[Avodah] Dr. Francis Collins on Science and Religion

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Tue Jul 7 19:15:59 PDT 2020


An interview with Dr. Francis Collins (an Obama appointee now most famous for being Dr. Anthony Fauci's boss).
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/anthony-faucis-boss-on-why-things-could-be-much-better-soon.html

Three snippets that are on topic for our group, but there is more discussion of G-d there than this:

    "I was an atheist when I entered medical school. I was a Christian
    when I left and it was much driven by this experience of trying
    to integrate the reductionist aspects of science into the much more
    fundamental issues I saw my patients wrestling with, like is there
    a God and does God care about me and what happens after I die?

    "Those are uncomfortable questions for an atheist 23-year-old,
    but ultimately they became totally compelling and required some
    investigation and some answers. Ultimately, out of that, it came
    to me that it makes a lot more sense to believe in God than to deny
    God's existence. A scientist isn't supposed to make assertions that
    you would call universal negatives, because you can never have enough
    evidence to do that, and yet that's what atheism calls you to do.
    ...
    "Similarly, the way that some people have caricatured science as a
    threat to God, that doesn't resemble the science that I'm doing. It's
    been a terrible, I think, consequence of our last century or so
    that this polarization has been accepted as inevitable when I see
    it not at all in that light. There are many interesting scientific
    questions that tap into the kind of area that you're asking about,
    like what is the neuroscientific basis of consciousness? What is the
    neuroscientific basis of a spiritual experience? If there is such
    a neuroscientific basis, does that make this spiritual experience
    less meaningful or more so? Those are fun conversations to have."

    "... What is our future? I don't want to see a future where this
    science-versus-faith conflict leads to a winner and a loser. If
    science wins and faith loses, we end up with a purely technological
    society that has lost its moorings and foundation for morality. I
    think that could be a very harsh and potentially violent outcome. But
    I don't want to see a society either where the argument that science
    is not to be trusted because it doesn't agree with somebody's
    interpretation of a Bible verse wins out. That forces us back into
    a circumstance where many of the gifts that God has given us through
    intellectual curiosity and the tools of science have to be put away.

    "So I want to see a society that flourishes by bringing these
    worldviews together by being careful about which worldview is most
    likely to give you the truth, depending on the question you're
    asking."

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "And you shall love H' your G-d with your whole
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   heart, your entire soul, and all you own."
Author: Widen Your Tent      Love is not two who look at each other,
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    It is two who look in the same direction.


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