Francis Collins? Say it isn't so, President Obama

Everyone knew, of course, that Barack Obama would not live up to all the expectations of his supporters. But the planned nomination of Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health is quite disappointing.

Not that Collins is a raging fundamentalist, but he is a "true" believer who considers life on earth as a creation of the Christian god, and has referred to it as complex, beautiful and "God's most divine and sacred gift."

Not that Collins is not an intelligent man. As Liliana Segura writes, "Collin's claim to fame is having led the Human Genome Project, the ambitious scientific endeavor that achieved a landmark goal: unlocking the DNA code of humanity."


So, what's the problem?

The problem takes shape in this question: Can a person be considered a "true" scientist whose "science" is based upon the religious beliefs that 1) there is a god whose nature is encompassed by Christian theology, and 2) that this god is responsible for everything we observe and experience?

Here's how the problem rears its ugly head. Segura quotes a article from The New Scientist which discusses the BioLogos Foundation, described as "the brainchild of geneticist Francis Collins ... Along with 'a team of scientists who believe in God' and some cash from the Templeton Foundation, Collins, an evangelical Christian who is also a staunch proponent of evolution, is on a crusade to convince believers that faith and science need not be at odds. He is promoting 'theistic evolution' -- the belief that God (the prayer-listening, proactive, personal God of Christianity) chose to create life by way of evolution."


That way sound fairly sensible, but anyone on a "crusade" is worrisome! And as Segura points out:

"As the head of NIH, Collins will oversee a massive research budget; $37 billion in research grants and $4 billion on research programs ... With the years President George W. Bush spent mixing faith and politics (often at the expense of science), an all-too recent memory for many Americans, one might be forgiven for recoiling in horror at the thought of Collins heading up one of the country's most prestigious medical research institutions."


Collins is not a fundamentalist and is, in fact, opposed by the christianist wingnuts. Still, his nomination raises the hackles of those who really don't want to see another Christian "crusader" heading up another government entity - especially one that will direct where and how billions of dollars of research monies are spent.


Read Ms. Segura's entire article here.