The question most people don't ask when reading a statistic: how do you know the story it tells is true?
Dr. Jason Wilson, professor of statistics at Biola University's School of Science, Technology and Health (SSTH), has been working on that question for more than 15 years. In May 2026, he published Statistics and Faith: A Christian Guide to Telling the Truth with Data through IVP Academic. The book is 272 pages. It covers gambling odds, Covid-19 mortality data, the probabilities of fulfilled prophecy and the origin of life, and the mathematical claims behind the Bible code. Each is a domain where Christians have particular reason to want the data read honestly.
The Argument
The book's central claim is not that statistics proves Christianity. It is something more useful: that statistical reasoning and Christian intellectual life share a commitment to telling the truth about the world, and that when you bring both frameworks to a contested question, you are better equipped to get the answer right.
Wilson divides the argument into two parts. The first lays the foundations: a history of how statistical methods developed, and a framework for assessing statistical arguments. The second applies those tools to specific cases. Chapter 3 examines gambling, where expected value and questions of stewardship intersect. Chapter 6 takes on Covid-19, where infection fatality rates, testing accuracy, and sampling methods were disputed in real time. Chapter 8 subjects the Bible code to the same statistical rigor Wilson applies to any dataset, asking not what people want the numbers to mean, but what the methods actually support.
The point is not to vindicate a predetermined conclusion. Across 15 years of research, Wilson's argument is that statistics done honestly rescues truth from partisanship rather than serving it.
Russell W. Howell, Kathleen Smith Chair of Natural and Behavioral Sciences at Westmont University, wrote the foreword. He describes the book as "an exploration into the fertile ground where empirical truth and spiritual conviction meet," and credits Wilson with "clarity, humility, and wisdom" in navigating it.
James Bradley, professor of mathematics emeritus at Calvin University, wrote: "Statistics and Christian faith share a deep commitment to seeking the truth, but they approach that undertaking in very different ways. Jason Wilson does a fine job of exploring the ways they differ but also the many ways in which their shared common commitment to truth leads to situations in which both have a vital concern."
The QCC Connection
Wilson brings the same framework to the Quantitative Consulting Center (QCC) as he does to the book. As director of the QCC, he runs a practicum program where students apply statistical methods to real client projects: organizations and businesses that bring data problems to the center for analysis.
Students in the QCC learn to ask what a number is actually measuring before they build the model. That discipline treats every statistical claim as a claim about the world: precision about the data is precision about the truth. It is the same posture that structures the book.
For industry partners and research institutions evaluating what Biola's mathematics and data science graduates can do, the QCC is the operational evidence. Statistics and Faith is the intellectual framework underneath it.
Why It Matters Beyond Campus
Statistics and Faith is published by IVP Academic, a press that distributes through academic channels, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Its intended readership includes university professors, statisticians, and Christians who engage policy and public-health questions and want sharper tools for evaluating the data they encounter.
Sean McDowell, professor of apologetics at Biola's Talbot School of Theology, wrote in advance of publication: "I often say that there is a way to think biblically about everything. It never occurred to me to apply this to the field of statistics. Yet, my colleague and friend Jason Wilson has done it!"
David Schmus, executive director of the Christian Educators Association, described the practical stakes: Wilson "courageously dissects statistical claims on contentious issues like Covid-19, evolution, Bible codes, and even gambling, to rescue the truth from partisanship."
Wilson holds a PhD in statistics from UC Riverside. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a member of the American Statistical Association. He co-developed the Faith, Work and Money church integration survey and co-invented the Quality of Pitch, a patented statistic used in Major League Baseball. Both appear in his IVP author bio.
Statistics and Faith: A Christian Guide to Telling the Truth with Data is available now in paperback (272 pp., $26.99, ISBN 9781514013229) and ebook through IVP Academic.
