John F. Haught is a Roman Catholic theologian and Senior Research Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. His area of expertise is systematic theology, with a special interest in issues of science, cosmology, ecology, and reconciling evolution and religion.
Haught graduated from St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore and subsequently received his PhD in theology from The Catholic University of America in 1970
Haught established the Georgetown Center for the Study of Science and Religion. He was the chair of Georgetown's theology department between 1990 and 1995.
He is the author of several important books on the creation-evolution controversy, including Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution, God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, and Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution. An evolutionary creationist, Haught views science and religion as two different and noncompeting levels of explanation, asserting "Science and religion cannot logically stand in a competitive relationship with each other."
Expert witness testimony
Haught testified as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. His opinion was that the effect of the intelligent design policy adopted by the Dover School board would "be to compel public school science teachers to present their students in biology class information that is inherently religious, not scientific in nature." He also testified that materialism, the philosophy that only matter exists, is "a belief system, no less a belief system than is intelligent design. And as such, it has absolutely no place in the classroom, and teachers of evolution should not lead their students craftily or explicitly to ... feel that they have to embrace a materialistic world-view in order to make sense of evolution."
Haught was the winner of the 2002 Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion and the 2004 Sophia Award for Theological Excellence. Additionally, in 2009, in recognition of his work on theology and science, Haught was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Louvain.
The Cosmic Adventure: Science, Religion and the Quest for Purpose, 1984, Paulist Press, ISBN 0-8091-2599-4
What Is God?: How to Think about the Divine, 1986, Paulist Press, ISBN 0-8091-2754-7
Science & Religion: From Conflict to Conversation, 1995, Paulist Press, ISBN 0-8091-3606-6
Science and Religion: In Search of Cosmic Purpose, 2000, Georgetown University Press 2001 reprint: ISBN 0-87840-865-7
God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, 2000, Westview Press 2001 reprint: ISBN 0-8133-3878-6
* 2nd Edition of God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, 2008, ISBN 0-8133-4370-4
Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution, 2001, Paulist Press, ISBN 0-8091-3989-8
In Search of a God for Evolution: Paul Tillich and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 2002, American Teilhard Association, ISBN 0-89012-088-9
Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution, 2003, Westview Press, hardcover: ISBN 0-8133-6590-2, paperback: ISBN 0-8133-4199-X
The Promise of Nature: Ecology and Cosmic Purpose, 2004, Wipf & Stock Publishers, ISBN 1-59244-945-X
Is Nature Enough?: Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science, May 2006, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-60993-3
God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, December 2007, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0664233044
Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God and the Drama of Life, forthcoming 2010, Westminster/John Knox Press
