Due to the ongoing concerns over COVID-19, all events with Ben McFarland at Upper House for the week of April 13th have been cancelled. We will share more about rescheduling Ben’s visit as details develop. Thank you for your understanding.

How do the basic rules of chemistry shed light on the order we see in creation? In Dr. Ben McFarland’s vision, they provide a direction for creation and curbs for evolution; they show how God’s order and purpose run through billions of years of natural history. Speaking to us as a chemist and a Christian, Dr. McFarland will offer his take on the interplay of scientific and religious explanations for life. He will explore two metaphors depicting how God works with and through matter—St. Augustine’s “seeds of reason” and St. Irenaeus’s “two hands” of Christ and the Spirit. These tools can help us navigate controversial and complicated scientific questions, to discern the essentials from the non-essentials in areas from the origin of life to the current changing climate.

Ben McFarland is Professor of Biochemistry and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Seattle Pacific University, where he studies structural aspects of protein biochemistry and design. Dr. McFarland writes about science for general audiences, including A World from Dust: How the Periodic Table Shaped Life (Oxford University Press, 2016). He is also a member of the BioLogos Voices speakers bureau.