The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
by Francis S. Collins
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Book Summary Information
Author: Francis S. CollinsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-07-11
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Free Press
Book Reviews of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Book Review: A Progressive Evangelical Perspective
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an important book. The author as a scientist recounts the development of his faith, which bore striking parallels to my development of faith and belief in Jesus as my savior. He begins by describing the Moral Law as "universal among all members of the human species" (page 23). He describes how as a young medical student he had conversations with patients that guided him to honestly confront the question, "Is there a God?" He recounts his meeting with a Methodist minister to help him deal with his growing questions and concerns about spirituality and describes his introduction by the minister to Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis.
One of the things that makes this book so useful to me as I do evangelism with bright people who have been trained as scientists is that C.S. Lewis's arguments are accepted as worthy of consideration because of their elegance, but Lewis does not hold the scientific stature of a person such as Collins, who currently is one of the world's foremost scientists in the area of biology and genetics. He is the director of the Human Genome Project and has been working on the study of DNA for the past 30 years.
It is a thrill to me to find a person of his stature as a professed Christian providing help to me as I reach out to agnostic friends in the scientific community. What has been a disappointing surprise to me is the resistance to some of the ideas in this book from friends of mine who are believers. For example, with regard to conflicts concerning the Darwinian view of evolution and the biblical stories, Collins describes the Intelligent Design movement as not supported by recent discoveries in genetics. He warns against the embracing of intelligent design by evangelical Christians because "the ship is not headed to the Promised Land; it is headed instead to the bottom of the ocean" (page 195). He presents theistic evolution as an option that satisfies clear thinkers in both theology and science, which he describes as the "dominant position of serious biologists who are also serious believers" (page 199), which is the focus of Chapter 10.
Perhaps the most important part of the book to me was the author's recounting of his experiences surrendering and asking Jesus to become his savior. This is in Chapter 11, Truth Seekers. Part of the importance of this chapter was how this so closely described my own experience and how wonderfully the author reaches out to seekers through this chapter.
I recommend this book to explorers and seekers.
Although the book deals with a very difficult area of science, genetics, the author has such a grasp of the topic that he communicates the essence and core substance of this area of science clearly and understandably. I am sure that, simply by putting up for discussion such difficult issues as evolution, stem cell research, and genetic engineering, the author has drawn tremendous and, in my mind, unwarranted criticism from my evangelical Christian brothers and sisters. To this, I would direct their attention: "It is time to call a truce in the escalating war between science and spirit. The war was never really necessary. Like so many earthly wars, this one has been initiated and intensified by extremists on both sides, sounding alarms that predict imminent ruin unless the other side is vanquished. Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced. God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible. So let us together seek to reclaim the solid ground of an intellectually and spiritually satisfying synthesis of all great truths" (page 233).
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