Posted on 08/02/2009 12:20:08 PM PDT by neverdem
PRESIDENT OBAMA has nominated Francis Collins to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. It would seem a brilliant choice. Dr. Collins’s credentials are impeccable: he is a physical chemist, a medical geneticist and the former head of the Human Genome Project. He is also, by his own account, living proof that there is no conflict between science and religion. In 2006, he published “The Language of God,” in which he claimed to demonstrate “a consistent and profoundly satisfying harmony” between 21st-century science and evangelical Christianity.
Dr. Collins is regularly praised by secular scientists for what he is not: he is not a “young earth creationist,” nor is he a proponent of “intelligent design.” Given the state of the evidence for evolution, these are both very good things for a scientist not to be.
But as director of the institutes, Dr. Collins will have more responsibility for biomedical and health-related research than any person on earth, controlling an annual budget of more than $30 billion. He will also be one of the foremost representatives of science in the United States. For this reason, it is important that we understand Dr. Collins and his faith as they relate to scientific inquiry...
--snip--
Francis Collins is an accomplished scientist and a man who is sincere in his beliefs. And that is precisely what makes me so uncomfortable about his nomination. Must we really entrust the future of biomedical research in the United States to a man who sincerely believes that a scientific understanding of human nature is impossible?
Sam Harris is the author of “The End of Faith” and co-founder of the Reason Project, which promotes scientific knowledge and secular values.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yes, you must, Sam. Now go back and do some science for once.
Believing that there is no reason everything exists is the real intellectually indefensible position, not the superior one.
How can I be certain that an atheist won’t let his/her beliefs get in the way of his/her work?
Some of the Dr. comments are very troubling as a Christian. Anyone Obama[As for any Pres] nominates should be investigated.
Already the MSM has labeled the Doc a ‘Christian ’, shady stuff is going on.
Does the article give any details about what, specifically, Mr. Harris thinks Mr. Collins would do wrong as director of NIH, because Mr. Collins is a theist?
Deficits of moral reasoning in frontal lobe syndrome and psychopathy
Stephen Hawkings said science and the big bang theory cannot be used to disprove the existence of God.
I guess this guy is smarter.
Perhaps. But for the for the first 15 centuries at least, that harmony was the music of the Catholic Church.
FReeper Alert: Prominent Vietnam Pastor Flees Encircled home, then Jailed, Wife Beaten
John Lott: Opposition to citizens crossing state lines with concealed guns lacks factual basis
9th Circuit Giving Gun Case Another Look(CA)
Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
How condescending.
And that is precisely what makes me so uncomfortable about his nomination. Must we really entrust the future of biomedical research in the United States to a man who sincerely believes that a scientific understanding of human nature is impossible?
At this point in scientific endeavor, it is, so your whole objection is irrelevant.
Citations?
I suspect that if Collins were a Muslim, Harris would not write this biased bilge, and if he did, the NYT would not print it.
Yes, it does. It's does on the second page. Here:
As someone who believes that our understanding of human nature can be derived from neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science and behavioral economics, among others, I am troubled by Dr. Collins’s line of thinking. I also believe it would seriously undercut fields like neuroscience and our growing understanding of the human mind. If we must look to religion to explain our moral sense, what should we make of the deficits of moral reasoning associated with conditions like frontal lobe syndrome and psychopathy? Are these disorders best addressed by theology?
FWIW, I can think of plenty of things that someone could also do wrong as an atheist.
The big difference is that Hawking is a scinetist and Harris is a hack.
But then, I’m sure you knew that. :-)
Yep. It sure would.
Sam Harris sees no other alternative for "science." But then what would one expect — he is an atheist and a materialist. What he doesn't explain is in what way that view is somehow "privileged," or superior to any other. We must take it on faith, as it were. Because he said so, and thus we must simply accept, without demur, that he is right.
The practical problem would seem to be: Harris avers that the mind is the "product of the brain." In short, he begins with a conclusion.
Meanwhile, biology is wholly stalemated in the issue of "the mind–brain interface." Maybe that has something to do with beginning with a conclusion.
Methinks Harris is peeved with Francis Collins because Collins is a "recovering atheist." That sort of thing utterly undermines Harris' own atheist faith — and that, to an atheist, is the unforgivable, unpardonable sin.
JMHO FWIW.
“How can I be certain that an atheist won’t let his/her beliefs get in the way of his/her work?”
You cannot. You can only be certain that they will get in the way of the atheists work; because to firmly believe there is no God is to purposely ignore any evidence supporting His existence and hand in Creation, and to actively seek evidence to the contrary.
It could have more to do with beginning with the WRONG conclusion.
Perhaps. My point was it makes no sense to begin by admitting as valid the very supposition that one is attempting to prove the validity of. You can get nowhere really fast thataway. JMHO FWIW
I agree totally and that is the better point.
I wonder, however, if they had started from the correct presumptions, if they might have made progress.
Of course, that isn’t starting from the conclusion either, now is it?
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