Last night, my wife and I attended the last of a wonderful series of talks at the Trinity Forum in Washington DC on the overall topic of Discovery and Doxology. We had been to previous talks by Praveen Sethupathy on human identity and genetics, (“Are We More than our Genes”) and by Bill Newsome on neurobiology, both brilliant and inspiring. But last night’s talk was the crown jewel. Francis Collins spoke on the harmony between science and Christian faith, including his own journey to faith from atheism by way of medicine and science. He also covered a great deal of the modern science and ethical dilemmas of gene editing.
I should mention for the benefit of our friend @Patrick, that Dr. Collins announced that he was speaking as a private citizen, and not as a representative of the government, nor the NIH, which is perfectly legal and in keeping with all court decisions and governmental policies, so FFRF can relax. He also told me (before the talk started) that it took 5 months to get permission from officials to give the talk, which is typical. I also used to have to go through similar, but not as difficult or rigorous vetting before I could do anything like speak or publish, .
At the same pre talk reception, I also had the pleasure of talking with Deb Haarsma (Biologos was co sponsor of the event), and Michael Murray from John Templeton Foundation, and a number of other old friends. Francis does draw a crowd. All in all a heart warming and inspiring evening.
I believe the entire talk was taped, and I will post a link once the video is available. I may also post more details on what was said, and/or answer any questions posted below.