--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Excerpts from an interview at Salon.com with > Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, > about his religious beliefs (he's an evangelical > Christian), which he discusses in his new book, > "The Language of God." > > > ..."The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome," he > writes. "He can be worshiped in the cathedral or in the > laboratory."... > > S: You've said you were once an "obnoxious atheist." What changed > you? Why did you turn to religion? > > C: I became an atheist because as a graduate student studying quantum > physics, life seemed to be reducible to second-order differential > equations. Mathematics, chemistry and physics had it all. And I > didn't see any need to go beyond that. Frankly, I was at a point in > my young life where it was convenient for me to not have to deal with > a God. I kind of liked being in charge myself. But then I went to > medical school, and I watched people who were suffering from terrible > diseases. And one of my patients, after telling me about her faith > and how it supported her through her terrible heart pain, turned to > me and said, "What about you? What do you believe?" And I stuttered > and stammered and felt the color rise in my face, and said, "Well, I > don't think I believe in anything." But it suddenly seemed like a > very thin answer. And that was unsettling. I was a scientist who was > supposed to draw conclusions from the evidence and I realized at that > moment that I'd never really looked at the evidence for and against > the possibility of God.
I never realised death-bed conversions were contagious! Just goes to show how the power of emotion and the fear of death can create all sorts of ideas, I would say it's our knowledge of death that gives rise to beliefs in afterlife, re-incarnation etc. I would say that after having studied physics the lack of evidence for should have been obvious. But absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence as we all know. > > C: Absolutely. It was as if he was reading my mind. As I read his > arguments about the Moral Law -- the knowledge of right and wrong, > which makes no sense from the perspective of basic evolution and > biology but makes great sense as a signpost to God -- I began to > realize the truth of what he was saying. Ultimately, I realized I > couldn't go back to where I was. I could never again say atheism is > the only logical choice for a scientifically trained person.... > > S: You and I have grown up with certain moral lessons. We've been > told that we should help people. This is the right thing to do. > Couldn't you argue that doing good and helping people is just part of > cultural evolution? > > C: You could argue that, but if it was just a cultural tradition, > you ought to be able to find some cultures where it is not present. > Too easy, we spent most of our existence evolving these traits in Africa and then spread out only recently taking this "odd" behaviour with us. I say "odd" because it isn't really odd at all we are a group animal that relies on each other for survival and behaviour that supports the group as a whole is a neccesicity. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
