More on Collins.

So I saw Francis Collins last night, and I think it was a defining moment in my life. Seeing an incredibly intelligent man delineate the reasonableness of his belief gratified me to no end. His premise ran along the lines of, "So you're a scientist and a believer. Shouldn't your head explode?" He said that trying to discover God solely through scientific means involves committing a "category error." Because God is not contained with the natural world and science by definition is, science must remain silent on the issue of God's existence.

That there is something instead of nothing, that the universe is mathematically designed and had a beginning, that the origin of life is unexplainable, that the infinite parallel universes required to explain away the anthropic principle require as much if not more faith, all point to God, Collins contended. I'm going to say it right now: he's a theistic evolutionist, and when he explains it, it makes sense. I've always considered such a position a pathetic cop-out, but looking at the evidence rationally, and seeing how beautifully Collins incorporates science and faith, I will say that such a worldview looks completely tenable. Evolution is the how, he said, but not the who or why. Why would God use such a method? Here Collins admitted his theological limitations, but mentioned that he has considered the opinions of others, who posit that God may have given free will to the universe as well as us, though he was quick to qualify this theory with his uncertainty.

Colllins directly addressed both the skeptics and the literal biblical interpreters, and his conclusion was not a weak compromise, but an affirmative upholding of science and Christianity. The language contained within DNA, he said, the 3.1 billion letters that are reproduced exactly within every single cell within every single human body, is the way God spoke us into existence.

Here is my review of his book:

Author Finds Evidence of Things Not Seen

By Kaitlin Barr

A pioneering geneticist with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, Francis Collins headed the Human Genome Project from 1993 through its completion in 2003. His attempt to reconcile the spiritual with the scientific is chronicled in his book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Collins contends that belief in God and belief in evolutionary theory can “coexist happily.”

Collins did not think seriously about God until he was in medical school. Why so many of his patients maintained faith in a “supernatural power” despite their suffering intrigued him. So he began to explore the arguments of thinkers like C.S. Lewis, and eventually he became an evangelical Christian.

But he did not cease to be a scientist. Collins is emphatically convinced of the viability of the theory of evolution, but he is just as sure of the historical fact of the Gospel accounts. He combines these positions into a theory he calls BioLogos, a form of theistic evolution that “proposes God as the answer to questions science was never intended to address,” questions to pertaining to the meaning and purpose of life.

Collins builds a compassionate and accessible argument. He acknowledges atheism, agnosticism, creationism and Intelligent Design, outlining the objections he has found to each. His presentation of scientific evidence is simple and lucid, relatively easy to comprehend. He remains hopeful and sympathetic throughout, eager that more might share the intellectual satisfaction he has found by combining these two worldviews that so frequently clash in the public arena.

The book is by no means comprehensive. Collins does not stray far from the scientific realm, touching only lightly on the historicity of the Bible and why he chose Christianity out of all the world’s religions. While he emphatically upholds the Christian faith, he encourages readers to seek the truth themselves.

Those who hold to literal biblical interpretation may balk at Collins’ approach, and those looking for syllogistic proof of God’s existence will not find it. But Collins’ account of his own journey and his earnest desire to see science and spirituality united illustrate the potential for that happy coexistence.