"Mere Christianity" impacts Genome Project scientist

[nebula]

'Mere Christianity' makes sense, scientist tells CS Lewis Foundation

Posted: Saturday, August 2, 2008, 10:24 (BST)

An award-winning American scientist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and leadership of the Human Genome Project to map the entire human DNA, has described his journey from atheism to Christian belief to an international audience in England.

"There really is no conflict between faith and reason," Professor Francis Collins told the CS Lewis Foundation's international summer institute, Oxbridge 2008, on at St Aldate's Church, Cambridge, on Wednesday.

"As a committed materialist in college, I assumed the physical was all there was," said Collins, who in 1977 at the age of 27 completed a career change from chemistry to medicine and became a doctor. This, he said, forced him to confront pain and death face-to-face. "That was a dramatic turn for me. The concepts were not hypothetical anymore."

Read the full article here

[I_found]

Thanks Nebula!

[Jonny_NZ]

Have you read his book "The Language of God"? very good read, but I would say that much of what he believes would not be accepted by most Christians.

He puts forth what is basically Theistic Evolution

.

I don't know about most Christians...

Unless you're talking about in the USA (as opposed to England, for instance), but then I'd suspect that the attitudes of Christians towards various different methods of creation would vary even then, including between regions such as northern and southern USA.

[Guest HIS girl]

you do try hard, that is for sure.

But since you brought it up

[Guest HIS girl]

Ah God...the physicist to end ALL physicists....

[Guest HIS girl]

Why can't the Creation account in Genesis be literal? It says in the Bible that 1 day in the courts of the Lord is like a 1000 days.....BUT we are talking about God and that means OUTSIDE of existant time....in the Genesis account, we are talking time as "IN" the world...sunrise, sunset...

[Guest HIS girl]

[

The evidence is that there was no such mega Flood. Thats why.

That's interesting because many diverse cultures have stories in their oral or written history of a great flood. A similar vein.

[Jonny_NZ]

Have you read his book "The Language of God"? very good read, but I would say that much of what he believes would not be accepted by most Christians.

He puts forth what is basically Theistic Evolution

.

I don't know about most Christians...

Unless you're talking about in the USA (as opposed to England, for instance), but then I'd suspect that the attitudes of Christians towards various different methods of creation would vary even then, including between regions such as northern and southern USA.

I would have to disagree. I have been associated with Christians from all parts of this country, as well as Japan and South Korea and I don’t think too many of them would go along with all of what is put forth in the book. The Language of God.

While I personally haven't read the book, I can't find much in the Amazon reviews to provide support for that statement.

http://www.amazon.com/Language-God-Scienti...e/dp/0743286391

Doesn't seem to be much there that would turn off a lot of British Christians, for instance...

Apart from that, I agree with you regarding Genesis and 24-hour days...

[Guest HIS girl]

The evidence is that there was no such mega Flood. Thats why.

You obviously have absolute authority to make that particular statement because with a statement like that - it leaves no room for error.

So you are 100% convinced in your own mind of a non global flood at any point in history. Is the evidence you claim, substantiated within the scientific community at large- both secular and Christian? If not, then the evidence is not watertight. It would be lopsided.

The authority I stand by is God's Word which is revealed to us through the Holy Bible. You either believe His Word through Faith or you write it off as untruth...if you do the latter, this does not qualify you to make a broad statement that the Bible is NOT true. The evidence of Truth in people lives through the Bible/God's Word is that lives have been changed in drastic ways.

Genesis 1 v5

God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

NKJ study notes : The evening and the morning: The Hebrews began each new day at sunset. This time designation, along with the numbering of the days and the Sabbath rest on day seven, shows that the author views creation as happening in the course of six consecutive 24-hour periods, followed by a seventh of divine rest.

[Guest HIS girl]

Blind faith?

You believe the World is turning on it's axis don't you without seeing this happen with your own eyes? Is that blind faith?

Like you I believe in the Bible, but I believe literally. Am I wrong to believe that?

No I haven't studied the original writings of Scripture or interpretations of old Hebrew text...but should that make me question the writings I do have available to me in His Word at this present time?

If I start decoding the Bible and making it blend into what I desire IT to sound like..then I may as well keep what I want out of it and reject the rest...be a free agent and believe in a Bible "according to myself". That is dangerous territory and something I won't adhere to.