The Bible, although dictated by the Holy Spirit, admits...in many passages of an interpretation other than the literal one. And, moreover, we cannot maintain w/ certainty that all interpreters are inspired by God. Therefore, I think it would be the part of wisdom not to allow any one to apply passages of Scripture in such a way as to force them to support as true any conclusions concerning nature, the contrary of which may afterwards be revealed by the evidence of our senses, or by actual demonstration....I am inclined to think that Holy Scripture is intended to convince people of those truths which are necessary for their salvation, and which being far above human understanding cannot be made credible by any learning, or by any other means than revelation. This, therefore, being granted, I think that in discussing natural phenomena we ought not to begin with texts from Scripture, but with experiment and demonstration.
Galileo Galelei

Archive for April, 2009

A review of The Language of God by Francis Collins

Friday, April 24th, 2009

In The Language of God, Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, argues, unlike other scientists who have published articles on the subject recently, that science and religion are completely and compatible and that science does not lead to atheism.

However, his attempts to reconcile science and religion are met with little success. His arguments are in no way novel, and his primary argument for the existence of a deity is based off of C.S. Lewis’ argument from Moral Law; that we all have an intrinsic moral sense, and this moral sense must have been given to us by God. Now, the fact that I disagree with the Moral Law argument wouldn’t be as bad if it didn’t seem that Collins had not read any further on theology than reading Lewis. He merely quotes Lewis as a justification for this belief and doesn’t address any criticisms of it.

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