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 aliasinkhorn rated 16 months ago - I go on a long journey and, after all my experiences, return to my land and share my stories, fantastic and true, about places that cannot be imagined. Some accept and believe, others mock me and disparage the stories with the use of logic. I say my stories are all empirical - I experienced them and... more
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- aliasinkhorn rated 16 months agoreligion, science, conversion, epiphany
- I go on a long journey and, after all my experiences, return to my land and share my stories, fantastic and true, about places that cannot be imagined. Some accept and believe, others mock me and disparage the stories with the use of logic. I say my stories are all empirical - I experienced them and am their witness. They deny me this because they have neither witnessed nor experienced them, too; most likely many never would.
Such is the spiritual experience in the ears of those who don't. There will be those who will respond to Francis Collins in the same way. Ah, Pascal, would you dare share your secret in these days?
From the page: 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.
This page is not affiliated with timesonline.co.uk.
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