Dr. Collins: I'm a Scientist and I believe in God

www.cnn.com...

Here is an interesting article from the perspective of Dr. Collins who is primary in the effort of mapping the human genome.

Dr. Collins is a believer that both evolution and creative design can work together in rational argument.

creative design can't work in a rational argument as it relies on an irrational being as the designer.

just an aside
the "open-source" human genome project is actually the more respectable one, imo. they actually released their information to make it public knowledge and thus unpatentable

[edit on 4/5/07 by madnessinmysoul]

A definition of rational:
Arrived at by the use of the peculiarly human mental processes by which man strives to connect his ideas as consciously, coherently and purposively as possible in order to plan the attainment of ends sought. In view of the human fallibility in selecting the best possible reasoning for attaining the ends sought, there is no implication as to the correctness or incorrectness of the reasoning

Another definition:
Using reason or logic in thinking out a problem

And yet one more:
intellectual: of or associated with or requiring the use of the mind

Rationality is relative. It comes from our minds. It is based on our thinking and how we percieve the world. Therefore, creative design can be a "rational" concept. We can think about the idea of creative design even if the root of the idea supposedly comes from an "irrational" being.

You've changed the focus of your argument from the article at hand to the semantics of the article. Proving one right doesn't mean the other is correct by default.

Also, just because one scientist has an idea of how things can be doesn't really lend the the concept or idea any credence. Factual, logical systems stand on their own - and the concept of creative, intelligent design is not one of them.

studies have shown that members of the national academy of sciences are predominately (around 90%) atheist. and among the general scientific community it's actually around 60% atheist.

similar statistics pop up with the royal society across the pond.

that has to say something about how science and religion interact

That is exactly why I was simply posting an alternative view.

Further study shows that Collins does in fact believe in evolution but that origins and guidance through an intelligent creator has helped him to explain life in his own mind.

It isn't like I just posted this to say, "OH MY GOSH A MAJOR SCIENTIST BELIEVES IN GOD SO YOU MUST ALSO". I simply posted this in order that some may be encouraged. Some may not agree to his conclusions. Some may resonate with his conclusions. I just simply thought it was interesting to hear from and see a perspective on God from a well-known scientist that goes against the grain.

[edit on 5-4-2007 by Bugman82]

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
studies have shown that members of the national academy of sciences are predominately (around 90%) atheist. and among the general scientific community it's actually around 60% atheist.

similar statistics pop up with the royal society across the pond.

that has to say something about how science and religion interact

You're gonna have to back that up ie, 90% of NAS scientists are atheists. Are you/they lumping agnostics and/or non-theists with atheists? I know your 60% ("general scientific community") does exactly that...

Source?

regards

(edit) I found this:

Our chosen group of "greater" scientists were members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Our survey found near universal rejection of the transcendent by NAS natural scientists. Disbelief in God and immortality among NAS biological scientists was 65.2% and 69.0%, respectively, and among NAS physical scientists it was 79.0% and 76.3%. Most of the rest were agnostics on both issues, with few believers. We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality). Overall comparison figures for the 1914, 1933 and 1998 surveys appear in Table 1.

[from table]
Personal belief 7.0
Personal disbelief 72.2 [