{"id":876,"date":"2003-03-29T12:32:18","date_gmt":"2003-03-29T20:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2003\/03\/29\/genes-and-god-contrasting-perspectives\/"},"modified":"2003-03-29T12:32:18","modified_gmt":"2003-03-29T20:32:18","slug":"genes-and-god-contrasting-perspectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2003\/03\/29\/genes-and-god-contrasting-perspectives","title":{"rendered":"Genes and God: Contrasting Perspectives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lon\u00addon\u2019s Tele\u00adgraph had an unusu\u00adal\u00adly bal\u00adanced arti\u00adcle<\/a> on how lead\u00ading sci\u00aden\u00adtists think about God.<\/p>\n

The occa\u00adsion? The 50th anniver\u00adsary of the dis\u00adcov\u00adery of DNA.
\nThe play\u00aders? Wat\u00adson & Crick (dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00aders of DNA, both athe\u00adists) and Fran\u00adcis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project, devout Chris\u00adt\u00adian).<\/p>\n

In Crick\u00ad\u2019s mind, \u201cThe god hypoth\u00ade\u00adsis is rather dis\u00adcred\u00adit\u00aded.\u201d Indeed, he says his dis\u00adtaste for reli\u00adgion was one of his prime motives in the work that led to the sen\u00adsa\u00adtion\u00adal 1953 dis\u00adcov\u00adery.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI went into sci\u00adence because of these reli\u00adgious rea\u00adsons, there\u2019s no doubt about that. I asked myself what were the two things that appear inex\u00adplic\u00ada\u00adble and are used to sup\u00adport reli\u00adgious beliefs: the dif\u00adfer\u00adence between liv\u00ading and non\u00adliv\u00ading things, and the phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnon of con\u00adscious\u00adness.\u201d<\/p>\n

And accord\u00ading to Wat\u00adson, \u201cEvery time you under\u00adstand some\u00adthing, reli\u00adgion becomes less like\u00adly,\u201d said Wat\u00adson. \u201cOnly with the dis\u00adcov\u00adery of the dou\u00adble helix and the ensu\u00ading genet\u00adic rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion have we had grounds for think\u00ading that the pow\u00aders held tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly to be the exclu\u00adsive prop\u00ader\u00adty of the gods might one day be ours.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

But Collins (who has suc\u00adceed\u00aded Wat\u00adson as head of the Human Genome Project), believes that reli\u00adgion and sci\u00adence \u201care nice\u00adly com\u00adple\u00admen\u00adtary and mutu\u00adal\u00adly sup\u00adport\u00ading\u201d, he said. As one exam\u00adple, his research to find the faulty gene respon\u00adsi\u00adble for cys\u00adtic fibro\u00adsis pro\u00advid\u00aded sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic exhil\u00ada\u00adra\u00adtion and \u201ca sense of awe at uncov\u00ader\u00ading some\u00adthing that God knew before that we humans did\u00adn\u2019t\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThe tragedy is that many peo\u00adple believe that, if evo\u00adlu\u00adtion is true, which it clear\u00adly is, then God can\u2019t be true\u2026 God decid\u00aded to cre\u00adate a species with whom he could have fel\u00adlow\u00adship. Who are we to say that evo\u00adlu\u00adtion was a dumb way to do it? It was an incred\u00adi\u00adbly ele\u00adgant way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJim, who I know much bet\u00adter than Fran\u00adcis, avoids bring\u00ading this top\u00adic up when we are hav\u00ading a con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arti\u00adcle con\u00adcludes with what I found to be a sad\u00adly amus\u00ading sto\u00adry of Crick\u00ad\u2019s antipa\u00adthy to faith. You real\u00adly ought to read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lon\u00addon\u2019s Tele\u00adgraph had an unusu\u00adal\u00adly bal\u00adanced arti\u00adcle on how lead\u00ading sci\u00aden\u00adtists think about God. The occa\u00adsion? The 50th anniver\u00adsary of the dis\u00adcov\u00adery of DNA. The play\u00aders? Wat\u00adson & Crick (dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00aders of DNA, both athe\u00adists) and Fran\u00adcis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project, devout Chris\u00adt\u00adian). In Crick\u00ad\u2019s mind, \u201cThe god hypoth\u00ade\u00adsis is rather dis\u00adcred\u00adit\u00aded.\u201d Indeed, \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cGenes and God: Con\u00adtrast\u00ading Per\u00adspec\u00adtives\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-answers-to-honest-questions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-e8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}