{"id":5418,"date":"2009-07-16T06:09:37","date_gmt":"2009-07-16T06:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/07\/evolution-the-bible-and-the-bo.html"},"modified":"2009-07-16T06:09:37","modified_gmt":"2009-07-16T06:09:37","slug":"evolution-the-bible-and-the-bo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/07\/evolution-the-bible-and-the-bo.html","title":{"rendered":"Evolution, the Bible, and the Book of Nature (RJS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The July\/August issue of Books and Culture<\/b><\/i><\/a> contains an interview by Karl Giberson with Francis Collins on his views of science and faith – now available on line: Evolution, the Bible and the Book of Nature<\/a><\/b><\/i>.<\/p>\n

Here is a brief taste of the article – read the whole – better yet subscribe! (pictures from wikipedia)<\/p>\n

On the general approach Collins takes to issues of science and faith:<\/b> <\/p>\n

\n

Giberson:<\/b> You take both the Bible and evolution seriously. Did the harmony you find between evolution and your faith just come naturally?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Francis_Collins<\/span><\/p>\n

Collins:<\/b> You know, it really did. When I became a believer at
\n27, the first church I went to was a pretty conservative Methodist
\nchurch in a little town outside Chapel Hill. I’m sure there were a lot
\nof people in that church who were taking Genesis literally and
\nrejecting evolution.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

But I couldn’t take Genesis literally because I had come to the scientific worldview before<\/em>
\nI came to the spiritual worldview. I felt that, once I arrived at the
\nsense that God was real and that God was the source of all truth, then,
\njust by definition, there could not be a conflict.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On the claim that scientists are misled by their preconceptions:<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Karl_Giberson<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Giberson:<\/b> History shows that paradigms are sometimes
\nmisleading. For example, the paradigm that there couldn’t be change in
\nthe heavens caused people to miss data for many centuries about new
\nstars. The ID scientists would say that people like you wouldn’t see
\nthe design in nature because you work under a paradigm that excludes
\nthat possibility.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Collins:<\/b> Sure, we have paradigms that we use to try and
\norganize things, but one of our goals is to upset these paradigms. If
\nlaboratories did experiments and said, “Hey, wait a minute, here is
\nsome data suggesting that evolution is wrong, it is not capable of
\nexplaining something,” that would be a lightning rod for excited
\ninvestigation. This idea would not be ignored because it wasn’t
\nconsistent with a reigning paradigm. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On the key question – which experts should we trust?<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

Giberson:<\/b> We are all part of social groups, and people we
\ntrust tell us things. … But how are people
\noutside the scientific community supposed to navigate this complex web
\nof social authority, to try and figure out which voices they should
\nlisten to, and which voices they shouldn’t?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Consider credentials. On paper the credentials of
\nthe better creationists and id people are like yours and mine. Take you
\nand Michael Behe. You both have PhDs. You have both done research and
\npublished articles. So if somebody wants to put Behe up against Collins
\nand say, “Well, here’s a guy and I like what he says. And here’s
\nanother guy and I don’t like what he says. And you’re asking me to
\nfollow Collins over Behe? Well, why should I do that?”<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Collins:<\/b> Well, that is a fundamental problem we’re facing in
\nour culture, especially in the United States. It’s why we have such a
\nmismatch between what the scientific data would suggest and what many
\npeople believe about things like the age of the Earth and about whether
\nevolution is true or not.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you ask about data-driven questions, about what is
\ntrue and what is the evidence to support it–you would want to go to the
\npeople who are the professionals who spend their lives trying to answer
\nthose questions and ask, “Is there a consensus view?” So you ask, “What
\nis the age of the Earth?” Well, who does that work? It is the geologist
\nand the cosmologists and the people who do radiocarbon dating. It is
\nthe fossil record people and so on. So you ask, “Is this an unanswered
\nquestion?” And the answer you would get is that the issue is settled.
\nThe age of the earth is 4.55 billion years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What do you think of these answers – or any of the rest of the article?<\/b><\/i> Lets open the discussion here.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

If you wish to contact me directly you may do so at rjs4mail [at] att.net. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The July\/August issue of Books and Culture contains an interview by Karl Giberson with Francis Collins on his views of science and faith – now available on line: Evolution, the Bible and the Book of Nature. Here is a brief taste of the article – read the whole – better yet subscribe! (pictures from wikipedia)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nEvolution, the Bible, and the Book of Nature (RJS) - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/07\/evolution-the-bible-and-the-bo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evolution, the Bible, and the Book of Nature (RJS) - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The July\/August issue of Books and Culture contains an interview by Karl Giberson with Francis Collins on his views of science and faith – now available on line: Evolution, the Bible and the Book of Nature. 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