Book: The Language of God by Francis Collins

[nl]

This thread is for discussion of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief by Francis Collins, Publisher: Free Press (July 11, 2006)

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief is a bestselling book by Francis Collins (1950- ) in which he advocates theistic evolution. Francis Collins is an American physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP). He currently serves as the Director of the US National Institutes of Health. In the book, Collins describes briefly the process by which he became a Christian.

Collins raises arguments for the idea of God from biology, astrophysics, psychology and other disciplines. He cites many famous thinkers, most prevalently C. S. Lewis, as well as Saint Augustine, Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, Theodosius Dobzhansky and others.

The book proposes the name "BioLogos" as a new term for theistic evolution.

Bios is the Greek word for "life". Logos is Greek for "word," with a broader meaning in Heracleitean Philosophy and Stoicism—namely the rational principle ordering the universe. This concept was appropriated by Christian theology. In Christian theology, "Word" is actually a creative agent for all that exists, in addition to being an ordering principle. Furthermore, in some Christian thinking the eternal and divine Logos merged and synthesized with a human nature to become Jesus Christ in the Incarnation. This is laid out in the opening prologue of the Gospel of John, forming part of the textual basis for Christian belief in the Trinity, as the concept of Logos morphed over time into God the Son for the second person of the Trinity.

"BioLogos" expresses the belief that God is the source of all life and that life expresses the will of God. BioLogos represents the view that science and faith co-exist in harmony.

Source: The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[nl]

From the Introduction...

The human genome consists of all the DNA of our species, the hereditary code of life. This newly revealed text was 3 billion letters long, and written in a strange and cryptographic four-letter code.

As the leader of the International Human Genome Project, which had labored mightily over more than a decade to reveal this DNA sequence, I stood beside President Bill Clinton in the East Room of the White House, along with Craig Venter, the leader of a competing private sector enterprise, Prime Minister Tony Blair was connected to the event by satellite...

Clinton said, "Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind."

"Today," he said, "we are learning the language in which God created life. We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, and the wonder of God's most divine and sacred gift."

 

[nl]

More from the Introduction...

In this modern era of cosmology, evolution, and the human genome, is there still the possibility of a richly satisfying harmony between the scientific and spiritual worldviews?

Science's domain is to explore nature. God's domain is in the spiritual world, a realm not possible to explain with the tools and language of science.

Science is the only reliable way to understand the natural world, and its tools when properly utilized can generate profound insights into material existence.

But science is powerless to answer questions such as “Why did the universe come into being?” “What is the meaning of human existence?” “What happens after we die?”

The goal of this book is to explore a pathway toward a sober and intellectually honest integration of these views.

 

[Tintin]

Ugh. You're really pushing this nonsense, aren't you?

 

[SonInMe]

God created the universe and everything in it.

Scientists observe that universe.

I would like to think a scientist, without agenda, either athiest or christian, would come to the conclusion that the universe was created by design.

Its the ultimate puzzle and perfectly simple, both.

I think someone would have to read the book to get the entire thrust of it but for me I have no problem with the association of man observing the natural world and finding things in that observation.

Afterall, we all want truth. We all want reality, not myths and traditions. If what scientists say is false, either they are lieing, or christians have been fooled by tradition or false teaching.

It has to be real.

The bible says creation witnesses of God and I think the bible is, right.

 

[nl]

Altogether, there are fifteen physical constants whose values current theory is unable to predict. They are givens: they simply have the value that they have. This list includes the speed of light, the strength of the weak and strong nuclear forces, various parameters associated with electromagnetism, and the force of gravity. The chance that all of these constants would take on the values necessary to result in a stable universe capable of sustaining complex life forms is almost infinitesimal. And yet those are exactly the parameters that we observe. In sum, our universe is wildly improbable.

...this general conclusion is referred to as the Anthropic Principle: the idea that our universe is uniquely tuned to give rise to humans.

Even Stephen Hawking in a Brief History of Time has stated: “It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.”


