By Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr.
You may have seen the recent headlines about scientists across the country protesting and raising awareness of the impact of recent federal funding cuts to scientific research. The impact is real, and it matters to every person. Who among us can’t remember a time we benefitted from the products of scientific research, whether from attention by a medical professional to treat a disease or injury, or from the convenience of over-the-counter relief for headaches or allergies?
The foundation of American science is currently under attack. This may sound like a “Chicken Little” claim, but it is not. It may sound like a partisan reaction to recent actions taken by President Donald Trump and his administration, but it is not. The concern is real, as recent actions threaten the well-being of every person, regardless of political affiliation or any other identifier.
The recent rallies were not the first protest in response to recent federal actions. Responses have come from a number of directions, as the actions affect a wide range of scientific areas, from medical to environmental, and threaten not just science but critical thinking as a whole. Several leading scientists (including me) have spoken out against the administration’s freeze on funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation as part of its attempts to dismantle diversity equity, and inclusion programs[i]. On February 25, 2025, the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association filed suit in United States District Court to prevent the Trump administration’s proposed changes in how history and sociology are taught[ii].
The first days of President Trump’s second term saw a dizzying array of Executive Orders, prompting response not just to the action itself, but to the erroneous information on which the actions were based. An example: One order claims to “protect American women” by declaring that gender is equivalent to biological sex. That is a false belief. Gender and biological sex are not equivalent. Nor is even biological sex as simple as non-scientists might suppose[iii]. However, on March 6, 2025 the NIH was forced to suspend all research that dealt with health issues associated with transgender individuals[iv].
Another order immediately pulled the United States out of the Paris Accords on Climate Change[v], again based on false claims and information. Anthropogenic climate change is real and now causing devastating changes in weather patterns across the globe[vi]. We witnessed the harm caused by these changing weather patterns when Hurricane Helene caused an estimated 59.6 billion dollars in damage to the Western portion of our state[vii]. The United States, with only 4% of the world’s population, contributes 12.6% of global carbon dioxide emissions. It is irresponsible for our nation not to be involved in addressing this problem.
These executive orders are just two examples that have spread general confusion throughout state and federal agencies. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) was forced to take down webpages calling for diversity in clinical trials[viii]. The Centers for Disease Control had to take down their page dedicated to guidance for preventing HIV transmission and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)[ix]. Taking down the PrEP page will differentially harm people because there are pronounced disparities in HIV prevalence by sexual orientation, gender and socially defined race.
Among the most egregious examples of the new administration’s disregard for scientific facts is the appointment of Robert Kennedy, Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has no medical or scientific training, but he has taken an active role in resisting vaccination. His views on vaccination are well expressed in his 2022 book, A Letter to Liberals. Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals [x]. In short, despite the centuries of scientific research demonstrating the efficacy of vaccination as a way to prevent the spread of infectious disease, Kennedy claims it does not work, and that it is associated with the rise of autism in American children over the 20th—21st century. It is a claim based on a series of discredited studies. The Centers for Disease Control maintains its website debunking this pseudoscience[xi] – for now. The cost of anti-vaccination pseudoscience has already been shown, as last week an unvaccinated child died from measles[xii]. In 2019, the World Health Organization listed “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the top ten global health threats, along with air pollution, climate change and population displacement[xiii].
The knowledge we have about the efficacy of vaccinations is the result of scientific research. The reason we have been able to eradicate disease and find ways to treat new ones is the result of scientific research. What we know about the human body and the natural world around us is the result of scientific research. That research is not based on whims or opinions, but rather the careful application of the scientific method. Diversity in clinical trials is not political correctness or “woke” ideology, it is a scientific imperative. The more genetic diversity in a trial or research, the greater the likelihood researchers will be able to discover idiosyncratic and harmful reactions that can harm patients. No one should be opposed to scientific research – in any field – that benefits everyone.
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Science is a discipline by which we understand the rules of nature. As Christians, we believe that God is the author of these rules, and as Episcopalians, we anchor our belief in three Anglican principles: Scripture, tradition and reason. This means we can work out the rules of nature by a consistent and determined application of our reason.
The method begins with careful observations of nature. Our ability to do this has increased greatly due to advances in technology. On one end of the scale, the Hubble Space Telescope allows us to view distant galaxies, and our Helium Ion Microscope at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering in Greensboro, allows us to visualize images at the width of 2.4 helium atoms (or 0.24 nanometers!). From the observations we make of natural systems, we develop hypotheses (or best guesses) concerning how the systems work. These hypotheses are often validated by mathematical models. Albert Einstein once said “mathematics is the language of the universe.” We then test our hypotheses using experiments. Our experiments are actually designed to falsify our hypotheses as opposed to proving that they are correct. Thus, scientific research is like detective work. As Holmes said to Watson in the Sign of the Four: “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Over the course of many experiments, we then build general grand theories of how the universe works. These include “the conservation of matter,” “law of universal gravitation,” “molecular dogma- DNA makes RNA makes protein,” and “evolution as descent with modification.” These grand theories of nature have so much evidence associated with them that we count them as “truth.” However, scientific thinking is always open to find new evidence that can falsify any aspect of a grand theory, or the entire theory altogether.
