September 4, 2008 =96 4:14 am
By Steven Swinford
SOURCE: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article673663.ece
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 =93closer to God=94.
His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will
reopen the age-old debate about the relation****p between science and
faith. =93One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that
has been created that science and religion have to be at war,=94 said
Collins, 56.
=93I don=92t 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.=94
For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in
his mind. Instead, it allowed him to =93glimpse at the workings of God=94.
=93When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific
exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have
found it,=94 he said. =93But 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.
=93When 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=92t survey that going through
page after page without a sense of awe. I can=92t help but look at those
pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God=92s
mind.=94
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: =93This most beautiful
system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and
powerful being.=94
Although Einstein revolutionised our thinking about time, gravity and
the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a
creator. =93I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details,=94 he said.
However Galileo was famously questioned by the inquisition and put on
trial in 1633 for the =93heresy=94 of claiming that the earth moved around
the sun.
Among Collins=92s most controversial beliefs is that of =93theistic
evolution=94, 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.
=93I see God=92s 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,=94 he says.
=93Scientifically, 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.=94
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.
=93They 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,=94 he said. =93That
was interesting, puzzling and unsettling.=94
He decided to visit a Methodist minister and was given a copy of C S
Lewis=92s Mere Christianity, which argues that God is a rational
possibility. The book transformed his life. =93It was an argument I was
not prepared to hear,=94 he said. =93I was very happy with the idea that
God didn=92t exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time,
I could not turn away.=94
His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in
Wa****ngton state. He said: =93It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly
the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I
felt, =91I cannot resist this another moment=92.=94
Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence
of God because it is confined to the =93natural=94 world. In this light he
believes miracles are a real possibility. =93If 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,=94 he says.
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