Saturday, August 5


Top scientist asks sceptics to probe existence of God
Tuesday, July 25 2006
Straits Times interactive

LEADING scientist Francis Collins led the international Human Genome Project that mapped the 3.1 billion chemical base pairs in humanity's DNA, and is an UNLIKELY CONVERT from atheism to evangelical Christianity.
The 56-year-old Collins recently addressed the clash of science and religion during a conference at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
But his most complete argument for God appears in a new book, The Language Of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, which addresses two radically divergent audiences: He asks scientific sceptics to investigate God with the same open-minded zeal they apply to the natural world. And he tells fellow evangelicals that opposition to evolution undermines the credibility of faith.
But scientists are probably the tougher audience.
According to Nature, the science weekly, "many scientists disagree strongly" with Collins-style arguments and critics feel "more talk of religion is the last thing that science needs".
As a medical student, Dr Collins wondered why patients who were suffering and dying retained faith in God.
He realised that as a scientist, "You are not supposed to decide something is true until you have looked at the data. And yet I had become an atheist without ever looking at the evidence whether God exists or not".

-credits to MOLMAM

jel; 1:31 pm