domingo, 7 de junio de 2020

BioEdge: Francis Collins awarded Templeton Prize for reconciling faith and reason

BioEdge: Francis Collins awarded Templeton Prize for reconciling faith and reason

Bioedge

Francis Collins awarded Templeton Prize for reconciling faith and reason
    
Geneticist and physician Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, who led the Human Genome Project to its successful completion in 2003, has been awarded the US$1.4 million 2020 Templeton Prize for integrating faith and reason.
In his scientific leadership, public speaking, and popular writing, including his bestselling 2006 book, The Language of God, Collins has supported a Christian worldview. “This book argues that belief in God can be an entirely rational choice,” he writes in the introduction, “and that the principles of faith are, in fact, complementary with the principles of science.” He also endeavors to encourage religious communities to embrace the latest discoveries of genetics and the biomedical sciences as insights to enrich and enlarge their faith.
Why is there something instead of nothing? Is there a God? Does she or he care about me? What is the basis of morality? What is love? What is the meaning of life? Why is there so much suffering in this world? What happens after we die?
Those are profound questions. Yet I paid little attention to them during my first quarter-century on this planet. I was a committed materialist who found little use for anything that could not be addressed by scientific experimentation. But when I transitioned from quantum mechanics to medical school, I found these questions hard to ignore while sitting next to the beds of the sick and dying, and science wasn’t much use in tackling them. People of faith seemed to claim wisdom in that domain, but I assumed those insights were based on superstition and fundamental misunderstanding of nature. Seeking to dismiss the faith perspective, I was stunned to discover a rich vein of philosophical and theological thinking. Atheism, the denial of the possibility of anything that science couldn’t measure, emerged as the most irrational and impoverished worldview. And to my amazement, pointers to a Creator began to appear in all sorts of places, even including scientific observations about the universe. Most importantly, the person of Jesus emerged as the most profound truth-teller I had ever encountered, and called on me to make a decision about my own belief. I held off the Hound of Heaven as long as I could, but ultimately resistance was impossible. But could I be both a scientist and a believer? Wouldn’t my head explode?
Well, no. It didn’t then. And it hasn’t since. As a Christian for 43 years, I have found joyful harmony between the scientific and spiritual worldviews, and have never encountered an irreconcilable difference.
Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge
Bioedge

After the brutal killing of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis by police on May 25, demonstrations with tens of thousands of people have erupted across the United States and around the world, from Berlin to Sydney. A common sentiment reported in the American media is that “black people are dying in twin epidemics of coronavirus and racism”.

Whether #BlackLivesMatter or public health should be prioritised is sure to be the most consequential bioethics issue of the year. My guess is that hundreds, if not thousands, of lives are at stake. What do you think?   

Michael Cook 
Editor, BioEdge     
NEWS THIS WEEK
by Michael Cook | Jun 07, 2020
Is protesting racism a legitimate excuse for ignoring lockdowns?

by Xavier Symons | Jun 07, 2020
The retractions have caused shockwaves in the global scientific community.

by Michael Cook | Jun 07, 2020
Questions remain about whether this is possible this year

by Michael Cook | Jun 07, 2020
Belief in God can be an entirely rational choice, he contends

by Michael Cook | Jun 07, 2020
How do we choose between lives and livelihoods?

by Michael Cook | Jun 07, 2020
At least US$1.5 billion by 2026

by Michael Cook | Jun 07, 2020
Many transgender and non-binary individuals appear to be autistic

by Michael Cook | Jun 07, 2020
Surrogacy. Sperm donation. Adoption.

IN DEPTH THIS WEEK
by Michael Cook | Jun 05, 2020
What happens if the George Floyd protesters fall sick with coronavirus?
Bioedge

BioEdge
L1, Unit 7, 11 Lord Street · Botany, NSW 2019 · Australia
Phone: +61 2 8005 8605
Mobile: 0422-691-615

No hay comentarios: