[PeterParker]

Good read in the February 07 issue of National Geographic on Collins, who is an Atheist-turned-believer and also oversaw the Human Genome Project. A scientist who is making the case for God from a scientific view. Highlights the push-pull of Faith/Reason ideals; he makes the case that these shouldn't be mutually exclusive. A copy of CS Lewis treatise on Christianity from a reasoned perspective paved the way for this guys belief.

(See links provided, there is some good stuff for the thinking-man's christian.)


First: Definitely should be a Convocation Speaker

Second: Due to close proximity, LU Science Department should try to get this guy as an adjunct visiting professor...could really open up some great opportunities for networking within the scientific community and lend some additional credibility to Science curriculum in a Faith-Based setting (to go along with the current LU professor highlighted in the media recently.)

Third: With the constant onslaught from academics about the inferiority of a science curriculum in a Faith-Based paradigm, it's great to have cerebral, scientifically trained minds with impeccable credentials making the case that Faith & Reason do not have to be, nor should they be mutually exclusive. It is good to see there is an academic equal making a convincing case for these ideals as a foil to staunchly Atheistic and bombastic scientists such as Richard Dawkins, who get media buzz based on their comments.


Below you will find several write-ups about Francis Collins:

(Cider will like this guy because he is a fellow Wahoo)

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci ... 753711.stm

Francis Collins is a committed Christian and heads the publicly-funded National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in Washington DC, US...

..."It's interesting when you read the life of Christ how much of his time he spent healing the sick. There must have been a reason for that - he was modelling for us what it is we are intended to do by following his path."

...He was raised on a small farm in Virginia and was tutored at home until the age of 12. He studied chemistry at the University of Virginia and then did a doctorate in physical chemistry at Yale. ...

2. http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2006/1082/

Francis S. Collins is has long been on the cutting edge of DNA research. He is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and oversaw the Human Genome Project - which some have called the most significant scientific undertaking of our time. What most people don't know about Francis Collins is that he used to be an atheist, but that his experiences have lead him to believe in the existence of God...


It was then, that a Methodist minister gave him a copy of the C.S. Lewis book titled Mere Christianity. The book opened his eyes to new possibilities, however the turning point in his life came while hiking in the mountains. It was the beauty of God's creation that finally broke his resistance. Today, Collins sees his research as a "glimpse at the workings of God". Although his beliefs are not without controversy, his story testifies to the fact that science and faith can co-exist.


...According to Collins, "One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war. 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." Collins plans to share his experiences in a book, due out this summer, titled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

[PeterParker]

He would be a good fit for LU in many ways, except that at the present time he embraces a theistic evolutionary stance, which I believe LU's partyline advocates strict Creationism. For the ones who will throw everything else he has to say based solely on that fact will definitely be underserved by doing so. He makes very compelling arguments for the existence of God, Christianity and worshipping God through scientific discovery that even a Christian who rejects his personal view of Theistic Evolution and embraces solely Creationism can use in defense of God.

(*Note that he also proposes a very interesting treatise on how Creationism is very different from Intelligent Design in that ID...article posted #4)


3. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 93,00.html

In America's ongoing and sometimes rancorous discussion about science and God, some stock characters have evolved. There are the vocal proponents of creationism and intelligent design who storm school boards in hopes that either science or local government will conform to their beliefs.

Then there are academic atheists who claim increasingly aggressively that science is in the process of proving religion a delusion. But few of the polemicists have the authority to preach beyond their own choirs. Most believers don't care to listen to an atheistic scientist calling the idea of God a mythology created to explain what humans don't understand, and academic atheists are just as uninterested in scientific lectures from Bible literalists.

4. http://www.idthink.net/back/collins/index.html

Then things get much more interesting. Collins notes there are five ways to approach the relationship between science and faith. He cites them as 1) athiesm; 2) agnosticism; 3) creationism; 4) intelligent design and; 5) theistic evolution. What is encouraging is that Francis Collins kinda gets it – intelligent design is NOT creationism. It does indeed deserve to be in a category of its own...

...It’s exactly as this point where we can see a very important point – considerations of intelligent design can very well be used to support an evolutionary interpretation over creationism. This should help some people to see the intellectual bankruptcy of those who still cling to the notion that ID = creationism.

[PeterParker]

#5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Collins Wikipedia Bio for background



#6 http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200510/0358.html

At Ted's request, I am posting an account of the Francis Collins
presentation yesterday in Staunton VA.


Francis Collins Presentation on Christianity and Evolution: 10/23/05

Part 2 of the “Science and Christianity” Sunday School series organized by
Dr. Lundy Pentz (biology) and Dr. Jim Gilman (religion/philosophy) of Mary
Baldwin College.
Trinity Episcopal Church, Staunton, VA. Tal kwas given in the church
sanctuary, which was filled to capacity. There were probably 700-800 in
attendance, most of which were not regular Trinity attenders.

