In this delightful conversation, my friend Myron Penner – everyone’s favorite Canadian Mennonite philosopher of science and religion – offers up five compelling ways that science can actually enrich rather than threaten faith. We move beyond the tired old “conflict thesis” between science and religion to explore how scientific discoveries can help identify factually suspect theology (looking at you, young earth creationism), create new theological spaces for thinking about evolution and our place in an unfinished cosmos, serve as a resource for people deconstructing harmful religious inheritances, keep us informed about the times we’re living in (hello, AI revolution), and inspire genuine awe at the beauty of collaborative human inquiry into the mysteries of existence. Along the way, we take some playful shots at Al Mohler’s dismissal of gravitational wave detection, discuss why Protestant worship could learn from cognitive science about how humans actually work, and explore how understanding the psychological mechanisms behind religious experience doesn’t undermine faith but can actually deepen it. It’s a conversation that assumes we’re past the simplistic “yay or nay to God” debates and ready for the more nuanced work of thinking through what it means to be people of faith in a scientifically informed world.

Dr. Myron Penner is a professor of philosophy at Trinity Western University and director of the Anabaptist-Mennonite Centre for Faith and Learning. On top of being a stellar scholar, he is a dear friend and the coolest Mennonite Canadian philosopher on planet earth.

Previous Podcast Visits

• Sex, God, & Gender
• Navigating Philosophy & Religion
• Dabbling in Heresy
• Science and Spiritual Experience
• Religious Trauma, Bracketing Belief, & the Best Reason to Believe in God

UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS – The God of Justice: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Longing

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