Recommended read. Collins is a geneticist and longtime leader of the Human Genome Project. He believes in evolution and in God. Here are some excerpts:
* The Moral Law - the concept of right and wrong that appears to be universal. But is this sense of right and wrong an intrinsic quality of being human or just a consequence of cultural traditions? Is the Moral Law simply a consequence of evolutionary pressures? What would evolutionists make of the force we feel from the Moral Law - the altruistic impulse, the voice of conscience calling us to help others even if nothing is received in return.
* Current post-modernist philosophy argues that there are no absolute rights or wrongs and that all ethical decisions are relative.... But this view faces a series of logical Catch-22s. If there is no absolute truth, can post-modernism itself be true? If there is no right or wrong, then there is no reason to argue for the discipline of ethics in the first place.
* Isn't the idea of God just humans' wish fulfillment? If it is, it does not accord with the character of God of the major religions. For example, such wish fulfillment would likely give rise to a very different kind of God than the one described in the Bible. If we are looking for benevolent coddling and indulgence, that's not what we find there.
* What about all the harm done in the name of religion? Yes. But two issues need to be considered. First a lot of good has been done in the name of religion. Second, the church is made up of fallen people. The pure clean water of spiritual truth is placed in rusty containers, and the subsequent failings of the church should not be projected onto the faith itself, as if the water had been the problem.
* Why would a loving God allow suffering in this world? No easy answers, although a significant portion of our suffering and that of our fellow human beings is brought about by what we do to one another. But C.S.Lewis has this to say: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
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