The Language of God

This past April the 3F team went to the Q Conference in New York City. One of the presenters was a scientist named Francis Collins. Collins was formerly the director of the Human Genome Project, but now has resigned on August 1st to pursue writing and other opportunities. After hearing Collins talk about evolution and how it fits into God's plan of Creation, I knew I had to read His book called The Language of God to hear this heretical idea.

The Language of God is Collin’s argument that science and faith are compatible and complimentary to each other. For hundreds and hundreds of years the debate of science vs. belief has been met with extreme contention. Through historical evidence, scientific data, and some supernatural mystery, Collins attempts to bridge the gap.

I was blown away by some of the things I learned about evolution and biology. I willingly admit that this was a tough read and that a significant amount of the scientific data went right over my head. Nevertheless, the information I was able to grab a hold of was extremely insightful.

The biggest intellectual transformation for me was my view of evolution. I used to think that this was a naughty word. Growing up as a Christian I was taught that evolution was an atheistic theory to prove that God does not exist. It is true that many people hold to this strong of a view. However, there is a more balanced view of evolution, which Collins lays out in this book. Collins claims that God is indeed the Divine Creator, yet somehow in His own infinite way He uses the process of evolution within his plan of creation.

I learned so much about how the scientific world works and how theories like evolution have evolved (no pun intended ☺). This book has opened my eyes and has burst my “Christian Creationist bubble.” I feel enlightened, really confused, somewhat frustrated, but most of all reassured that there is a Divine Creator who is so powerful and far beyond my understanding.

I did not agree with a lot of Collins views by any means, but it did open my eyes to the science world. Some of the scientific evidence simply cannot be ignored, even when it contradicts Christian tradition. Ultimately, there is no way to prove many of the things that science claims. Though scientists try to have "everything" figured out, no one can comprehend the mind of God - not even close. He must laugh at some of the "theories" and "facts" we come up with.

Here are some interesting things Collins says in his book that I wrestled with:
- The universe was created with the Big Bang approximately 14 billion years ago
- The Earth came into existence approximated 4.5 billion years ago
- Homo Sapiens start showing up around 500 million years ago (I don't quite know what to do with the fossil records)
- Human beings evolved from apes and share a common ancestor with Chimpanzees (yeah right!)

If you are interested in some of this scientific stuff, here are some links that will help you in your journey:

God and Science
Human Genome Project
Theory of Evolution
Reasons to Believe
The Hubble Site