engaging in discussions about conflicts.

Education and academic career

Haarsma studied at the Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota where she completed her undergraduate work in physics and music. Haarsma then pursued her doctoral studies in

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) where she got her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

. Haarsma joined the faculty of Calvin University, where she served as a professor and chair of the physics and astronomy departments. In 2013, she became president of The BioLogos Foundation.

Activism

Haarsma advocates for

scientific literacy Scientific literacy or science literacy encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain to understanding science, its methodology, observations, and theories. Scientific literacy is chiefly concerned with an understanding ...

and harmony between science and religion. She has voiced support for the acceptance of the

scientific consensus Scientific consensus is the generally held judgment, position, and opinion of the majority or the supermajority of scientists in a particular field of study at any particular time. Consensus is achieved through scholarly communication at confer ...

and what the consensus agrees with such as the

age of Earth The age of Earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years. This age may represent the age of Earth's accretion, or core formation, or of the material from which Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age-dating of ...

being about 4.5 billion years old, age of universe being about 13.8 billion years old, and the theory of evolution. Haarsma promotes

theistic evolution Theistic evolution (also known as theistic evolutionism or God-guided evolution), alternatively called evolutionary creationism, is a view that God acts and creates through laws of nature. Here, God is taken as the primary cause while natural cau ...

COVID-19

Haarsma strongly supported outbreak restrictions during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. She strongly promoted COVID vaccine and was involved in debunking

COVID-19 misinformation False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messagi ...

. She also alongside other members of BioLogos published the statement ''A Christian Statement on Science for Pandemic Times'' which was signed by more than 2500 people including Philip Yancey,

N.T. Wright Nicholas Thomas Wright (born 1 December 1948), known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Paul the Apostle, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham and Lord Spiritual in the UK Pa ...

, David French, and Walter Kim.

Theistic evolution and intelligent design

She has defended theistic evolutionism against both atheists and theists who argue it to be incompatible with science and theology respectively. She sharply criticized the book ''Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique'' published by '' Crossway'' and written by members related to the

Discovery Institute The Discovery Institute (DI) is a conservatism in the United States, politically conservative think tank that advocates the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific concept Article available froUniversiteit Gent of intelligent design (ID). It was fou ...

. In an article on BioLogos criticizing the book, she strongly criticized the

Intelligent Design movement The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> idea of intelligent design (ID), which ...

and its goals. Haarsma stated that she "indeed" believed in something that is technically an "Intelligent Designer". However, she believed that the "designer" "designs" through the natural processes of

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

and is the first cause of it, while evolution is only secondary to the "designer". She stated that she believes that evolution occurs by natural selection (and other things included in

Neo-Darwinism Neo-Darwinism is generally used to describe any integration of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection with Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics. It mostly refers to evolutionary theory from either 1895 (for the combinations of D ...

), but considers God's providence to be an additional factor. She believes that evolution occurs by chance and God is the one who set or determined these chances.

Biologos

During her presidency at BioLogos, Haarsma commented on the Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate, which had been criticized for giving attention to

Answers in Genesis Answers in Genesis (AiG) is an American fundamentalist Christian apologetics parachurch organization. It advocates young Earth creationism on the basis of its literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of the Book of Genesis and the Bib ...

(an organization that promotes

young Earth creationism Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between about 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, contradicting established s ...

) and for fueling the creation-evolution controversy. Haarsma and other members of BioLogos said "We expect that we'll agree with most of what Bill Nye will say about the science of evolution. Fossils, genetics, and other disciplines give compelling evidence that all life on earth is related and developed over a very long time through natural processes. But we're also brothers and sisters in Christ with Ken Ham. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for our sins and rose from the dead, and that the Bible is the authoritative word of God." She, alongside others, also stated "that one of the lasting effects of this debate will be to further alienate Christianity from science in the public consciousness."

Personal life

Haarsma is a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. She believes in

which she prefers to call "evolutionary creationism". She believes that God interacts with and sustains the world and has rejected accusations of

deism Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin term '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...

. Haarsma believes in

miracles A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...

. She has rejected accusations of "

philosophical naturalism In philosophy, naturalism is the idea that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe. In its primary sense, it is also known as ontological naturalism, metaphysical naturalism, pure naturalism, phi ...

", stating that she only supports "

methodological naturalism In philosophy, naturalism is the idea that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe. In its primary sense, it is also known as ontological naturalism, metaphysical naturalism, pure naturalism, phi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haarsma, Deborah Living people Theistic evolutionists 1969 births American astrophysicists Writers about religion and science Critics of conspiracy theories American critics of creationism American philosophers of religion Science activists American science communicators Bethel University (Minnesota) alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Members of The BioLogos Foundation