Ayala, Francisco J.

Francisco J. Ayala (b. 1934, Madrid) is a Spanish-American evolutionary biologist and geneticist, long affiliated with the University of California, Irvine. Ordained a Dominican priest before leaving the order, he pursued doctoral work in genetics under Theodosius Dobzhansky at Columbia. His scientific contributions concern population and evolutionary genetics, molecular clocks, and the genetics of parasitic protozoa. Alongside his empirical work, Ayala has been a prominent public voice arguing for the compatibility of evolutionary biology and religious belief. In Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion (2007), he contends that natural selection theologically benefits Christianity by removing the burden of attributing biological evil—predation, disease, malformation—to direct divine design. He served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and testified against creationism and intelligent design in legal and educational contexts, opposing William Dembski and Michael Behe. Awarded the National Medal of Science (2001) and the Templeton Prize (2010), Ayala became controversial in 2018 when sexual harassment findings at UC Irvine led to the removal of his name from university units; he denied wrongdoing. His position—non-overlapping but mutually supportive science and religion—has been criticized by new atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne as insufficiently naturalist, and by some theologians as conceding too much to methodological naturalism.