Senior shares her thoughts on faith and science in national journal

Senior shares her thoughts on faith and science in national journal

Chemistry student earns rare distinction as published author in academia before earning her degree this past May.

By Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 | 05/26/2026

You might think that Dr. John Smith, professor and department chair in chemistry, most often likes to think about small things: molecules, atomic particles or nanocrystals.
But Smith actually likes to think about big things, like how natural wonders like the Grand Canyon are God's artwork or how scientists and engineers can be creators as a reflection of the great Creator of all.

Those big thoughts, over years of teaching an upper-level Engagements course at Lipscomb on science, art and faith, are what fueled him to invite his chemistry students in a Colloquium class to write down their own thoughts on the intersection of faith and science.

In fall 2024, Lilyan Robinette (BS '26), then a junior, took him up on the offer, and the essay she wrote about how the tiny details of chemical organization point toward a big God, was chosen for publication in the American Scientific Affiliation's (ASA) academic journal God & Nature in December 2025.

The ASA, an international network of Christians in the sciences, publishes God & Nature, a quarterly online magazine offering essays, stories, poetry and artwork by scientists, scholars, pastors, students and lay persons around the world on the topic of science and Christian faith.

When Smith and fellow Instructor Morghan Morris read Robinette's essay, "Divinely Woven," they suggested that she submit it to the journal, which had also published one of his articles in 2022 about humans' inability to understand the scale of God's awesomeness.

"It's focused on the way the things in chemistry are so organized and put together so purposefully in every little, tiny detail," Robinette said of her own essay. "That order and organization is not an accident. So many people try to keep science and faith separate, but it's really difficult to do, especially because they want to be together."

Robinette also read her essay at Lipscomb's 2024 Student Scholars Symposium.

The Maryville, Tennessee-native says she had always loved reading and writing growing up, but as her propensity for the sciences emerged in high school, she put that passion aside. However, while studying abroad in London during her sophomore year, she re-discovered her love of writing and felt she was in a great moment to take Smith up on his challenge.
She wrote the piece in her spare time, compiling many thoughts she had harbored for some time.

To readers of her essay, Robinette says she hopes they "have the same feeling that I do about our world being so amazing, awesome and just beautifully made. I hope they feel like their life, and everything around them, has such purpose to it."

Smith says Lipscomb is a safe space for students to voice their questions about how faith and science work in harmony, and he would love to find ways to help them do that more often. In that vein, he has a desire to compile a "book" full of essays by Lipscomb students on faith and science issues, he said.

"It helps the students to really spend time on it, and to really dig and come up with questions that they didn't even know they had," he said of the process. "It makes them think about things they haven't thought of before, and that's what we are about. We are about exploring your faith.

"Giving them an opportunity to explore in a safe place where they can be guided is a huge benefit to our students," he said. "Here they have access to experience and wisdom, and faculty who act as partners in helping them discover things. So that when they leave here, they feel like they have really looked at themselves in the mirror, know what they really believe and value, and know that they have good reasons for doing so."