A Case for Science as an Ally of Faith

I had the opportunity to sit down recently with Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies, the authors of God, the Science, the Evidence. The book, originally published in France in 2021, has already been a publishing sensation in Europe, where it has sold over 400,000 copies. A new English edition was released on October 14. While I confess that I have, as yet, only perused parts of the book and skimmed others, and that it covers many areas in which I would not have the expertise to judge its accuracy, it is well worth considering the book and its arguments, which have already withstood a lot of critical attention in Europe.

The book’s mission is to act as a primer, debate-starter, and argumentative brief for the proposition that modern science, on balance, supports rather than undermines the case for the existence of God. While the question of God’s existence is timeless, the book is timely. It arrives in an age of skepticism, religious doubt, and declining church attendance, but also of revived curiosity among the younger generation about faith that their fathers took for granted. Perhaps more to the point, it arrives in a society that venerates science but misunderstands it as a rival to religion, with its own substitute white-coated priesthood. Bolloré and Bonnassies emphasize that, due to developments in the scientific evidence, this book could not have been written 30 or 40 years ago, or at least would have been very different in its contents.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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I had the opportunity to sit down recently with Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies, the authors of God, the Science, the Evidence. The book, originally published in France in 2021, has already been a publishing sensation in Europe, where it has sold over 400,000 copies. A new English edition was released on October 14. While I confess that I have, as yet, only perused parts of the book and skimmed others, and that it covers many areas in which I would not have the expertise to judge its accuracy, it is well worth considering the book and its arguments, which have already withstood a lot of critical attention in Europe.

The book’s mission is to act as a primer, debate-starter, and argumentative brief for the proposition that modern science, on balance, supports rather than undermines the case for the existence of God. While the question of God’s existence is timeless, the book is timely. It arrives in an age of skepticism, religious doubt, and declining church attendance, but also of revived curiosity among the younger generation about faith that their fathers took for granted. Perhaps more to the point, it arrives in a society that venerates science but misunderstands it as a rival to religion, with its own substitute white-coated priesthood. Bolloré and Bonnassies emphasize that, due to developments in the scientific evidence, this book could not have been written 30 or 40 years ago, or at least would have been very different in its contents.