The last year has brought front and centre the ongoing systemic racism in our culture. Many factors contribute to our racism, and sadly, science and medicine are a part of it. Racial disparities in medical care and other services have caused COVID cases and deaths in the United States to be much higher among people of colour. “Science” has been misused to justify atrocities such as the Tuskegee experiments and eugenics. But the evidence from evolutionary biology and genetics does not justify racism. While genetics reveals minor differences in geographical ancestry groups, these genetic differences do not align with cultural racial categories such as “black,” “Asian,” and “white.” In fact, genetics shows that we are a remarkably unified species. The scriptures go further, teaching that every person is made in the image of God and we are to love every neighbour. Both God’s world and God’s word show us that we are one human family.
Deborah Haarsma is President of BioLogos. She is a frequent speaker on modern science and Christian faith at research universities, churches, and public venues, and her writing appears in several recent books. As a research astronomer, Haarsma has studied galaxy clusters and the expansion of the universe using telescopes around the world and in orbit. She holds a PhD in astrophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Learn more about Deborah on the BioLogos website or on Twitter.
