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An instant bestseller, The Language of God provides the best argument for the integration of faith and logic since C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. It has long been believed that science and faith cannot mingle. Faith rejects the rational, while science restricts us to a life with no meaning beyond the physical. It is an irreconcilable war between two polar-opposite ways of thinking and living. Written for believers, agnostics, and atheists alike, The Language of God provides a testament to the power of faith in the midst of suffering without faltering from its logical stride. Readers will be inspired by Collin's personal story of struggling with doubt, as well as the many revelations of the wonder of God's creation that will forever shape the way they view the world around them.… (more)
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In the interest of full disclosure, this statement comes from a solidly rationalist/materialist worldview. So I didn’t expect that I was going to like the book, but went in with an open mind, and was rewarded.
Not in the way you’re probably thinking. The
Beyond slight lapses into dreamy proselytizing, though, the rest of this book was spot on.
As a matter of fact, in general terms, I think it’s exactly the sort of book that science needs in these times. Collins does a great job explaining the complexity of life, current science, evolution, and cosmology. He comes down solidly against Creationism and Intelligent Design, with an impassioned plea to his evangelical brethren to, ahem, cut it out.
I think Collins is doing a great service to religion and science by neatly, politely, and rationally sorting through this debate without rancor. He does, I think, manage to carve out a place where the devoutly faithful can accept science within their worldview, and this may be a key to turning down the rhetorical volume.
I don’t think that this argument is going to turn many materialists into believers, but I do think that it can show the faithful a way to reconcile the discord between their revealed text and the revelations of scientific inquiry in an intellectually and spiritually satisfying way. Collins would, I suppose, also have it the other way, and bring non-believers into the fold. That may or may not be the case. But anything that gets people thinking about these issues in a non-reactionary, and more informed way, is a good thing, I think.
The author will nominate several arguments.
He tells you how faith and religion can co-exists peaceful. And this is probably the missed point.
Collins suggests a religion crafted in science, which is nothing too shocking.
But in it, and this is what I enjoyed, he details many of the points and counter points we hear in the debates of this subject. And he informs us on his opinion, based on the facts he has, of how accurate these notions are.
I would like to bring up one point that, in following arguments along these lines I have noticed. Science requires as much faith as, well, faith. A lay person who chooses to believe science whole-heartedly and discard religion can more than likely not prove evolution or genetic theory if they were forced to. They probably have not read Darwin's books, nor gone out and done the research for any of the things they claim to believe. Which makes it is as faith based as any other religion. The books change, is all.
Collins robustly argues for the theistic evolutionist perspective, going after both the materialist and creationist perspectives. His
His theological credentials, however, are much more fundamentally flawed. His reliance on Augustine and C.S. Lewis is quite apparent. When he presents his theistic evolutionist (or, in his terms, BioLogos) position, he attempts to swat away theological objections, but is rather unsatisfying. His comparisons between adherence to Genesis 1-2 literally and the idea of the earth as the center of the universe are not precise enough for his purposes, and while he points to Augustine's view of the passage, does not otherwise clarify that allegorical/spiritual interpretation of the OT was the consistent method of most of the patristics. In the end, it's evident that Collins accepts the scientific perspective and then attempts to reconcile his theology to it, rather than the other way around.
Collins' demonstration that even if evolution were true that such would not disprove God is quite powerful and necessary. The book does suffer, however, from a comparative poverty of strong theology and theological reflection. A good part of the reason that theistic evolution gets so much resistance from the faith community is precisely this: high on science, low on theology or theological justification.
Francis S. Collins is one person who had never considered the issue. "As a young man growing up in a world full of temptations, it was convenient to ignore the need to be answerable to any hight spiritual authority...I gradually shifted from agnosticism to atheism." (p. 160 Then as a medical student, he is asked what he believes by a woman who is facing death from untreatable angina. He has to admit the he isn't sure. "Her obvious surprise brought into sharp relief a predicament that i had been running away from for nearly all of my twenty-six years: I had never really serously considered the evidence for and against belief." (p. 20)
In this books, Collins shares his journey from atheism to faith, step-by-step presenting and sifting through the evidence he considered along his journey. Since he is a scientist, it can be a challenge to read at times, but he is much more readable than many of the source books to which he refers.
If you want to hold on to you belief in young earth creation, you may not want to read this book. On the other hand, many modern Christians are coming to the conclusion that the truth of God must be communicated to others in the physical world - the place where they live and will be converted to faith.
Collins is interesting in that he is yet another example of an atheist turned theist. As C.S. Lewis (whom Collins draws on extensively for his theology), who came to God through reading, reflection, and logic, or like Howard Storm, who required a near-death experience to be pulled from the abyss of atheism, Collins is a Christian. Thus, he believes in the presence and transcendence of a creator God who is personal, concerned about we his created, and will interfere in our affairs if necessary, and possibly when beseeched to through prayer. But neither is does he believe all passages of the Bible are to be interpreted literally. He notes that no less a scholar and Christian than St. Augustine also did not argue for such a position with regards to scripture, and saw positive danger to faith were such a view to be taken.
