Collins: Why this scientist believes in God - CNN.com

Collins: Why this scientist believes in God - CNN.com: "Collins: Why this scientist believes in God
POSTED: 7:15 a.m. EDT, April 5, 2007

More on CNN TV: Questions of science, sex, salvation. What is a Christian? A two-part special on 'Anderson Cooper 360°,' Thursday, 10 p.m. ET.
By Dr. Francis Collins
Special to CNN
Adjust font size:
Decrease fontDecrease font
Enlarge fontEnlarge font

Editor's note: Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. His most recent book is 'The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.'

ROCKVILLE, Maryland (CNN) -- I am a scientist and a believer, and I find no conflict between those world views.

As the director of the Human Genome Project, I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan.

I did not always embrace these perspectives. As a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, I was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics and chemistry. But then I went to medical school, and encountered life and"