Book Review: The Language of God - Francis Collins

Introduction:

The thirst for knowledge, and the seeking of truth, are unique traits in the human kind. Throughout human history, there are many famous thinkers who formulated ideas, synthesis and theories based on both the physical and the metaphysical. These are attempts to solve the big question of "how, why and where?", which ultimately takes us to the quest for the meaning of life. The seriousness of this big question can be best reflected, when thinking about the problem of "lunch": 1) How do we eat lunch? 2) Why do we eat lunch? and 3) Where do we go for lunch? And if we are on the right track, somehow we might find the meaning of life is "42.4665813" (now up to the accuracy of the 7th decimal place, since the original publication of the hitchhiker's guide). 

While sometimes it is helpful, to use humorous relieves as we wrestle with the big question in life. (as I have applied the sense of humor akin to Douglas Adams in this case). But needless to say, despite what you "believe", or "disbelieve". Every single human being will be confronted with this big question of "how, why, where? And the meaning of life", sooner or later, because what you believe/disbelieve about the answer to this question will constitute to your character, value and principle. This will define what you are about.

Like many others, I had realized the true answer to the big question of "how, where, why? The meaning of life", lies with the Christian faith. In salvation by grace through faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Back in my mid twenties, in the early years of my walk with Jesus, I constantly struggled with the "war" between science and religion. As someone whose life's work at that time was based on science (I was an engineering PhD student), I constantly felt the pressure from some of my fellow Christians to surrender to the view that science, is a lesser truth compared to the Bible. Therefore I was "supposed" to submit to the view that science, should be made to fit a certain interpretation of the Bible passages whenever a "seemingly" contradiction appears. 

At that time, I was attending Central Sydney Presbyterian Church. It was through the pastor's (David Thurston's) positive guidance and encouragement, as well as reading various books and literature written by Christian and non-Christian thinkers and scientists, that I gradually gained a better and healthier perspective on science and religion [1-10]. (see the list of recommended reading in the "reference section of this review).  As I continue to expand my understanding in science and religion, it was only a few months ago that I finally came across this book called "The Language of God", written by Dr. Francis Collins. And I am delighted to say that this is probably one of the best Christian book addressing the topic of science and religion so far, but not without minor issues.

What's this book about:

Some people might never heard of the Human Genome Project, and I would suspect that even less people have ever heard of Francis Collins. The Human Genome Project, was arguably one of the most ambitious scientific project since NASA's mission to the moon. Where the project's goals were to find the sequence of the chemical base pairs that made up the DNA, and to successfully map the 25,000 genes from the human genes. A few years later, Dr. Collins took on the leadership as the director of the project. The announcement for the working draft of the genome was made in 2000, and completed in 2003. Francis Collins is not just a scientist, but he is also a Christian. In this book, Francis Collins shared his thoughts on the topic of science and religion. 

In the first chapter of the book. Collins gave a testimony of his own journey from atheism to Christianity. Starting from his childhood to early adulthood as a medical student as an atheist. As a medical student, Collins was looking after some patients from North Carolina who were suffering from tremendous illness. Collins testified that he was often struck by how well these people handle suffering. Especially when he witnessed how these people's Christian faith has given them the strength to endure the suffering they were going through.  When he was 26, he encountered a patient he was looking after, who was a Christian old lady suffering from severe untreatable angina on daily basis. This old lady shared her Christian faith with him, and asked him the question of "what do you believe"? Collins stated that the question struck him deeply, and lead him to investigate the evidence for and against belief seriously. Later, Collins went to visit a minister at a methodist church. After listening to Collin's questions, the minster gave him a booked called "Mere Christianity", written by the legendary Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis [11]. Where he realized his previous constructs against the Christian faith were not sound. Collins said the argument that struck him the most, was the argument of ethics (right and wrong) and the meaning of the universe. It was Lewis' argument for Christianity, based on the moral law and altruism that finally led Collins to reason that if there is a God, then this must be a God who wants some sort of relationship with human beings. In other words, Collins reasoned that if such a God exist, then this must be the God of Abraham, the God of the Bible. Collins testified that after struggling with this question for a while. He finally made a "leap" and became a Christian. 

In chapter 2, Collins discussed the different worldviews that are at war against each other. Which is a war that every seeker of truth will face on their journey. Such as: 

1) Is the believe in God simply a self wishing fulfillment? 

2) The problem of the evils done in the name of religion, 

3) Why would God allow suffering in the world? 

4) How can a rational person believe in miracles? 

