John F. Haught

As an undergraduate student at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Haught had majored in philosophy and completed graduate work in philosophical theology, though he was never ordained.

As the intellectual backbone of his courses, he turned to science-friendly 20th century philosophers such as Alfred North Whitehead, Michael Polanyi, Bernard Lonergan, and Hans Jonas.

During the 1990s, he became increasingly involved in issues relating to evolution, especially because of their growing importance in the intellectual world and the claims by creationists and prominent evolutionists alike that Darwinian science and belief in God are irreconcilable.

In his works, John Haught argues that an open-minded search for intelligibility requires a plurality of distinct “horizons of inquiry,” allowing for the harmonious cohabitation of science (including evolutionary biology) and religious belief.

John Haught’s lectures and works focus on a vision of reality that provides room for both scientific inquiry and a biblical understanding of God.

According to Haught, a major obstacle to adopting a plurality of reading levels is the persistence of biblical literalism which erroneously looks to the Bible as a source of scientific truth.

In works, such as God and the New Atheism, Haught aims to show that Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Jerry Coyne have adopted the same misplaced biblical literalism as their creationist opponents.

Haught disputes the contention of New Atheists that God is a quasi-scientific hypothesis now rendered obsolete by modern cosmology, geology, and evolutionary biology.

The data that give rise to distinctively theological questions include an easily recognizable set of beliefs and ethical commitments that do not show up within the horizon of scientific inquiry, but which every scientist must embrace in order to do science at all.

Other expert evaluations of the works of John Haught include Carter Phipps, the author of Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science’s Greatest Idea (2012).

[3] Forbes Magazine called The New Cosmic Story the “Book of the year.”[4] Haught testified as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.