{"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":"

London\u2019s Telegraph had an unusually balanced article<\/a> on how leading scientists think about God.<\/p>\n

The occasion? The 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA.
\nThe players? Watson & Crick (discoverers of DNA, both atheists) and Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project, devout Christian).<\/p>\n

In Crick\u2019s mind, \u201cThe god hypothesis is rather discredited.\u201d Indeed, he says his distaste for religion was one of his prime motives in the work that led to the sensational 1953 discovery.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI went into science because of these religious reasons, there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

And according to Watson, \u201cEvery time you understand something, religion becomes less likely,\u201d said Watson. \u201cOnly 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.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

But Collins (who has succeeded Watson as head of the Human Genome Project), believes that religion and science \u201care nicely complementary and mutually supporting\u201d, he said. As one example, his research to find the faulty gene responsible for cystic fibrosis provided scientific exhilaration and \u201ca sense of awe at uncovering something that God knew before that we humans didn\u2019t\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThe tragedy is that many people believe that, if evolution is true, which it clearly is, then God can\u2019t be true\u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJim, who I know much better than Francis, avoids bringing this topic up when we are having a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article concludes with what I found to be a sadly amusing story of Crick\u2019s antipathy to faith. You really ought to read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London\u2019s 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\u2019s mind, \u201cThe god hypothesis is rather discredited.\u201d Indeed, he says \u2026 Continue reading \u201cGenes and God: Contrasting Perspectives\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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"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}]}}