Francis Collins provided very satisfactory answers to all of these questions. Personally, I particularly enjoyed Collin's argument for 4), where he used a combination of mathematical statistics in a poker game and Occam's Razor [12], to demonstrate the logical fallacy in denying the possibility of miracles, invoked by a supernatural entity such as God.

In Chapter 3, the author gave a brief history on the development of astrophysics and cosmology. From the struggle of scientists such as Copernicius, Kelper, Galileo against the Catholic church, all the way to Einstein's theory of relativity, Edwin Hubble's laws and the evidence supporting the big bang. For those who are interested in finding out more about this area, one can refer to the books and literature listed in the reference section of this review, particularly reference 2,3,4 and 7 [2-4,7]. Collins then moved on to discuss the question of "what about before the big bang?". He used Anthropic principle [6] and the cosmological constants [8] to construct an argument for a universe that is fine tuned for the existence of life. Collins argued that while this argument does not give us any conclusive proof that a God can exist, but the anthropic principle does favor the argument of a creator God. At the end of the chapter, Collins proposed a synthesis for someone who is seeking a true God through the moral questions mentioned in chapter 1. This synthesis is in harmony with modern scientific discoveries.

Chapter 4 and 5 are essentially, the meat and bones of this book. This is where Francis Collins discussed why the theory of evolution is, pretty much a scientific fact. The discussion was made based on the discoveries made in the human genome project, as well as the fossil record. Collins also emphasized that just because science is still unable to solve certain questions about the natural world. One should not hastily use God as a way to fill the gap in our knowledge, lest our faith will be in danger if science has discovered the knowledge to fill the gap in the future. 

In chapter 6, Collins gave a brief discussion on why the theory of evolution is still such a controversial theory in the public, yet it is a widely accepted theory in biological science just like the law of gravity. Collins also mentioned the delicate nature and the difficulty in the interpretation of Genesis. Such that Christians should not hastily take a side, and insist that Genesis contains scientific data meant to be interpreted word by word. Such is also the view and warning from St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest Christian thinker in history. As Christians, we should continuously update our knowledge about the natural world [9]. Collins pointed out an important message, as Christians, we should not play the role of antagonist against revelations from the scientific truth. Quoting Collin's own words: " If God created the universe, and the laws that govern it, and if He endowed  human beings with intellectual abilities to discern its workings, would He want us to disregard these abilities? Would He be diminished or threatened by what we are discovering about His creation?"

In Chapter 7, 8, 9 and 10. Collins presented the different options of belief/disbelief:

- Chapter 7, the title is: Atheism and agnoticism (when science trumps faith)

In this chapter, Collins explains the difference between weak and strong atheism. As well as Agnoticism. Collins argues that it is a logical fallacy on Richard Dawkin's behalf to insist that science demands atheism. As Collins stated, Dawkin's argument demands science to go beyond its boundaries. Because if God exists and he is the creator of the universe. Then science, which only deals with the things OF this world, can neither prove nor disprove his existence. Therefore Atheism, is then a system of ideology based on blind faith, because it adopts a belief system that cannot be defended based on pure reason. 

- In chapter 8, Collins discussed the view of "creationism" (where faith trumps science). Collins stated that if this definition is centralized on the idea that a God is directly involved with the universe that He created. Then many Christians and himself will have to consider themselves "creationist". However, Collins went on to explain that his main topic of discussion in chapter 8, is focused on Young Earth Creationism. That is the belief that Genesis should be interpreted word by word, leading to the belief that the earth was created 6000 years ago, in a six, 24 hour days period. Collins gave a brief history of the rise of Young Earth Creationism in the last 50-100 years. Young earth creationists often call evolution a lie, and that the Big Bang is a wrong scientific theory, or "just" a theory (see this article to understand the true meaning of scientific theory [16]). In this regard, Collins explained why an "ultra-literal" interpretation of the Genesis is unnecessary. Not only that, Collins made a few examples of the problems of interpreting the entire Bible word by word, and the incompatiblities of young earth creationism with science. Furthermore, Collins argued, why would God created the universe to be young, but made it to "appear" to be billions of years old? (including all the fossil records, DNA, RNA that are strong evidence of evolution) Is God a great deceiver? Collins pleaded to use reasoning to discern the truth.

- In Chapter 9. The discussion was focused on the idea of "intelligent design" (where science needs God's help). Collins gave a short history on the development of the "intelligent design" movement. He revealed the movement is essentially, "God of the gaps" ideology masqueraded as science, by rejecting modern science such as evolution for some ulterior motives. Furthermore, Collins pointed out the theological problem with "intelligent design", because this ideology portrays God as a clumsy designer who cannot, perfect his creation in one attempt, but needs to keep on re-creating and perfecting his creations on earth, by driving the previously existing ones to extinction (refer to the fossil records). Such a god is surely not the all mighty God described in the Bible. Side note: Kenneth R. Miller has written a great book on this topic, for further reading [13].

- In Chapter 10, Francis Collins presented the idea of "Bio Logos" (science and faith in harmony). This is essentially the view that God created lives on earth through evolution. Collins argued that this view brings science and faith into complete harmony, and this perspective also makes Christian scientists to be intellectually fulfilled and spiritually alive, both worshiping God and using the tools of science to uncover the mysteries of His creation. 

In the final chapter, Francis Collins pleaded the careful examination of the evidence for Christian faith. He argued that the foundation of the Christian faith, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, was historically documented in the Bible. That no historians will doubt the existence of Jesus. He quoted F.F. Bruce's word: "The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar [14]. Finally, Collins called for a truce between science and religion, where extremists on both sides, should stop making science and faith warring against each other. In Collin's own words: "Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced. God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible. So let us together seek to reclaim the solid ground of an intellectually and spiritually satisfying synthesis of all great truth. That ancient motherland of reason and worship was never in danger of crumbling. It will never be. It beckons all sincere seekers of truth to come and take residence there. Answer that call, abandon the battlements. Our hopes, joys and the future of our world depend on it".

My thoughts about the book:

In general, I think this is a great book. Francis Collins has made some powerful arguments for Christianity, and made a great attempt to reconcile science and religion. I will like to share some of my thoughts about some of the points he raised in the book.

A) In this book, Francis Collins mentioned the phrase "free will" several times. Mainly to make an argument that human beings, are at the cause of "human related tragedies" and not God. From his argument, I speculate that he meant "free will" to be "pure will" (as "will" purely from human beings). The phrase "free will" is only mentioned in the Bible as "free will offering" (Psalm 54:6, Leviticus 22:23). The reason why I think his argument would be better by replacing "free will" with "pure will" is because, according to Immanuel Kant's view. Human beings, although rational and self conscious, but are limited with impure freedom of choice. For example, if I like to eat chicken, then I will always want to eat chicken instead of salad, because chicken is my preference. Therefore, my choice is already affected by my personal preference prior to the food decision I make. Unless someone comes along and influence me otherwise. However, that is not to say that we do not have the ability to "choose". Because human beings are self conscious and rational beings. This means human choice can be affected but not determined by impulses, and therefore the choice we make is of ourselves. Not pure but can be brought into action by "pure" will (purely our own) [15]. A lawless free will (a will without pre-existing laws) is therefore incomprehensible in this natural world. But as I said before, I believe what Francis Collins tried to say is, we are responsible for our actions.

B) I think Collin's message about harmony between science and faith, is a particularly important message that is relevant to most Christians. Seeing that neo-atheism has been using science as a tool to attack Christianity. A lot of Christians have reacted with knee jerking reactions by calling science false, further adding oil onto a raging fire. Personally, I believe the same thing as Collins does. And that is scientific truth should not be made to fit a certain interpretation of the Bible. Nor should we call science false. Because the Bible was never meant to be a science textbook. It is a manual from God that teaches us about Him, about ourselves, and about how we ought to live to glorify Him. As Christians, we are to put our faith, build our hopes on Jesus Christ. Not on a particular view on how Genesis must be interpreted. Furthermore, we must be very careful not to build our faith on other things other than Jesus. 

To give the readers more insight into this important issue. I will debunk a popular Christian arguments for intelligent design, to show you how dangerous it is to build Christian faith on human ideas. Namely, the watch maker's analogy.

A Christian who build his/her faith based on the William Paley's watch maker's analogy (intelligent design, apparently Darwin was once very fond of this analogy until he formulated theory of evolution), is in danger of having a faith crisis when the watch maker's analogy is toppled. How? Well, according to the watch maker's analogy:

- A watch is complex

- A watch has an intelligent designer

- Life is complex

- Therefore life must have an intelligent designer

I will demonstrate how easily this analogy can be debunked. By using the same logic, we get:

- The tape water in my house consists of hydrogen and oxygen

- Tape water, comes from the dam

- Rain, consits of hydrogen and oxygen as well

- Therefore, rain must come from the dam.

I think the logical fallacy of William Paley's watch maker analogy, is pretty obvious when I apply the logic to different objects, as shown above.

Similar danger exists for those who radically build their faith on the ground that science is false and Genesis should be interpreted word by word. Equally as dangerous is the intelligent design movement, which uses God as the way to fill the gaps in our scientific knowledge. These are serious issues that can lead people to fall away from their faith. If they discover that scientific truth does not support their interpretation of Genesis, or that science has discovered ways to fill in the previous gaps in our scientific knowledge, causing people to think that science leaves no room for God. This can happen, if we do not build our faith on Jesus. Indeed, we have been given warnings by great Christian thinker such as St. Augustine more than one thousand years ago [9].

C) As Francis Collins pointed out. There is no need for science and faith to be in a war, because science deals with the "how" in this world. Christian faith deals with the "why and where" in this world. One may argue that knowledge of science is more reliable, because it belongs to the realm of "epistemological realism". While knowledge of Christianity is less reliable, because it belongs to the realm of "epistemological idealism". But the heart of the problem is, as human beings. We cannot radically separate them and only follow one. Any complete human being and experience, consists of both subjectivism as well as objectivism. For example, no one can really appreciate his wife's beauty in that green dress by interpreting the light reflected from the green dress as 540THz! Similarly, it is not very wise to insist to get a tan quickly by sun bathing without any protection cream! The interface between Science and Christian faith, is also about the healthy balance and harmony of epistemological realism, and epistemological idealism. 

Final thoughts:

  

The Language of God, is a great book written by a sincere Christian scientist. The messages are clear:

For Christians, it is a call for the time to end the war between science and Christian faith. We cannot bring glory to God by devaluing scientific truth and shun reasoning. 

For atheists/agnostics who have elevated scientism. While science is great at telling us "how", but it does not lead us to know the "why and where". Science alone, cannot teach us the meaning of life. Just like my joke at the beginning of this review. While the answer to "how" life  started may turn out to be 42.4665813, but the meaning of life is simply NOT 42.4665813 (down to the 7th decimal place, mind you), because that is just not human!

For truth seekers, the Bible said "Seek and you will find" (Matthew 7:7). Consider the human moral laws, why is there good and evil? Why do people display altruism when it clearly does not benefit them at all? Is it all meaningless, or an accident? Great thinkers such as Francis Collins and C.S Lewis have all been through this journey to seek the truth. In the end, they have come to worship Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. Why? Perhaps it is time for seekers to weigh the evidence and reasons more seriously and sincerely.

Harmony between science and Christian faith, lead us to gain even more awe for the complexity,  beauty and the wonder of God's most divine and sacred gift. Perhaps it is when we finally stop the war between these two truth, then we can gain even more awe and admiration for our amazing creator, by gazing into the chasm of scientific revelations, of the laws that govern the eons in the past and the future of this universe, the language of God. 

Reference (Recommended reading, item 1-10):

[1] Dinesh D'Souza, What's so great about Christianity, Regnery Publishing, 2007

     Link: (what's so great about Christianity) 

[2] Stephen Hawking, A brief history of time, Bantam, 1998 

     Link: (A brief history of time)

[3] Albert Einstein, On the electrodynamics of moving bodies, in Annalen der Physik.

     17:891, 1905 Link: (on the electrodynamics of moving bodies)

[4] Albert Einstein, The meaning of relativity, Princeton University Press, 5th Edition, 1966 

     Link: (The meaning of relativity)

[5] Charles Darwin, The origin of species, Penguin Classics, 2009 

     Link: (The origin of species)

[6] Frank J Tipler and John D Barrow, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, Oxford University Press, 1st Edition. 1988 Link: (The Anthropic Cosmological principle)

[7] John D. Barrow, The Origin of Universe, Basic Books, 1997

     Link: (The Origin of the universe)

[8] Martin Reeves, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces that Shapes the Universe, Basic Books, 1st             Edition, 2001 Link: (Just Six Numbers)

[9] St. Augustine of Hippo, The Literal Interpretation of Genesis Vol.1 

      Link: (On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis)

[10] David Bohm, The Special Theory of Relativity, Routledge, 1996 

       Link: (The Special Theory of Relativity)

[11] C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperSanFrancisco, 2001 

       Link: (Mere Christianity)

[12] Blumer A, Ehrenfeucht A, Haussler D, Warmuth MK, Occam's Razor", Information Processing    Letters 24 (1987), 337-380 Link: (Occam's Razor)

[13] Kenneth R. Miller, Finding Darwin's God: A scientist's research for common ground between God and evolution, Harper Perennial 1st edition, 2000 Link: (Finding Darwin's God)

[14] F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents, Are they reliable?,Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2003) Link: (The New Testament Documents: Are they reliable?)

[15] Immanuel Kant, Metaphysics of Morals 6

[16] Holbrook J, Rannikmae M, The meaning of scientific literacy, International Journal of Science and Enviornmental Education, Vol. 4:3, 2009, pp.275-288 Link: (The meaning of scientific literacy)