Francis Collins' Morals

We're not a big fan of Francis Collins around these parts. He's done some good science and helped lead one of the most important research projects in history. He also has a habit of contradicting or ignoring science when he pontificates on his faith. We don't dig that. Over at Talk Reason, Gert Korthof takes Collins to task for arguing that Moral Law is a divine gift (scroll down to "The Irreducibly Complex Moral Law").

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Collins has a new book coming out, titled Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith. It's the same old drivel: CS Lewis, old chestnuts re-roasted on a dying fire, nature and science somehow testifying to the truth of faith, moral law, fine-tuning, the Big Bang, etc. Jerry Coyne says it just right:…
Sam Harris seems to have triggered some kind of reflex, because there is discussion going on all over the place. Jerry Coyne has a long piece up that chews over that awful talk Collins gave at Berkeley. He has the full recording of the whole talk — it was titled "The Language of God: Intellectual…
Sam Harris has published a piece in the New York Times decrying the appointment of Francis Collins to head the NIH. It's strong stuff; he points out that Collins isn't just a Christian, he's an active science-denier who has set aside whole blocks of scientific inquiry as inaccessible to study…
I've been wrestling with how to respond to the imminent appointment of Francis Collins to the NIH, and it's tough. The problem is that he has excellent qualifications for the position of chief paper-pusher and technician-wrangler, but that his position on religion is just plain weird. He's a…