SCIENCE AND RELIGION NEED NOT BE AT ODDS
Scientists are people who perform their work in the context of the societies in which they live or lived. They are also people whose faith runs the gamut, from atheists and agnostics to those whose faith runs deep. They are people who understand that science and religion need not be at odds.
You may count me among those whose faith runs deep. In my biopic, A Voice in the Wilderness, I describe my own work fostering the dialog between religion and science. I have served as a science advisor for several theological seminaries, and I chose to pursue a career in science because I felt it was my best tool for helping to make the world a safer and more just place. Science has the potential to alleviate world hunger and disease. It can provide inexhaustible, renewable and non-polluting energy.
However, science also has the power to destroy the world. It produced the atomic and the hydrogen bomb. Science produced the napalm used to firebomb cities in Europe, Japan and Vietnam. It produced the “forever chemicals,” first used to waterproof military vehicles during World War II and is now used to make things like non-stick cookware, even though scientists know that exposure to them increased the risk of cancer in rodents[xiv]. Science produced the new smart weapons of the 21st century that can fly thousands of miles and hit a target within a margin of a few feet.
It is this capacity to do good or harm that calls us to turn to our faith to guide us.
SCIENCE AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Our Christian faith requires us to direct our society to use its science and technology for social good and not destruction. This is why Christians must become more literate concerning the scientific method and the knowledge it produces, and lose our fear of scientific results that seem to contradict faith beliefs. Of course, I argue that science does not contradict faith beliefs because our scriptures were never meant to be textbooks of natural science. The structure of DNA is not found in secretly coded portions of the Bible. Most of the Biblical text that makes reference to natural phenomena is simply incorrect. The ancients, including the authors of the Hebrew Bible, thought the brain was an organ for filtering blood, and the seat of human consciousness was located in the heart[xv]. They thought that plagues and famine were brought about by God’s displeasure with the people. As a child, my mother taught me I must be quiet during thunderstorms because this was when God was “at work.” This only left me wondering what God was doing when the sky was clear!
Theological attempts to explain nature continued through the centuries and were often proven erroneous when scientific method was applied. In sharp contrast to our modern understanding of nature are current attempts to juxtapose the Bible as an accurate and infallible account of natural history. One example: The West Virginia legislature has introduced a bill that states the Bible is “an accurate historical record of human and natural history[xvi]” and would require schools to teach it as such. Such a bill would destroy public science education in that state.
The authors of the Bible, while divinely inspired, did not employ the scientific method to understand the world around them. Much of what appears in the Bible is based on superstition as opposed to divine inspiration. Leviticus 11: 6—7 states that the people could not eat rabbits or pigs because they were unclean. Leviticus 15:20 calls a woman’s regular flow of blood (menstruation) unclean. It is hard to image that God would have taken the attitude that the normal biological function of women essential to the reproduction of the species was “unclean.” This reflects more of the patriarchy of the ancients, than it is a statement on God’s attitudes toward women.
Neither is there a gender binary. Gender is influenced by a combination of genes, environment and development. It is a continuum, and the gender continuum occurs across a variety of species, not just in humans[xvii]. Finally, the dark-complexioned people of the world are not degenerated or created separately by God from the light-complexioned people of the world, as thought by Christian theologians and naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries[xviii]. Their reasoning was used to justify and support chattel slavery and colonialism, as according to these Christians, those being harmed by slavery were not members of the human species. Both science and theology in the 20th century overturned the religious and scientific justifications for racism[xix].
GOD THE CREATOR
God produced the rules that run the universe. In many cases, those rules have produced results that defy our narrow bigotries and prejudices. When we study nature, we learn more about the majesty of the divine. A simple look up into the sky on a clear night away from the lights of the city should convince you of that.
If Scripture was not meant to be a natural science textbook, it is intended to be a guide for what we do with our science. Thus, God calls us to use the scientific knowledge we produce for good. That means clothing the naked, freeing the prisoners, feeding the hungry and curing disease. Jesus tells us, “that which you do for the least of these, you also do for me.” (Matthew 25:4) However, scientists will not automatically do these things. This can happen only in a society that believes that these things should be done.
We, as Christians, have an obligation to be engaged in the world to make these things come to fruition. In the current moment, that means resisting this administration’s assaults on the scientific research enterprise. Freezing research at the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, firing career scientists and administrators at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will cause great harm and, undoubtedly, cost countless human lives. Regardless of any personal opinion about this president’s politics, we must recognize that these attacks are not accidental and are being implemented in destructive ways. Those fired at NOAA and EPA were engaged in work associated with climate change and environmental justice[xx], and reduction of that research will ultimately harm us all. Research that addresses transgender health profoundly affects the LGBTQ+ community, a community marginalized and oppressed in our country and punished by imprisonment or death in others.
