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.
He must have lost his mind. Or found it. ;-)
“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.....
The basis for religious understanding, in my case, is knowing there is no division between external reality (i.e., objective physical universe) and internal reality (i.e., imagination, thought, belief, hope).
because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
This was a great article. Thanks for posting!
God created evolution.
Evolution created man.
Man created religion.
Religion created God.
This is exactly how I feel. So many people are extremists in one way or another; if they love God, they deny any validity to science, and vice versa.
Why is it so rare to both study science and yet give due credit to God?
pong
Mark for Later Reading.
"Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man."
Couldn't agree more with this guy.
ping
Dr. Collins has been a devout man for a long time. Anyone who suggests that this represents a recent development in this life and a rejection of modern evolutionary biology on his part is being disingenuous.
Thanks. Wonderful news.
Much appreciated.
"Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man."
If God had used evolution as a tool, would that be explained in the Bible? Obviously, it is not. My Pastor insists that because the Bible does not say that God used evolution as a "tool," that proves he did not. To me, that makes no sense. The Bible was not written only for people who've read Darwin. It was both unnecessary and impossible for God to explain the theory of evolution in the Bible. I think that the laguage of Genesis is about the best way God could have explained the Creation, if he did in fact use evolution as his tool.
"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."
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Those WHACKO scientists! ;)
And I thought it was closed.
Looking in all the wrong places, trying to make the proof public. You either personally and privately know or you don't.
I wonder how much pre-release publicity this book will get, since it's PRO Christian instead of anti?