Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists

The answer, it turns out, is: not very convincingly. Francis Collins, the director of the Human Genome Project and author of the recent book The Language of God, is both a Christian and a biologist and asserts that this does not generate a mental conflict.

Collins starts with a completely valid observation about the limitations of scientific inquiry.

I had to admit that the science I loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” “Why am I here?” “Why does mathematics work, anyway?” “If the universe had a beginning, who created it?” “Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?” “Why do humans have a moral sense?” “What happens after we die?”

I’m with you so far. Now, the Bible can certainly answer some of these questions, but only if you accept that basic premise that it contains the truth. But there is simply no rational basis for this premise; it requires a leap of faith, which Collins has chosen to make.

For me, that leap came in my 27th year, after a search to learn more about God’s character led me to the person of Jesus Christ. Here was a person with remarkably strong historical evidence of his life, who made astounding statements about loving your neighbor, and whose claims about being God’s son seemed to demand a decision about whether he was deluded or the real thing. After resisting for nearly two years, I found it impossible to go on living in such a state of uncertainty, and I became a follower of Jesus.

Gee, could there be a more underwhelming defense of Christianity (or religious belief in general, for that matter)? It seems that Collins, simply dissatisfied with the uncertainty surrounding certain questions outside of science, decided for no apparent reason that he would accept the answers provided by a popular historical figure with some wild ideas.

Collins deserves our respect for his commendable work on the Human Genome Project, but not for his shoddy work as a Christian apologist.

Opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of BASS or its other members.