Happy Easter from me . . . and Dr. Collins too, I suppose

To the handful of people that have found this blog: On this day, "the day that the Lord has made," I wish you and your loved ones the joy of renewal! It's the time God tells us that no matter how deep of a hole humanity digs itself into, there really is a reason to stop digging and look for a way out. "I'm here to help," He seems to tell us.

(From what we're told, Jesus was a carpenter. If He had been sent to us today, I can almost picture him working at the aisles at the local Ace Hardware. They really do seem eager to help over there....)

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Francis S. Collins
2006, Free Press

My "Lenten project" was to finish this book by Francis Collins by Easter morning. Sure enough, I turned the final pages last night. Collins is the head of the Human Genome Project, and a man of Christian faith. I have always been fascinated with the relationship between religion and science in this country. Much of America seems to be of the mindset that if you "believe in science" you must deny God, or if you are a "person of faith" you are compelled to distrust the scientific method.

Collins' purpose in this book is to show that faith and science are not at odds, and we are fighting battles where there should be none. In short, Collins takes the position that revealing the workings of creation -- in the biologist's realm this is the evolution and expression of DNA -- can only bring us closer to God, which is a view which I've been leaning toward for a long time. Understanding and knowledge are gifts that have been provided to us so that we may make good use of them.

Along the way to discussing the synthesis between faith and science in his life, Collins takes the lay reader through a pretty decent introduction to evolution and the workings of DNA. An appendix at the end discusses some of the bioethical questions that confront us today. (Due to my undergraduate studies, it's mostly already-covered ground for me.)

I do have some trouble with the subtitle of this book. I don't think we'll ever be able to come up with "evidence for belief" and Collins doesn't really present such. Even he admits that belief requires a "leap" that observed facts cannot propel. Leaning heavily on the thoughts of Saint Augustine and C.S. Lewis, he does present the argument that what is revealed by science doesn't provide evidence for disbelief. To me that's an important distinction. Seeing as Collins cited Lewis so frequently in this book, I'm feeling almost compelled to get a copy of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and read that author's complete work myself.

It's just too bad there's only 24 hours in a day, and I waste about 7 of them sleeping! Oh, well.