Chapter 1: Dr. Collins was raised by Agnostic Parents who allowed him and his brother to join a local Presbyterian's church choir. He graduated high school at the age of 16 went to college at The University of Virginia he was an agnostic became an atheist. He went to Yale for a PhD in Chemistry two years into a quantum Physic program took a course in Biochemistry was hooked, he applied to Medical School and enrolled at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He went into the emerging field of Genetics where look for errors in the genetic code which lead to discoveries in down syndrome, sickle cell anemia, etc. (Doesn't these Genetic errors show that no personal god exist?). After graduating from medical school he was a resident at UNC, an elderly woman, who was a Christian, and dying from a painful disease asked him what was his belief,he was uncertain, this hunted him for days, he saw his willful blindness and arrogance. He looked at the facts what he called the cliff-note version of the world religions, he visited a local Methodist minister in Chapel Hill and asked him various question, the minister gave him a book by C. S. Lewis titled Mere Christianity. He found a book that answered the questions he was asking. He became a Deist due to Lewis' argument from the Moral Law i.e. the universal awareness of right or wrong (what about psychopaths and sociopaths? How is the Moral Law missing in them?) and selfless altruism. He believes that atheism is a failed explanation for the moral law and altruism and that agnosticism is a cop-out.
Chapter 2 1.
Is belief in God wishful thinking?
The longing for something that transcends us could be a guidepost that there is something there that can fill it. He uses C. S. Lewis as his answerer, people feel hungry therefore there must be food, a duck feel the need to swim therefore there must be water, etc. Which lead to since there is a longing for something that transcends us there must be a God.
2. Hasn't religious belief caused a lot of harm? 1. Many wonderful things has been done in the name of religion ex. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, etc. 2. Religion (i.e. what he calls "the church") are made-up of flawed people which why we know there is a moral law that we cannot keep and God has provided the remedy his sinless son. 3. Why does God allow evil or suffering? He argues that we have free-will and if god always intervene this could lead to chaos. Also, a lot of the suffering is self imposed we create weapons, drugs, etc. He gave a moving example of his daughter's rape as an example of suffering and admits he does not understand why God allowed it to happen, (Is one person free-will more important than another, like the rapist free-will vs. his daughter's; why was her free-will not to be raped not honored?). Natural Disasters? God plans are not our plans i.e. God works in mysterious ways. He quotes C.S. Lewis again in that we want a benevolent grandfather, perhaps God uses suffering for soul-building, perhaps we learn more from suffering than good experiences. he uses Dietrich Bonhoeffer suffering and death in a Nazi camp. He could in a dim way see his daughter's rape was a lesson in forgiveness. 4. How can a rational person believes in Miracles? C. S. Lewis in his book Miracles "Every event we call miracles are eventually presented to our senses" Dr. Collins uses Bayes Theorem to explain the probability of miracles. He admits miracles are rare but goes into how the Universe is something that can't be explained by our sciences, and ask is this a miracle?
Chapter 3 Origins:
He discusses the Big Bang, Anthropic Principle, Heisenberg principle of uncertainty. He argues God is supernatural he is not limited by time thus he concludes he could create us via natural selection by evolution. He discusses Literal Interpretation vs. Non-literal or Allegory, where he quotes Saint Augustine "In matters that are obscure and beyond our vision we find in Holy Scripture passages that can be interpreted in various ways... in such cases we should not rush head long on one side so that further progress in search for truth, justly undermine our position, we too fall with it..."
Chapter 4: Life on Earth: Of Microbes and Men
Intelligent design: Paley's Watch Maker Analogy, Paley argues 1. Watch is complex 2. Watch has an intelligent designer 3. Life is complex 4. Therefore, life has an Intelligent Designer. Dr. Collins shows the flaw in the argument by using lightning as his example if the watch maker analogy is true and thus intelligent design then one could argue that 1. Electricity comes from the flow of electrons. 2. Electricity comes from an electric company. 3. Lightning comes from the flow of electrons 4. Therefore, Lightning comes from an electric company.
In the remainder of Chapters 4 to 6 is his case for the evidence for evolution from a genetic and biological evidence.
