World's Leading Scientist Converts From Atheist to Faith in God

Formerly an atheist, the scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome published a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real. Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP), is also director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute. He claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”.

With his scientific discoveries alone, Collins reopened the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins.

Dr. Francis Collins

 “I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.”  For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to “glimpse at the workings of God”.

Although Collins still claims to believe in the theory of evolution, he says God set up the laws of physics at the "Big Bang" knowing that this would be the end result of the process. However, Collins faith in a "God who works miracles" makes one to think his view of evolution is maintained to appease his atheist colleagues; to keep the interest of the scientific community and bring them to reason about faith in God as an acceptable conclusion for everything.

“When you make a breakthrough, it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it,” he said. “But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along.

Many consider this project to be the most significant scientific undertaking of our time. The ultimate goal is to improve human health. Collins joins a line of legendary scientists whose research deepened their belief in God.

Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: “This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”

Although Einstein revolutionized our thinking about time, gravity and the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a creator. About God he repeatedly said, “I want to know His thoughts; and the rest are details."

Francis Collins was an atheist until the age of 27, when as a young doctor he was impressed by the strength that faith gave to some of his most critical patients. “They had terrible diseases from which they were probably not going to escape, and yet instead of railing at God they seemed to lean on their faith as a source of great comfort and reassurance,” he said. “That was interesting, puzzling and unsettling.”

He decided to visit a Methodist minister and was given a copy of C S Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which argues that God is a rational possibility. The book transformed his life. “It was an argument I was not prepared to hear,” he said. “I was very happy with the idea that God didn’t exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time, I could not turn away.”

His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: “It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, ‘I cannot resist this another moment’.”

Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence of God because it is confined to the “natural” world. In this light he believes miracles are a real possibility. “If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion,” he says.

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