Francis Collins

Part I: Francis Collins’ Junk DNA Arguments Pushed Into Increasingly Small Gaps in Scientific Knowledge Recently I wrote an article explaining that both atheistic and theistic evolutionists have relied heavily on “junk DNA” — specifically pseudogenes — to argue against intelligent design (ID). In his 2006 book The Language of God, leading theistic evolutionist Francis Collins made such an argument, Read More ›

Jonathan Wells discusses the implications of DNA and genes on God and evolution, along the way addressing Francis Collins’ claims about junk DNA. He concludes, there are still parts of non-protein-coding DNA for which no specific function is known. Yet new functions are constantly being discovered, so any argument for Darwinian evolution that rest on “junk DNA” must constantly retreat Read More ›

Is evolution compatible with faith in God? It’s a question that is receiving lots of attention of late. On the one hand, “new atheists” like biologist Richard Dawkins insist that Darwinian evolution makes “it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” On the other hand, “new theistic evolutionists” like Francis Collins assure people that Darwin and God get along just Read More ›

Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. Biologist Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker.1 Is Darwinian evolution compatible with faith in God? The nation’s preeminent pro-evolution lobbying group, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), would have people believe that the answer is a resounding “Yes.” In recent years, the NCSE has spearheaded a PR campaign to convince Read More ›

Theistic evolution is the effort to reconcile Darwin’s theory of undirected evolution with belief in God in general and Christian theology in particular. Analogous terms to theistic evolution include “evolutionary creation,” “fully gifted creation,” and “biologos.” Theistic evolution encompasses a wide array of different approaches and views, which has generated considerable confusion about the actual meaning of the term. To Read More ›

In recent years, debates over faith and evolution have continued to intensify. On the one hand, “new atheists” like Richard Dawkins have insisted that Darwinian evolution makes it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. On the other hand, “new theistic evolutionists” like Francis Collins have assured people that Darwin’s theory is perfectly compatible with faith and need have no damaging cultural consequences.

Theistic evolution proponents who do not openly deny that God guided the development of life typically insist that His guidance is unobservable in biology. Francis Collins proposes this view in The Language of God, suggesting that from God’s perspective the outcome of evolution could “be entirely specified… while from our perspective” evolution “would appear a random and undirected process.” [The Language Read More ›

On June 26, 2000, President Bill Clinton announced the completion of the Human Genome Project, which had just deciphered the sequence of DNA in a human cell. “Today,” he said, “we are learning the language in which God created life.” At the president’s side was Francis Collins, director of the project, who had helped to write Clinton’s speech. “It is Read More ›