Chapter 7 Option 1: Atheism and Agnosticism (When Science Trumps Faith)
Dr. Collins believes Atheism is like theism it is blind faith. He quotes Stephen Jay Gould claim assertion that science cannot neither prove nor disprove god. He next defines agnosticism that the term was created by T. H. Huxley, which is defined as the knowledge for the existence of god is unknowable. He could in a general statement that agnosticism is a cop-out; and it is rare to find an agnostic who have looked at the evidence and that most have become believers once doing so.
Chapter 8 Option 2: Creationism (When Faith Trumps Science)
In this chapter he defines the Young Earth Creationism (YEC) as the belief that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, and the humans are special creations. YEC accepts micro-evolutions but doubts macro-evolutions, believe in a worldwide flood; approximately 45% of Americans believe in some form of YEC. He thinks YEC and modern science are incompatible because Young Earth Creationist think a literal interpretation of their sacred books i.e. the Bible, Quran, etc. is necessary and that any other belief is on a slippery slope. He thinks the bible is to reveal the nature of God not a scientific book. YEC at least some argue that God is using science to test believers faith. Collins believes YEC eventually leads to spiritual and scientific bankruptcy for that risk what Saint Augustine warned about falling with YEC when new evidence disproves it.
Chapter 9 Option 3: Intelligent Design (When Science needs Divine Help)
Intelligent design argument comes from the idea of irreducible complexity and Phillip Johnson a Law professor at UC - Berkley is considered the father of ID, created the Discovery Institute, (what have they discovered?), other proponents of ID are Dembski and Behe. Three propositions of ID is 1. Evolution promotes an atheistic worldview and must be resisted by believers in God. 2. Evolution is fundamentally flawed because it cannot account for the intricacy complexity of of nature an example they often use is the complexity of the eye and bacteria flagellum. 3. If evolution cannot explain the complexity of life then there must be an Intelligent Designer. He concludes that scientific objection to ID is that it is not a scientific theory, because it does not present any falsifiable evidence.
Chapter 10 Option 4: BioLogos (Science and Faith in Harmony)
He opens the chapter with a Presbyterian minister , a father of one of the graduates, at his graduation asked them to consider three things 1. What will be your life's work? 2. What role will love play in your life? and 3. What will you do about faith? He joined the American Scientific Affiliation and briefly discuss how it is evidence of faith and science in harmony. He then discusses theistic evolution which he claims has six proposition 1. The universe was created by God, approximately 14 billion years ago. 2.The properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life. 3. While the precise mechanism of the origin of life on earth remains unknown, it is possible that the development of living organisms was part of God's original creation plan. 4. Once life began, no special further interventions by God were required. 5. Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes. 6. Humans are unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanations and point to our spiritual nature. This includes the existence of the knowledge of right and wrong (Moral Law) and the search for God that characterizes all human cultures through out history. He concludes that God who is not limited by space or time created the universe and established natural laws that governs it, seeking to populate an otherwise sterile universe with life using evolution was the mechanism to do it. He gave these creatures free will, intelligence to know the moral law of right and wrong and knew they could not obey the moral law. He admits that belief in God will always require a "leap" of faith.
Chapter 11 Truth Seekers
He discusses his trip to Nigeria and his experience of Agape love when he helped an poor Nigerian farmer. He concludes the chapter quoting Einstein Science without religion is Lame and how science can be a form of worship, quotes Proverbs 19:2. What barriers prevent belief in God? Of all the worldviews he concludes that atheism is the least rational. He believe there are pure waters of spiritual truth carrier in rusty containers.
Appendix
In the appendix he discusses Stem Cell, specialized medicine based on DNA, cloning, SENT, PGD, etc. He believes and concludes that faith-based bioethics is not recommended due to religion's historical suppression and false piousness. I agree with e-Skepic's conclusion that Dr. Collins dismisses the Young Earth Creationist and Intelligent Designers when he claims they are arguing from the god the gaps i.e. ignorance but then Dr. Collins uses a god of the gaps (i.e. ignorance) when he refuses to acknowledge that there could be other answers for the so-called Moral Law, mankind's desire for transcendence, and the anthropic principle/fine tuning. He ultimately admits belief in God requires a "leap" of faith and thus in admitting this he knows there is and thus provides no evidence for belief. Therefore the language of god is a lost translation because his evidence is not based on science (knowledge) but on faith. Indeed,Truth cannot conflict with truth.
Think about it...
