I’ve found God, says man who cracked the genome

Times Online ^ | June 11, 2006 | Steven Swinford

[Marius3188]

THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real.

Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”.

His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins, 56.

[Boxen]

"He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."
-Good Omens

"Thus it seems Einstein was doubly wrong when he said, God does not play dice. Not only does God definitely play dice, but He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen."
-The Stephen Hawking lecture Does God Play Dice?

FUN FACT - Albert Einstein's "dice" quotation has nothing to do with his belief in a personal god. Rather, it is a comment on the randomness inherent in the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics.

[TheCrusader]

I don't think there's anything more repulsive than a liar, except for a compulsive liar like yourself. The first line of the story says that Collins is going to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God. If my vocabulary is even below average I would still understand that "NOW" to mean that he didn't believe in God before, and that his ephipany was at least a fairly recent event.

Be that as it may, Collins himself reveals his dismay in the article over the shrill voices of the anti-God agenda within the science community have dominated the stage for over 20 years. Here is his quote:

"“One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins, 56.--“I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.”

Collins has quite obviously felt the bitterness of the ostracizing arrows sent his way by the anti-God extremists within his own community to make such a powerful and emotional statement as he did. The anti-God extremists in the science community have "Dominated the stage for 20 years"; that's one very powerful statement that really says it all.

[TheWasteLand]

Sounds like an interesting guy.

Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man. In his version of the theory, he argues that man will not evolve further.

Interesting, because in many ways intelligence (as possessed by humans) seems to nullify the effects of evolution. That is, we can "insulate" ourselves from the evolutionary tendency to adjust to environmental changes through the use of our intelligence. I wonder then if one could use that as some kind of rational argument for the notion that evolution (by in large) will stop with current humans, and thus humans as they exist were predestined by God?

[hocndoc]

For more on a quirky (?quarky?) description of the information in the Universe: Quantum Monkeys The Edge website is full of examples of the battles in the war between science and those of faith.

[staytrue]

Wouldn't it be something if he announced he believed in Creation Science?

god may or may not have had a hand in evolution, but the current state of creation science is total garbage.

[GOP Poet]

By George, I think he got it!

[hocndoc]

Dr. Collins 'outed' himself long ago. He's tolerated by the scientific side. But, I saw him silence a room full of believers last year when he was discussing evolution and the similarities of base pairs in the genome of the mouse and humans.

I'm a believer that we all had the same Architect (or Designer, but that designation carries alot of baggage and I came up with the Architect designation in Comparative Anatomy, before I heard of ID), who does not lie, and by Whose grace we all exist. I love to measure and explore His creation and sometimes I'm confused about the meaning of the data. But none of it disproves His existence.

[Notwithstanding]

The Catholic Church invented the university and has funded it for centuries. A world in which God was a logical wise creator whose laws could be understood with study (science) is a gift from the church to the world. This freed mankind from the notion of a pantheon of gods whose whimsy controlled our fate. Oddly, many who pretend to be scientists consistently ignore the fact that churchmen were the first scientists and that science alone has not explained the creation.

[FreedomNeocon]

I know all about quarks and nanobiology... I still say it all comes down to what/who created this factually definable 'natural' existence of things that we see in from atomic structure of hydrogen to the nuclear reactions of the sun, to the formation of galaxies.

[rawcatslyentist]

>"The path of least resistance of course"

Occams Razor slits Darwins Throat!

[MHGinTN]

I love the wat you said that, m'Lady.

[skeptoid]

He spoke.

Gen 1:3 And God said
Gen 1:6 And God said
Gen 1:8 And God called
Gen 1:9 And God said,

.. et cetera, et cetera .....

[hocndoc]

Thank you, Sir. Just standing on the shoulders of (poetic) giants (includung my Moma and Daddy).

[skeptoid]

"Wouldn't it be something if he announced he believed in Creation Science? That would send a lot of people here into spasms."

Sounds like he's getting close.

[hocndoc]

I think the Creator created the Universe (sorry, couldn't resist).

The belief in the Creator is the key, I agree. Those who ask me who created G_d still can't answer what happened before the Big Bang or why and how - or why they're so convinced their question is primary to mine.

The Edge and the 3rd Culture are pretty interesting reading, though, even if you're fairly knowledgeable and in spite of the fact that they don't believe in a Creator. Sometimes, when reading their conversations, I am convinced I'm on a Science Fiction blog. And yet they take themselves so seriously!

[Recovering_Democrat]

He must have lost his mind. Or found it. ;-)

[Gamecock]

Some random thoughts:

“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.

Without going into my personal beliefs, Christianity does not hinge on evolution vs. creationism. It hinges on the fact that God broke into recorded history, in the person of his son, Jesus Christ. As such he lived a life of perfect obedience and died for sinners. If believing in evolution is indeed a sin, that belief is covered by his death and resurrection.

His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: “It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, ‘I cannot resist this another moment’.”

Amen. He's got that right.

“When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it,” he said. “But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along.

That is what Scripture teaches. He just had to dig a bit deeper for that realization.

Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.....

[familyop]

G-d, physics and the wonderful time we live in: fascinating.

http://www.thewellsprings.com/

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping for future.