Obama to Name Gene Guru Francis Collins NIH (National Institutes of Health) Chief

[sabra]

Source: ABC News/Reuters


Official: Obama to name influential geneticist Francis Collins to lead NIH

President Barack Obama will nominate gene guru Dr. Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health.

An administration official says Collins, arguably the nation's most influential geneticist, is the president's soon-to-be-announced pick. The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending the formal announcement.

The folksy Collins helped lead the breakthrough unraveling of the human genetic code, famously calling it "the book of human life."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=8033594

[stopbush]

1. Great. A creationist is running the NIH.

I don't care how brilliant he is, anybody who can compartmentalize basic scientific fact in this area isn't the person I want to see heading things up.

Jesus said if you had faith in him, you didn't need a doctor. I hope that's not Collins' philosophy.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. Actually he believes in theistic evolution

He's the author of The "Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief". In which he denies that the origin of life required any help from God.

He is a Christian, however.

[Bragi]

2. He is not a creationist

He totally accepts evolution, and sees no conflict between evolution and belief in god.

[stopbush]

3. BS. Ever visit his website? It's full of creationist drivel.

Here's his mission statement: "We believe that faith and science both lead to truth about God and creation."

Got that? Creation. Creation by definition requires a creator. Collins calls his brand of creationism "BioLogos." Here:

"BioLogos is most similar to Theistic Evolution. Theism is the belief in a God who cares for and interacts with creation. Theism is different than deism, which is the belief in a distant, uninvolved creator who is often little more than the sum total of the laws of physics. Theistic Evolution, therefore, is the belief that evolution is how God created life. Because the term evolution is sometimes associated with atheism, a better term for the belief in a God who chose to create the world by way of evolution is BioLogos. BioLogos comes from the Greek words bios (life) and logos (word), referring to the gospel of John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Creationism

BioLogos and ID agree the Earth and the universe were created.

http://biologos.org/questions/biologos-id-creationism/

Creationism, pure and simple.

Belief in the Big Bang does not need god as a creator or what is called a first cause. Believing that everything must have a creator means that the creator himself must have a creator as well, and on we go into an infinite regression.

If you believe there was a creator, then you are a creationist. Period.

Dr. Francis Collins is an unapologetic creationist. Period.

[Sgent]

5. You and I have different versions of the word creationist

as do most people who worry about this type of thing.

Creationist is usually thought of as someone who believes that god "done" it, there was no evolution, the earth is 10,000 years old, etc.

Someone who believes in the full scientific explanation -- with the proviso that God set it all in motion -- is hardly a creationist. He's religious, that doesn't make him evil.

[stopbush]

6. His own website disagrees with your opinion.

Whatever.

[Sgent]

7. His book

describes theistic evolution to a tee.

See http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=549 for a good review of what he said if you don't want to buy it for yourself.

[stopbush]

9. The quotations I cited are taken from his book and posted at

his website.

It's pretty clear that he's a creationist as he believes in a CREATOR. Websters defines creationism as, "a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing and usually in the way described in Genesis."

What's so hard to get about that?

[SpartanDem]

8. The bottom line is he believes in evolution

[stopbush]

10. Agreed. The cognitive dissonance occurs in his also believing in a creator god.