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.
It’s irrelevant to the context of this argument. We are asking the specific question, “Who designed our DNA?”. Anything beyond that is outside the logical boundaries of the argument. That is, it doesn’t matter who made the aliens. It could be god, or not. The important point is that they could have designed our DNA.
Ok... where did the "aliens" come from?
It doesn’t matter where the aliens came from. The point here is not to try to prove that God exists. The point is to simply explain how our DNA was designed.
I think we may be Cylons and just don’t know it.
In Particle (Quantum) Physics scientist observe a particle can be in two places at once. What is interesting is we have this concept to find God you have to go big, and actually there is more evidence God exist by going small.
I'd be better looking if I was a Cylon
“For we know in part and we believe in part....” I guess the apostle Paul had a weak faith....!?
I can doubt my existence but I can’t doubt the fact that I am doubting...alien or otherwise!
And the aliens designed sunsets, thunderstorms, coral reefs, the Grand Canyon and children’s laughter.
Pretty powerful aliens. Almost god-like.
How about that.
You are very correct and my favorite verse on this is Colosians 1:17 "17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.". The very atoms of the universe are held together by His power.
Oh, great. Now I'm going to be paranoid for the rest of the day.
(LOL)
It amazes me what scientist have found, and how it relates directly to evidence God exist.
You sound like you know for a fact that there are aliens.... Have you ever seen or met one?
YEA GOD!
THX
With a red headlight...
“In college I always noticed the irony that my political science and sociology teachers seemed to generally be atheistic or agnostic but my biology and geology professors all seemed to believe in God.”
You are exactly right for two reasons: 1. The hard sciences generally attract higher quality, more intelligent students (no offense, just from observations made over the last 30 years); 2. the incredible complexity of living systems, including this planet are revealed to scientists then forced to admit that the middle-ages belief in spontaneous generation is a bit too simplistic. Knowing and understanding the necessary existence of God is strictly reserved for humans only, not lower animals. Lower animals are atheist since it is beyond their comprehension to fathom God and Creation.
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