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As the director of the Human Genome Project, Collins led a consortium of scientists to map and sequence the 3 billion letters in the human DNA instruction book. The project is considered the most significant scientific undertaking of our time--the ultimate goal is to improve human health. On July 8, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Collins to the position of Director of the National Institutes of Health--the US Senate unanimously confirmed him. On October 14th, 2009, Pope Benedict appointed Francis Collins to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 2006, Collins wrote the book “The Language of God”, which became a best seller and spent a considerable amount of time on the New York Times best selling list.

He admitted, that the science he loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as "What is the meaning of life?" "Why am I here?" "Why does mathematics work, anyway?" "If the universe had a beginning…..who created it?" "Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?" "Why do humans have a moral sense?" "What happens after we die?"

Former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), physician-geneticist, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, lead the Human Genome Project (HGP) to completion and lead the effort to sequence the entire human genome (genetic blueprint), the most massive project in the history of biology, is also an evangelical Christian, and finds no conflict between science and religious faith.......

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Raised in Virginia, on a small farm in the Shenandoah valley. Francis Sellers Collins is the youngest of four brothers. He was home schooled by his mother until the sixth grade. During most of high school and college years, he had little interest in biology. He attended the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.S. in chemistry in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Yale University in 1974. While taking a course in biochemistry at Yale, his interest was sparked in the molecules that hold the blueprint for life: DNA and RNA. Recognizing that a revolution in molecular biology and genetics was on the horizon, Collins enrolled in medical school at the University of North Carolina, where he earned an M.D. in 1977.

As a believer, Dr. Collins said, “I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan.” As a graduate student he was an atheist, and found no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics and chemistry. When Collins went to medical school, he witnessed life and death issues at the bedsides of his some of his patients. One of his patients challenged him by asking what he believes and that caused him to begin searching for answers.

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Resources:cnn.com, By Dr. Francis Collins, Special to CNN
pointloma.edu, genome.gov
en.wikipedia

Posted: January 20th, 2010

While to many people, science and the Christian faith seem to say vastly different things about life’s origins and history; Dr Collins is noted for his position that both science and the Christian faith are united. Each informs the other--each points in the same direction; each lead to the God of creation. He believes that science and faith can exist in harmony. He had once assumed that faith was based purely on emotional and irrational arguments. Through the writings of CS Lewis and other sources, Dr Collins discovered that one could build a very strong case for the plausibility of the existence of God on purely rational grounds. But reason alone cannot prove the existence of God. Faith is reason, plus revelation are what requires one to think with the spirit as well as the mind.

At 27, his search to learn more about God’s character let him to the person of Jesus Christ. After resisting for nearly two years, Dr. Collins found it impossible to go on living in a state of uncertainty and became a follower of Jesus. He said, some have asked, “Can you pursue both an understanding of how life works using the tools of genetics and molecular biology, and worship a creator God? Aren't evolution and faith in God incompatible? Can a scientist believe in miracles like the resurrection?”

His response is “I find no conflict here and neither apparently do the 40 percent of working scientists who claim to be believers. Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil records, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things.” “I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.”