Adapted from Collins, Francis S. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (p. 74 ff). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[nl]

If God exists, then He must be outside the natural world, and therefore the tools of science are not the right ones to learn about Him.

Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

 

[nl]

Francis Collins argues that similar genetic patterns in the chromosomes of chimpanzees and humans argue for a common ancestry. I'm not so ready to accept that assumption. I prefer to think of a common Designer.

 

[ob77]

This thread is for discussion of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief by Francis Collins, Publisher: Free Press (July 11, 2006)

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief is a bestselling book by Francis Collins (1950- ) in which he advocates theistic evolution. Francis Collins is an American physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP). He currently serves as the Director of the US National Institutes of Health. In the book, Collins describes briefly the process by which he became a Christian.

Collins raises arguments for the idea of God from biology, astrophysics, psychology and other disciplines. He cites many famous thinkers, most prevalently C. S. Lewis, as well as Saint Augustine, Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, Theodosius Dobzhansky and others.

The book proposes the name "BioLogos" as a new term for theistic evolution.

Bios is the Greek word for "life". Logos is Greek for "word," with a broader meaning in Heracleitean Philosophy and Stoicism—namely the rational principle ordering the universe. This concept was appropriated by Christian theology. In Christian theology, "Word" is actually a creative agent for all that exists, in addition to being an ordering principle. Furthermore, in some Christian thinking the eternal and divine Logos merged and synthesized with a human nature to become Jesus Christ in the Incarnation. This is laid out in the opening prologue of the Gospel of John, forming part of the textual basis for Christian belief in the Trinity, as the concept of Logos morphed over time into God the Son for the second person of the Trinity.

"BioLogos" expresses the belief that God is the source of all life and that life expresses the will of God. BioLogos represents the view that science and faith co-exist in harmony.

Source: The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kind unto kind. There are many "Kinds" of life forms occupying flesh bodies of one type or another. There are similarities between many kinds of things. All birds are similar, but no two crows have ever produced a robin. A mule is not an evolved animal, but a mutation. A mule has to be produced by the cross breeding of a horse and a donkey. Horses and donkeys will not mate on their own, it must be forced, and to get another mule another forced breeding must occur, because mules cannot reproduce on their own. A Zebra and a Horse appear similar, if you were to cast their shadows on a wall, but they are not the same. They never were, they never will be. A German shepherd may look like a wolf, but it did not come from a wolf. No two wolves have ever produced a German shepherd, or a Dachshund. Kind unto kind.

 

[Tintin]

Kind unto kind. There are many "Kinds" of life forms occupying flesh bodies of one type or another. There are similarities between many kinds of things. All birds are similar, but no two crows have ever produced a robin. A mule is not an evolved animal, but a mutation. A mule has to be produced by the cross breeding of a horse and a donkey. Horses and donkeys will not mate on their own, it must be forced, and to get another mule another forced breeding must occur, because mules cannot reproduce on their own. A Zebra and a Horse appear similar, if you were to cast their shadows on a wall, but they are not the same. They never were, they never will be. A German shepherd may look like a wolf, but it did not come from a wolf. No two wolves have ever produced a German shepherd, or a Dachshund. Kind unto kind.

Um. Yes, the zebra and horse are two different animals but they are of the same kind. And canines like the German Shepherd and Dachshund actually are descended from a wolf-kind.

 

[nl]

Francis Collins argues that similar genetic patterns in the chromosomes of chimpanzees and humans argue for a common ancestry. I'm not so ready to accept that assumption. I prefer to think of a common Designer.

View attachment 78858

It only takes one binary bit of information to make the difference between positive and negative or forward and reverse.

There are differences in chromosome #2 between human and chimpanzee. The differences are much more than one binary bit. There is no mechanism for such differences to develop by chance. They require a designer.

 

[nl]

If God exists, then He must be outside the natural world, and therefore the tools of science are not the right ones to learn about Him.

Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Quote: Science is the only reliable way to understand the natural world, and its tools when properly utilized can generate profound insights into material existence. But science is powerless to answer questions such as “Why did the universe come into being?” “What is the meaning of human existence?” “What happens after we die?”