Collins does not subscribe to Intelligent Design. He finds that arguments that, for example, the amazingly complex flagellum of the bacteria, are not impossible to explain through the processes of genetic mutation and natural selection. And, Collins does indeed believe in evolution as a ‘theory’ which has been substantiated time and time again in both the lab and in the fossil record. Rather, he subscribes to what he terms BioLogos.
As Collins sees it, God does not need to specially interfere with evolution to make His plan work out. Rather, He authored the processes which over time, while probabilistic, give rise to such amazing creatures as garden spiders, kitty cats, chimpanzees, and ultimately, even creatures who understand the Moral Law and within them have a desire to seek True North – that is, He who created them and this miraculous Universe.
Weaker parts of the book include his argument for why you too should believe in Jesus, but of course that part is going to be less persuasive as it is based on his faith and not on emperical evidence.
I wish we heard more voices like this in 'debates' on faith v religion.
Dr. Collins also discusses various parts of the Bible — some if it being historical and some of it (e.g., Genesis) being allegorical. As a Christian, he is naturally drawn to the New Testament and makes an argument for the resurrection of Jesus. Not being a Christian myself, I did not quite understand that part, but it was still very interesting.
At the end of the book, he has a section on bioethics. While interesting, there are many topics he didn’t discuss. He was careful not to weigh in on the question of whether life begins at conception and the debate about abortion. Because I would like to know the views of one of our top scientists and self-proclaimed theists, I was disappointed but perhaps that is really an entire book in itself. For that the book lost half a star, but it is obviously still a very worthwhile and fascinating read.
Collins reviews in the first part of the book his personal journey from atheism towards a theistic worldview, and the classical objections against it. His answers are mostly based on the apologetics of C.S. Lewis. This debate is much older than C.S. Lewis of course; most of his ideas can be found in St. Augustin, the Stoics, Pascal and Kant. However he does manage to present those arguments from a modern perspective, in an accessible conversational style.
The second part of the book is a popular science exposition, where Collins draws extensively on his considerable scientific background in both physics and biology and, in particular, the leading role he played in the Human Genome project.
The third part of the book is where Collins tries to reach a final conclusion about the issue of "faith in science and faith in God." He reviews his options, from Creationism to Atheism, and settles on the middle -of-the-road worldview he calls BioLogos. He expounds this theistic evolutionary view, according to which orthodox evolution theory is a fact, but also a divine means of creation. Here is where Collins slips a little, by trying to chew too much. While evolution from lower lifeforms seems to be an indisputable fact, the orthodox theory of evolution by natural selection operating on pure chance presupposes a metaphysical naturalist worldview, which is very contrary to a personal God model. From a scientific point of view alone, while evolution is a fact, it is clear that the mechanism of evolution is not yet completely understood (e.g., like Collins himself points out, the evolution of moral behavior has not been satisfactorily explained; but we can also mention the riddle of "junk" DNA, the various observed cases of puzzling "exadaptation," and so on).
One omission that stands out is that Collins never once mentions Martin Gardner, the contemporary philosopher and essayist, also Kantian, who has written extensively on the issues examined in this book. (
Here's one. Francis Collins
That's a pretty intriguing claim, and it aroused my curiosity. In this book, Collins wrestles with questions like "What came before the big bang?" and "How did life originate?" I should set things in perspective before continuing; Collins is not promoting some flaky version of pseudo-science. He's for real. He praises Darwin and admits that no serious biologist today doubts the theory of evolution. "The relatedness of all species through the mechanism of evolution is such a profound foundation for the understanding of all biology that it is difficult to imagine how one would study life without it." A lot of effort is spent explaining "biological truth," and in a chapter titled Deciphering God's Instruction Book, Collins introduces--no, not the Bible--the lessons of the human genome.
Still, Collins respects the Bible. He dives into the debate about what Genesis really says, and why we have contradicting versions of the creation in the Bible if this poetic and allegorical writing was really meant to be read literally. Young Earth Creationism just simply isn't compatible with modern science; neither, really, is the trendy Intelligent Design explanation. Thankfully, Collins finds an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis unnecessary. Collins proposes a solution for compatibility, which he calls BioLogos. He finds harmony between science and religion in "theistic evolution."
Finally, having dispensed with our concerns regarding the science-versus-religion conflict, he brings up the crux of the matter. Regardless of where else we are to read the Bible nonliterally, evidence supports the fantastic story of a unique individual, Jesus, who lived, died, ... and rose from the dead! Collins leans a bit on C. S. Lewis as he builds toward the climax: he, a rational scientist, logically concludes that the Jesus story is true and literal. God came down to earth in the form of a person. Wow!
While not convincing enough in itself, and leaving many other questions about the believability of the Christian God unanswered, I do highly recommend this book! It will never turn a nonbeliever into a believer, but it will definitely refine the faith of believers, helping them to overcome the dogmatism of outdated theology. Besides, it's a fun, educational read!