Francis Collins on God, Faith, and Science
A great essay about religion and science by the director of the Human Genome Project.
As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God’s language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God’s plan.
I did not always embrace these perspectives. As a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, I was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics and chemistry. But then I went to medical school, and encountered life and death issues at the bedsides of my patients. Challenged by one of those patients, who asked “What do you believe, doctor?”, I began searching for answers.
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But reason alone cannot prove the existence of God. Faith is reason plus revelation, and the revelation part requires one to think with the spirit as well as with the mind. You have to hear the music, not just read the notes on the page. Ultimately, a leap of faith is required.
For me, that leap came in my 27th year, after a search to learn more about God’s character led me to the person of Jesus Christ.
3 Responses to “Francis Collins on God, Faith, and Science”
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Interesting article, yes. But you neglected to mention this part:
“Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true . . . True, this is incompatible with an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis, but long before Darwin, there were many thoughtful interpreters like St. Augustine, who found it impossible to be exactly sure what the meaning of that amazing creation story was supposed to be. So attaching oneself to such literal interpretations in the face of compelling scientific evidence pointing to the ancient age of Earth and the relatedness of living things by evolution seems neither wise nor necessary for the believer.”
What he is really saying is that he has faith as long as it doesn’t contradict his empirical observations–in other words, he doesn’t really have faith.
He can believe what he wants, obviously, and I am not sure I disagree with him, but he sounds like another idiot who believes in God as far as it is convenient.
‘Yo si creo . . . pero a mi manera’
Michael, I would be tempted to not believe in God if the non-believers were as happy as those that profess faith.
I had a biology teacher at BYU who taught me something very important. He said that science and religion are seeking the answers to different questions. I have thought about this a lot over the years and have come to some conclusions of my own. Religion primarily seeks to answer “What” and “Why”. Such as: “Why are we here?” “What is our purpose?” “What are we supposed to do in this life?” Science on the other hand is primarily asking the question “How?” Questions like: “How does a cell work?” “How are planets formed?” or “How did life come to be?” True believers know that the questions of religion are vital because they are key to our personal development and our relationship with God. The “How’s” of science are interesting and informative, but in the eternal realm they are not as important for us to answer right now. Thus, Religion focuses us on the important questions and gives us a method to find the answers to these spiritual questions that are vital to our personal development. However, religion really isn’t a very good way to get answers to those “How” questions. It simply isn’t concerned with them because as far as spiritual pursuits go, these questions can prove to be a distraction. So when asking these questions, the best we can do is to turn to science to seek these answers. Scientific thought is constantly evolving and producing more and more accurate answers to these “How?” questions. While it may not answer them perfectly, it often comes to some very good explanations, which are constantly updated as more information is received.