Eight Problems Facing the Science-Faith Dialogue with Young Adults

I’m not one of those people who believes that you can transform every problem into a “challenge” or an “opportunity.” With that in mind, as I think back about my interviews with young adults (18-30 years old) for my research project on science and religion, I see at least eight problems we have to face:

And yet another way to respond...

1. Young adults sense that religion is against—is at war with—science (and vice versa, to some degree). They may not actually feel it themselves, but they hear it on the news.
2. Therefore they don’t think the integration of religion and science is possible.
3. The topic of science and religion seems too heady, takes too much effort, and is not connected with pressing life issues.
4. Speaking specifically of Christianity, the Bible seems outdated and unscientific.
5. In terms of the church’s often not embracing the LBGT community, religion seems uninformed by science and therefore actually immoral.
6. Many emerging adults would rather Google, than go than go to a congregation, in pursuing of answers about science and religion.
7. Interesting to note: Many students I’ve interviewed, even if they’re not traditionally religious, have difficulty with evolution, especially that “we came from monkeys.”
8. It’s hard to decide on one religion in light of all the possibilities for spirituality, which makes it difficult to know what religion to bring to science.

How do we solve these problems? My hunch is that the Christian church has to be honest about them, and neither leave its core commitments nor sidestep the problems.

      I’ll leave it there for now. What do you think?