Online Archives

'As we look through scientific tools, the how and where, we're seeing the language of God,' said Dr. Francis S. Collins to the packed sanctuary of Oakdale-Emory UMC Sept. 23. His lecture, he said, was the response to a question that has shaped his life: 'How is it that once I was an atheist and now am a follower of Jesus Christ?'
Collins, director of the Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health and arguably the world's most eminent researcher on DNA, led the multidisciplinary scientific effort that mapped and sequenced all of human DNA.

He held the audience entranced as he described the science of 'solving the mysteries of DNA.'

Sometimes his scientific discussions may have been beyond part of the audience, but not for long. Statements such as '99.9 percent of human DNA is the same, no matter the color of the person or where he or she came from'; or that '1 percent of DNA holds the keys to the hereditary courses of cancer and other diseases,' caught everyone's attention.'
But what most of the church-member audience came to hear was Collins' faith story.

Collins' parents were '1960s drop-outs in the 1950s,' one a playwright, one an artist, living in West Virginia. He and his three brothers were home-schooled through the sixth grade. 'Faith was not taught,' he said.

In college dormitory life, he was challenged about a belief in God, and in grad school, 'I became an atheist,' he said.
 
He began graduate studies in math and science, but switched to medical school. There his atheism was challenged by his patients.

'In clinical (practice), I met people in terminal states, and saw how many leaned on their faith and were at peace. I assumed it was a psychological crutch,' he said.
One afternoon, a patient who was like a grandmother, talked about looking forward to being with Jesus, he said. 'She looked me in the eye and said, ?What do you believe,
doctor?''

After stammering an answer, Collins said he realized he had concluded God didn't exist without looking at data, 'which is what scientists should do,' he declared.

His exploration into God began. He looked seriously at various world religions, seeing they had much in common, including the facts that all cultures believe in a moral law, a 'right and wrong,' and that 'we're supposed to be good.'

He finally went to a United Methodist pastor and said he was trying 'to figure out why believers believe.' The pastor gave him C.S. Lewis' 'Mere Christianity,' which he credits with making the difference in his life.

Over the next two years he became convinced that atheism was the most illogical of beliefs.

'Science is the only reliable way to understand the natural world,' Collins said, 'but science is powerless to answer questions of faith or belief. ? I would argue that God allows us to discover truth.'

Not finding the whole answer in science, at age 26, Collins began reading the Bible 'and encountered Jesus Christ.'

'Once you open a door to the existence of God, it's not too hard to say then that Jesus could die and be raised.'

In response to a question from the audience, Collins said, 'It wasn't an option to say (Jesus) was just a wise person. If you accept he's who he says he is, you have to believe.'

After discussing and counteracting atheism, agnosticism, creationism and intelligent design systems of thought, he asked, 'What remains?' and posited 'theistic evolution' as the answer.

'This is the harmony I've found,' Collins said in summary. God created the universe some 13.7 billion years ago, including human beings. God gifted humans with good and evil. We use free will to break moral law, leading to estrangement from God. Christ is the perfect solution.

He proposed an alternative term to 'theistic evolution,' suggesting 'biologos,' from bios meaning life and logos meaning the word: God speaking life into being.

'I can find God in the laboratory as well as the sanctuary,' Collins concluded. 'Both are ways to find God, the Truth; and understand the universe God has created.'