"The Language of God" Book Comments

by Bernie Dehler

  I can honestly say that this is one of the best books I've ever read: "The language of God: A scientist Presents evidence for Belief."  It is written by Francis Collins, who was the head of the human Genome Project.  Francis is a self-described evangelical Christian, and also a sort of "theistic evolutionist."  I got this book from the library, but I feel that it is so valuable I'm going to buy my own copy for my personal library.  Here are some of my notes (page numbers are from the "large print" edition):

Pg. 35: Reading the works of CS Lewis can bring one to Christ.  Francis has two philosophical reasons for being a Christian: the moral code and the inner spiritual yearning.  It seems he was drawn to Christ through philosophy rather than directly from the Bible.  Faith came first; Bible second.

Pg. 67: Validated for me that the relationship with God is the most important thing in life; and so, it is a worthwhile endeavor.

Pg. 103:  Introduction to the anthropic principle of the design of the universe (and the design of all of reality).

Pg. 186: Chromosome evidence for a common ancestor for ape and man... "ape" chromosome 2 fused into the human one.

Pg. 187: Chromosome evidence for common ape/human ancestry in gene "caspase-12' (gene is messed-up real good in humans, but functional in chimps and other mammals, including mice.  If humans were made unique, why insert a nonfunctional gene in the same place where used by apes? 

Pg. 189: Although we share biology with lower lifeforms, humans are unique in having a moral code and a yearning for God and eternal life (just as the two trees represent in Genesis, I might add).

Pg. 199: Grasping the long periods of time in evolutionary thought.  It is remarkable and almost incomprehensible how much "life" happened even before humans were on the scene.

Pg. 209: The importance of learning from the science/religion debate with Galileo in 1633.  Same debate, but much deeper, as this involves origins.

Pg. 220/221: Francis mentions 3 main fallacies used by Richard Dawkins.  (Dawkins is a famous anti-God critic and scholar, writing a book called "The God Delusion.")

Pg. 232: Francis explains that "Young Earth Creationism" is incompatible with real science.  (From my reading, this is the general consensus of all scientists; and 40% of scientists believe in a personal God, so it is not like most scientists are anti-God as young earth'ers seem to claim.)

Pg. 260: "Intelligent Design" (ID, Discovery Institute style) is a ship headed no where but the bottom of an ocean.  ID Is basically a "God of the Gaps" approach, which makes God irrelevant when things are understood, as science shows over time.

(My note: ID is like an armchair quarterback; watching a football game on TV and yelling instructions to the coach.  It proposes nothing; no (young or old) age for the universe.  It basically says "God must have designed everything because it is impossible for things to come about by themselves.")

Pg. 280: The God of the Bible can be worshiped in the cathedral and in the laboratory, marveling over his handiwork as expressed in the genome.

Pg. 290: Personal testimony of the gospel message: Problem: sin; solution: Savior.

Pg. 300: The need for both science and religion.  Albert Einstein is quoted "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

Pg. 302: The spiritual worldview provides another way of finding truth.

Pg. 306: Message to public: stop denying your own questions of mortality and spirituality... deal with it today.

Pg. 307: Seek to reconcile science and religion; it is very rewarding!  The "war" between science and religion is very unfortunate and unnecessary. It is only the extremest on both sides (fundamentalists and atheists) that fuel this war, just like any other war.

Pg. 338: Appeal to reasonableness on issues such as stem cell research (don't summarily dismiss anything without deep thought).

Pg. 346: Interesting side-note, a movie based on the future when DNA can be analyzed to select a mate.  The movie is called GATTACA. 

Pg. The nonsense of trying to create a perfect kid with DNA.  even with perfect DNA, they can still be a slacker, smoker, drug abuser, etc.  "Nurture" (not just "nature") plays a HUGE role in who we are.

Comments

[Shubee]

Pg. 186: Chromosome evidence for a common ancestor for ape and man... "ape" chromosome 2 fused into the human one.

Elsewhere it is said that humans are 98% chimpanzee. That's a fantastic number of necessary evolutionary steps, which would require an unimaginably large number of generations. The creationist website by Sean D. Pitman says, "A rat is also no less complex than a human as far as the information needed to build a rat. In fact, out of 35,000 to 40,000 genes that the human genome contains, the rat is only about 500 genes different." That seems even more remarkable. What's the real truth that puts all these disconnected snippets into a real perspective?