Nor can these firings and suspension of research funding be justified as “cost saving” or “efficiency” measures, as collectively, the targeted agencies account for only 2.55% of the federal budget.
This is not the time to diminish the nation and world’s scientific research capacity. New pathogens are evolving all the time. Old pathogens are resurging due to vaccine hesitancy and climate change. Climate change is accelerating. Toxic pollution is accumulating in human bodies, increasing birth defects and decreasing life spans. The burning of fossil fuels is increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, causing dramatic increases in extreme weather.
These deleterious effects are a threat to us all, though they are not uniformly visited upon people. The poor, dispossessed, racialized and LGBTQ+ communities are being harmed the most. These people are part of the body of Christ. Many of you reading this may not belong to these dispossessed groups. However, you as fellow Christians, are called to stand with the most vulnerable in our society. Collectively, American Christians have a great potential to facilitate social change for good. In this case, that means protecting scientific research. Tomorrow it will be something else. But this is what it means to accept the way of the cross.
Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr. is a MacKenzie Scott Endowed Professor of Biology; a Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; and the recipient of the 2024 Liberty Science Center Genius Award. He is a member of St. Andrew’s, Greensboro and a member of the bishops’ Council of Advice on Public Policy (CAPP).
[i] Carr T. Manto M. In War Against DEI in Science, Researchers See Collateral Damage, Undark, February 21, 2025; https://undark.org/2025/02/21/anti-dei-unsettles-scientists/ .
[ii] Smith J. Lawsuit challenges Ed. Dept.’s authority to ban diversity programs, alter teaching on race, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, 2025; https://www.chronicle.com/article/lawsuit-challenges-ed-dept-s-authority-to-ban-diversity-programs-alter-teaching-on-race?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_12738377_nl_Afternoon-Update_date_20250226&sra=true .
[iii] Fausto Sterling A, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (New York: Basic Books), 2020.
[iv] Reardon S. New NIH grant terminations target transgender studies – even in mice, Science March 6, 2025; https://www.science.org/content/article/new-nih-grant-terminations-target-transgender-studies-even-mice .
[v] Perez N. Waldholz R. Trump is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement (again), reversing US climate policy, N.P.R, January 21, 2025; https://www.npr.org/2025/01/21/nx-s1-5266207/trump-paris-agreement-biden-climate-change .
[vi] Mann M. The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, (New York: BBS), 2021.
[vii] Lacey D. Four months from Helene, Emergency repairs continue in North Carolina, ENR Texas&Southwest, February 10, 2025; https://www.enr.com/articles/60277-four-months-from-helene-emergency-repairs-continue-in-north-carolina .
[viii] Grossi G. FDA Quietly Removes Draft Guidance on Diversity in Clinical Trials, AJMC, January 31, 2025; https://www.ajmc.com/view/fda-quietly-removes-draft-guidance-on-diversity-in-clinical-trials-following-executive-order-on-dei .
[ix] Centers for Disease Control, Guidance on HIV Prevention and Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/risk/prep/cdc-hiv-prep-guidelines-2017.pdf – access attempted on February 5, 2025.
[x] Kennedy Jr. RF. A Letter to Liberals. Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals, (New York: Sky Horse Publishing, Children’s Health Defense), 2022.
[xi] Centers for Disease Control, Vaccines and Autism, accessed February 5, 2025; https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/autism.html .
[xii] Kekatos M. Measles death of unvaccinated child in Texas outbreak is 1st fatality in US in a decade, ABC News, February 26, 2025; https://abcnews.go.com/Health/1st-measles-death-linked-outbreak-texas-confirmed-child/story?id=119208967 .
[xiii] Goldenberg MJ. Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science (Pittsburgh, PA: The University of Pittsburgh Press), 2021.
[xiv] Suran M. EPA Takes Action Against Harmful “Forever Chemicals” in the US Water Supply. JAMA. 2022; 328(18):1795–1797. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.12678.
[xv] Branson RD. Science, the Bible, and Human Anatomy, Perspectives on Science & Christian Faith, December 2016.
[xvi] West Virginia Legislature, House Joint Resolution 31, February 28, 2025; https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hjr31%20intr.htm&yr=2025&sesstype=RS&i=31&houseorig=h&billtype=jr&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cc-ncse&utm_campaign=0307_monitor_2025&utm_content=wv-hjr-31 .
[xvii] Roughgarden J. Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press), 2013.
[xviii] Keel T. Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press), 2019.
[xix] Graves JL. The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press), 2005.
[xx] Volcovici V. Lynch SN. Mason J. Trump administration cuts environmental justice programs at EPA and DOJ, Reuters, February 6. 2025; https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-cuts-environmental-justice-programs-epa-doj-sources-say-2025-02-06/CNN Politics, February 28, 2025; https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/politics/noaa-federal-workers-firings/index.html .
