In an interesting USA Today piece, religion writer Mark I. Pinsky examines why scientists in the UK can openly profess their evangelicalism while in the U.S., biblical Christianity is widely considered the enemy of science. UK’s roster of scientists who both hold to a biblical worldview and are at the pinnacle of their fields includes Sir John Houghton, former head of the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office; Sir John Polkinghorne, a particle physicist, Anglican priest and author of numerous books on science and religion; Sir Brian Heap, a biologist; geologist Robert W. White; and paleobiologist Simon Conway Morris. Pinsky writes:

And they are not perfunctory adherents, merely showing up for Sunday worship; they believe in acting on their beliefs. Some have taken up weekend pulpits.

 I asked these scientists the sources of their belief, and the answers they gave me were intriguing to someone who for years has been more immersed in the world of American evangelicals, where I frequently found that hostility toward science seemed to be the norm in public controversies.

The scientists Pinsky interviewed say the theory of evolution is an “unlikely” explanation of origins. They also accept the biblical accounts of Jesus’s birth, death, and resurrection. And yet, in Britain, they remain widely respected, while in the U.S. they would likely be catcalled into silence or obscurity. Here’s why.