My name is Glen Davis, a Nationally Appointed US Missionary with the Assemblies of God. I lead Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship at Stanford University. This is my blog, where I talk about things that interest me. I also maintain a database of quotes that I've found stimulating.
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Genes and God: Contrasting Perspectives
London’s Telegraph had an unusually balanced article on how leading scientists think about God.
The occasion? The 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA.
The players? Watson & Crick (discoverers of DNA, both atheists) and Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project, devout Christian).In Crick’s mind, “The god hypothesis is rather discredited.” Indeed, he says his distaste for religion was one of his prime motives in the work that led to the sensational 1953 discovery.
“I went into science because of these religious reasons, there’s no doubt about that. I asked myself what were the two things that appear inexplicable and are used to support religious beliefs: the difference between living and nonliving things, and the phenomenon of consciousness.”
And according to Watson, “Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely,” said Watson. “Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours.”
But Collins (who has succeeded Watson as head of the Human Genome Project), believes that religion and science “are nicely complementary and mutually supporting”, he said. As one example, his research to find the faulty gene responsible for cystic fibrosis provided scientific exhilaration and “a sense of awe at uncovering something that God knew before that we humans didn’t”.
“The tragedy is that many people believe that, if evolution is true, which it clearly is, then God can’t be true… God decided to create a species with whom he could have fellowship. Who are we to say that evolution was a dumb way to do it? It was an incredibly elegant way to do it.”
“Jim, who I know much better than Francis, avoids bringing this topic up when we are having a conversation.”
The article concludes with what I found to be a sadly amusing story of Crick’s antipathy to faith. You really ought to read the whole thing.
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Just a Little Botox For the Site Header
I just redesigned the site header–if I did it correctly it should allow the page to load faster even though the header is larger and more complex.
Please let me know if you have any problems, because I’ve been doing some experimentation in Flash and I’m definitely at the beginning of the learning curve.
UPDATE: I’m getting some weird results from the individual entries–I’m hoping it’s just a cache problem. I’ll take a look at it again in the morning. Even if it’s doing what it seems to be doing it doesn’t make the site unuseable (just ugly).
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The World Has Gone Crazy…
I found this quote on Andrew Careaga’s blog, and I had to repeat it:
You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn’t want to go to war.
We live in interesting times…
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Some Remarkable Stanford Alumni In The News
FYI: This has absolutely nothing to do with the war currently raging in Iraq. Go to http://news.google.com/ if you want up-to-the-minute info.
I just ran across four Stanford alumni:
The President of Peru Alejandro Toledo is a Stanford grad who will be speaking at the 2003 Stanford graduation ceremonies. He has three degrees from Stanford: two masters and one doctorate. read all about it
CNN anchorwoman Daryn Kagan graduated in 1985. She’ll be covering the Oscars. read all about it
Two of Stanford’s own will be helping investigate the Columbia space shuttle explosion. Nobel laureate Douglas Osheroff and Sally Ride (who also helped investigate the Challenger disaster). read all about it
They were once students here just as the students Paula and I minister to today. Touch a student, touch the future. Touch the future, change the world…
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The Luck of the Irish
As you are no doubt aware, yesterday was St. Patrick’s day. Coincidentally, we were in Dublin, CA talking with the missions board of Valley Christian Center.
Anyway, they blessed our socks off. Thanks so much to the the missions board, the church they represent, and to pastor Ray Noah!
And I didn’t even have to kiss the blarney stone (although I did wear green–I figured that in a town named Dublin with little shamrocks painted on every street sign it was probably a good idea to wear green lest I be pinched mercilessly).
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Great Software For Missionaries
If you’re a missionary responsible for raising the funds necessary for your ministry, download TntMPD. It’s a free tool created by Campus Crusade for Christ to help missionaries reach full funding. It’s remarkable, and I invite you to experiment with it yourself.
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Jesus — A Level 5 Leader
If you’ve never read anything by Jim Collins, he’s a former prof at Stanford who’s hit it big (huge would be a more accurate term) in the world of business writing. His two books Built to Last and Good to Great are devoured by business leaders hungry for an edge.
In the latter book, Collins talks about the cruciality of level 5 leadership. Level 5 leaders combine humility and strength in a surprisingly potent package. I found this excerpt from an interview with him fascinating:
I have absolutely no religious background at all, which gives me more confidence in the findings. If I had come from a strong religious background, I’d be more suspicious. After the book came out, I kept hearing people say to me, “There was this ultimate Level 5 leader who lived 2,000 years ago. The things he talked about in the Gospel have great compatibility with what you say.” Of course I had heard about Jesus, but as a result of finding out about Level 5, I was inspired to begin reading the New Testament to see for myself. read the whole interview
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How Many Students?
I just ran across this information and found it interesting: there are 6,636 colleges in America (2,543 are full four-year institutions) [source].
Also, there are over 15.5 million college students in America [source]. To give that number some perspective, consider that nearly 75% of the nations in the world are smaller!
P.S. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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Another Online Accountablity Tool
I’ve mentioned Covenant Eyes and X3watch before.
Now NetAccountability joins the pack of online accountability programs.
If you’re struggling with pornography online, you should check it out. It’s not a filter–it just records where you go and reports it to someone you choose. It’s a very slick solution.
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The Interview With God
There’s a neat multimedia presentation called “The Interview With God” out there. Check it out.
Disclaimer: yes, I think it crosses the line into cheese a few times. I like it nonetheless.
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