Language of God

A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the climate emergency has reached a “code red”. New research also shows that over 50% of Americans agree that climate change is happening and demands urgent action. So why does it seem like so little is being done? Internationally renowned climate scientist, professor and author Katharine Hayhoe returns to the show and tells us what keeps her hopeful despite the dire situation we find ourselves in. She also tells us about her forthcoming book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, which expands on why she’s hopeful. Katharine is also an ardent Christian and she shares with Jim the biblical foundation for climate action.

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At first glance, biblical genealogies appear to straightforward family trees, the kinds we see on ancestry.com that map out the precise relationships between parents and offspring, tracing back as far as we can go. But is that how the genealogies in the Bible are supposed to be read? It turns out there’s a lot more going on in the genealogies than just that straightforward accounting. Bible scholar, Richard Middleton, shares with us some of the historical context that helps us to see the genealogies as another part of the story of God’s creation. 

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Throughout the pandemic, COVID-19 related news and public thought has often centered around the countries we reside in. Our guest today, Father Nicanor Austriaco, invites us to peer beyond our own situations to see how the rest of the world is dealing with the disease. Father Nicanor shares with Jim how his home country, the Philippines, is handling the tumultuous time as well as what it’s like to be both a Catholic priest and a molecular biologist during a pandemic.

Learn more about Father Nicanor's project on St. Thomas Aquinas and evolution here.

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As the series comes to a close, Jim and Colin take stock of one more distinguishing feature of humans—the image of God. While the previous episodes in the series question if humans are uniquely unique from other species from the ground up, this episode changes perspectives to approach an answer from the Heavens down. As usual, they bring in a range of experts from a variety of fields to weigh in on what it means to be made in the image of God. They come to some significant conclusions, including a warning against idolizing human rationality, but also point out where this quest may continue. 

In this new Language of God mini series—Uniquely Unique—Jim is joined by our producer Colin for a deep dive into these questions and more. The quest? To try to come to a better understanding of what it means to be human, to bear the image of God. Along the way, you’ll hear from a variety of experts from a wide range of disciplines, drawing on biology, history, anthropology, philosophy, theology and more to try to make sense of our human identity.

Check our new animated video series including a video exploring what it means to be human. 

Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.

In the long history of searching for what makes humans special we have repeatedly caused great harm to our neighbors, both human and non-human. In fact, it seems that one of the things that makes our species unique is our ability to cause such destruction. The search for human uniqueness can lead to a kind of thinking that devalues everything non-human. When ‘human’ is defined too narrowly, that can leave some humans out. In the first part of this episode we look at how ideas of race have caused us to treat a large portion of our population as less than human. Then we look at how human-centric thinking has had a detrimental effect on our planet.

In this new Language of God mini series—Uniquely Unique—Jim is joined by our producer Colin for a deep dive into these questions and more. The quest? To try to come to a better understanding of what it means to be human, to bear the image of God. Along the way, you’ll hear from a variety of experts from a wide range of disciplines, drawing on biology, history, anthropology, philosophy, theology and more to try to make sense of our human identity.

Check our new animated video series including a video exploring what it means to be human. 

Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.

Maybe you’ve noticed that we humans are the only creatures making podcasts. That’s at least partially because we’re the only creatures that have developed the tools to make it happen—microphones and compressors, computers and word processors. But technology encompasses a lot more than just machines with microchips. In this episode we explore our use of technology starting with the simplest tools up to the recent advances in artificial intelligence to see what role it has had in our development and in our identity as a member of the human species. 

In this new Language of God mini series—Uniquely Unique—Jim is joined by our producer Colin for a deep dive into these questions and more. The quest? To try to come to a better understanding of what it means to be human, to bear the image of God. Along the way, you’ll hear from a variety of experts from a wide range of disciplines, drawing on biology, history, anthropology, philosophy, theology and more to try to make sense of our human identity.

The quote from Rosalind Picard was from episode 65: Rosalind Picard | Flourishing in the Age of Computers
The quote from Amy Crouch was from episode 70: Amy & Andy Crouch | Finding the Off Switch

Check our new animated video series including a video exploring what it means to be human. 

Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.

Humans and animals have a lot in common, especially when you look only to biology. When you start looking at things like morality, language, and culture, you start to see that our species is quite an outlier. But to what extent do we see the building blocks of morality in other animals? And what is different about the way we communicate from the way so many other creatures communicate? And what is so special about the culture we have developed? Those are the questions we explore with our guests. 

In this new Language of God mini series—Uniquely Unique—Jim is joined by our producer Colin for a deep dive into these questions and more. The quest? To try to come to a better understanding of what it means to be human, to bear the image of God. Along the way, you’ll hear from a variety of experts from a wide range of disciplines, drawing on biology, history, anthropology, philosophy, theology and more to try to make sense of our human identity.

Check our new animated video series including a video exploring what it means to be human. 

Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.

When looking for the thing that makes humans unique on this planet, looking at our biology is an obvious first step. In this episode four experts—an anatomist, a geneticist, a paleo-anthropologist and a neuroscientist—help us look for something about us, in our bodies, cells, or brains, that make us what we are. In the search we end up finding as much continuity with the animal world as we find uniqueness. 

In this new Language of God mini series — Uniquely Unique — Jim is joined by our producer Colin for a deep dive into these questions and more. The quest? To try to come to a better understanding of what it means to be human, to bear the image of God. Along the way, you’ll hear from a variety of experts from a wide range of disciplines, drawing on biology, history, anthropology, philosophy, theology and more to try to make sense of our human identity.

Check our new animated video series including a video exploring what it means to be human. 

Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.

Humans share 98.6 of their DNA with chimpanzees. Other animals also have the capacity for language, technology, and possibly even morality. And our own bodies consist of more non-human cells than human cells. These similarities invite us to wonder, are humans really all that different from other species? Are we just one species among many or are the things which distinguish us from other species differences of another order? In other words, are we uniquely unique? 

In this new Language of God mini series—Uniquely Unique—Jim Stump is joined by our producer Colin for a deep dive into these questions and more. The quest? To try to come to a better understanding of what it means to be human, to bear the image of God. Along the way, you’ll hear from a variety of experts from a wide range of disciplines, drawing on biology, history, anthropology, philosophy, theology and more to try to make sense of our human identity.

Check our new animated video series including a video exploring what it means to be human. 

Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.

Jane Goodall’s name has become almost synonymous with the study of and care for chimpanzees over the course of her work which now spans 6 decades. Jane is also this year’s winner of the Templeton Prize, an honor she shares with people like Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Billy Graham, the Dalai Lama, and Francis Collins. She is also the founder of several initiatives, TACARE and Roots & Shoots, aimed at helping developing communities and young people build sustainable communities in 68 countries. Jane joins Francis and our host Jim to talk about her life’s work, the importance of hope in conservation, and the spiritual side of human existence. Jane and Francis may use different language to speak about their spirituality, but throughout their friendship they have found they share a lot of views about the greater significance of all life on earth and their roles in protecting and promoting the flourishing of that life.

Learn more about the Jane Goodall Institute at their website.

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