Posted on 04/07/2008 2:25:19 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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.
“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.”
For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to “glimpse at the workings of God”.
“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.
“When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can’t help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God’s mind.”
Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God. Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: “This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”
Although Einstein revolutionised our thinking about time, gravity and the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a creator. “I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details,” he said. However Galileo was famously questioned by the inquisition and put on trial in 1633 for the “heresy” of claiming that the earth moved around the sun.
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.
“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.
“Scientifically, the forces of evolution by natural selection have been profoundly affected for humankind by the changes in culture and environment and the expansion of the human species to 6 billion members. So what you see is pretty much what you get.”
Collins was an atheist until the age of 27, when as a young doctor he was impressed by the strength that faith gave to some of his most critical patients.
“They had terrible diseases from which they were probably not going to escape, and yet instead of railing at God they seemed to lean on their faith as a source of great comfort and reassurance,” he said. “That was interesting, puzzling and unsettling.”
He decided to visit a Methodist minister and was given a copy of C S Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which argues that God is a rational possibility. The book transformed his life. “It was an argument I was not prepared to hear,” he said. “I was very happy with the idea that God didn’t exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time, I could not turn away.”
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’.”
Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence of God because it is confined to the “natural” world. In this light he believes miracles are a real possibility. “If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion,” he says.
Spielberg?
“Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God.” ... Me, included.
Add “physics” to the list of generally, believers.
I am completely with him in this. So... of course, I believe he is spot on.
No, it has not. "Their" (those who try to find usable substructures) research is "irreducibly" begging the question, it is based on a basic logic flaw. The "sub structures" that he showed were either non-functional for ANYTHING, or were too complex in and of themselves to be the product of a single group of mutations. Their research was based on their assumption of the conclusion that irreducible complexity CAN'T hold, because of the implications. Besides, on the DNA side, the key component is INFORMATION, lots of it, and this information IS irreducibly complex when put in the context of "it has to provide a survival advantage in order to be passed on".
ping
I’m sure it’s a little harsh, but heck, someone has to play devil’s advocate. No one ever said faith was gonna be easy, or even suppose to be.
Mathematically untenable, with a probability of something like 1 in 10^400 or so. ('impossible' to the 20th power)
What's with the "however"?
How do you get from “aliens designed humans” to the “existence of a supernatural entity”?
Easy! The creator is always superior to the creation, by definition. “Supernatural,” as I pointed out, only means that the entity is above (”super”)—that is, excepted from or not bound by-—nature (the “natural” forces that bind us, the created).
Obviously, who/whatever created us is not bound by the same natural forces that bind us, because we haven’t been able to create at the same level.
So, if aliens created humans, by definition those aliens had to have power beyond what we have and had to be above (not bound by) the natural forces that bind us, the created.
So, if in fact aliens created humans, those aliens would have to be supernatural entities compared to us and our nature.
By definition, they would have to have more power than that possessed by what they created.
So? The aliens have super intelligence and advanced technology.
This is an explanation just as plausable as god.
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Could aliens have created matter and the laws of nature out of nothing? If you think so, then where were they when nothing existed?
I’d be better looking if I was a Cylon
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How can you be sure?
Lower animals are atheist since it is beyond their comprehension to fathom God and Creation.
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And you know the thoughts of “lower animals” because? Are you Doctor Doolittle maybe?
The premise is that the creator is always superior in power to his/its creation.
What do you think?
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