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Obama's Health Czar Brings God Into Lab

Choice of geneticist a breakthrough for evangelicals: Gerson

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 15, 2009 9:00 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Francis Collins, President Obama's nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, is a pioneering biologist who led the team that mapped the human genome. He's also an evangelical Christian—a rarity among scientists, only 7% of whom say they believe in God. For Michael Gerson of the Washington Post, selecting Collins speaks well of Obama and of evangelicalism, "which is starting to abandon some of its least productive debates with modernity."

Collins has written extensively on faith, detailing how religion and science are not irreconcilable systems but "ways of thinking about two very different sets of questions." His appointment should be embraced by evangelicals, who owe a debt of gratitude to Obama for selecting the best candidate for the NIH. "Obama has affirmed something important," writes Gerson: "that anti-supernaturalism is not a litmus test at the highest levels of science."

Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, has been nominated to lead the National Institutes of Health.
Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, has been nominated to lead the National Institutes of Health.   (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
Collins, possibly the nation's leading geneticist, is the author of the best-selling 'The Language of God.'
Collins, possibly the nation's leading geneticist, is the author of the best-selling 'The Language of God.'   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci,File)
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By definition, science yields information about only the physical world. As human beings, we still seek to know why things exist and how we should live. Science is silent on these matters; we need
not be. - Michael Gerson, Washington Post

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 22 comments
GenuineJames
Jul 16, 2009 5:41 AM CDT
EmptyCalm, the very definition of faith is believing is something that ultimately cannot be 100% proven. That doesn't make it illogical or irrational. A Naturalist looks at this world and believes in things that can only be proven scientifically. That's fine, but I don't have that much faith in science. Science has it's limits. I believe there are elements to this life that cannot be studied in a lab. That of the metaphysical. You can call that illogical, but I think it's perfectly rational to believe that there is a spiritual component to this life, even if it can never be proven.
Snarfeh
Jul 16, 2009 3:23 AM CDT
The "supernatural" & science actually go hand in hand. If you don't think there's something "supernatural" about some of the physics theories out there, you're not paying attention. Dimensional portals, time travel, parallel quantum universes, multi-universes with a you in each one that takes different paths in life, M-theory, Holographic universes, dark matter, dark energy, the 11th dimension.... I read about quantum theory a lot and I don't claim at all to understand most of it, but much of it sounds just as fantastical as snakes tricking women into eating apples. And many in science are as pig headed about their "beliefs" as fundamentalist religious nuts. Narrow-mindedness is *not* limited to fundies. Many of science's greatest insights and inventions were initially scoffed at by....SCIENTISTS...imagine that. Open your mind to anything that hasn't been proven one way or the other. I'm not saying you have to advocate it; just acknowledge, for example, that you don't know for sure if there are invisible spirits surrounding us or not. Some religious & spiritual folk believe that while many scientists allow for the possibility that people in a parallel world can see us although we can't see them. Spirit worlds, parallel worlds...what's the difference? Who the eff knows for sure? Until we do, scoffing at any point in the learning process is ignorance at its charming best.
emptycalm
Jul 16, 2009 2:03 AM CDT
That is just not true. What right wing blog did you pull that from? Or maybe you read it wrong. Maybe 40% of them wont say there is no god because they cannot actually disprove a negative.

 
Barack Obama • Christianity • genetics • Christians • evangelicals • National Human Genome Research Institute • National Institutes of Health • Obama administration • Francis Collins

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