(Background: Dr. Collins grew up in Staunton and attended Trinity as a
child, where he was confirmed and sang in the choir. Although, during his
talk he said that he didn’t really become a Christian until age 27, after
considerable exploration, inclduing reading CS Lewis’s Mere Christianity....)

...Collins described five possible “solutions” to the problem of science-faith
controversies. The first option is to reject religion entirely in favor of
atheism, and even use evolution as scientific proof that there is no God.
This, in Collins’ view is logically unjustified, since, unless you’re a
pantheist, God exists outside of nature. Scientists like Dawkins and Wilson
are part of the problem here and are contributing to the polarization of our
society.


The second route, which Collins admits he took as a young man, is
agnosticism , or throwing up your hands and saying “I don’t know” after
considering the evidence for God’s existence. This differs from simply not
considering the evidence, which Collins feels is the case for many
self-proclaimed agnostics. He joked that any agnostics in the audience be
cautious in carefully examining such questions, lest they “accidently covert
themselves” as Collins did.

The third option is creationism, which Collins defined as young earth
creationism. People with this viewpoint adopt the Bible as their science
text and reject anything that conflicts with it. This extreme view,
according to Collins, was fairly uncommon until 100 years ago and arose as a
reaction to Darwin’s theory. He cited Augustine as an example of a great
theologian who did not read Genesis as science and who concluded that
exactly what God meant by the days in Genesis is difficult or impossible to
conceive. Viewing God as existing outside of time helps those troubled by
the apparent random or undirectedness of evolution, because, in that view,
God would know how it would turn out.

Intelligent design , a recent (< 15 year old) view that has “taken the US by
storm” and been “embraced by evangelicals.” is option #4. Collins
presented the Behe/Dembski view of ID (old earth, common descent): life
proceeding more or less by “natural” mechanisms but with the Designer
occasionally stepping in to “fix things.” This view is certainly appealing
to believers as an alternative to evolution; the problem, Collins feels, is
that it’s likely wrong. He cited the exampled of ID’s “poster child,” the
bacterial flagellum as described by Behe. As we study more and more
bacteria, it becomes more and more obvious that many of the 32 proteins that
make up this “irreducibly complex” motor were recruited from other cellular
components. Collins is concerned about the ID movement for a number of
reasons: First, it falsely insists that evolution is wrong. Collins instead
predicts that ID will be discredited within a fairly short time, as
scientists come up with more and more evolutionary mechanisms to explain the
existence of “irreducibly complex” structures. In that event, Christianity,
not science, is what will look stupid. Second, ID strikes him as a “defense”
of God from Darwin’s theory, something Collins doesn’t think God needs.

The fifth, and clearly Collins’ preferred alternative is theistic evolution :
the position that God could have used evolution as his tool of creation.
This is certainly compatible with what Collins called “lower case”
intelligent design: the idea that God had a plan for his creation but
differs from Intelligent Design the Theory, which states that evidence of
supernatural action is found in science. Collins rejects the latter but
accepts the former. Theistic evolution does not have to conflict with
Genesis 1-2 if one takes an Augustinian, non-literal view of it.

[PeterParker]

Topical Studies: Koinonia House Online

Bringing the world into focus through the lens of Scripture

7. http://www.khouse.org/topical_bible_study/creation/

Topical Bible : Creation/Evolution
Introduction:


Has modern science proven that life on earth evolved from primordial soup, or have scientific discoveries increasingly shown the intelligent design of the universe?

Join Chuck Missler as he explores this controversial subject and compares the facts from the disciplines of Biblical exegesis, physics, computer and information sciences and biology.

**STUDY CREATION/EVOLUTION**


Radio/Conferences

In the Beginning There Was...Information
Dr. Stephen Meyer joins Chuck Missler in reviewing some of the revealing insights from microbiology and the information sciences on the evidences of design in the origin of life.


The Divine Watchmaker
Modern Microbiology has revealed that even the simplest organisms are complex machines beyond our imagining.


The Creator Beyond Time and Space
As scientists begin to understand the interactions of basic forces, they discover an unending series of incredible interdependencies, delicately balanced.


The Grand Adventure
The precision found in our world has long been considered miraculous - as though the earth were purposely created to support life. Coincidence or Design?


Stretching The Heavens
Was the universe really created in six days? How do we explain galaxies whose light has traveled toward us for over 100 million years?

[PeterParker]

Food for thought.

[Sly Fox]

Very interesting reading. I'll dig deeper when I get some more time.

[Cider Jim]

Peter, I'd say his academic credentials and his Christianity merit his being a Convo speaker, but he would probably have to be a Creationist before he could teach here. Still, here's to hoping we add more Wahoos to our LU faculty!