The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction and Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

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Key Figures

Francis S. Collins

The physician and geneticist Francis Sellers Collins was born in 1950 and grew up on a farm near Staunton, Virginia. Homeschooled until college, he earned a BA in chemistry at the University of Virginia in 1970 and a PhD in physical chemistry at Yale in 1974. Although not previously interested in biology, he grew fascinated after a course in biochemistry at Yale sparked an interest in genetics and the study of DNA. Collins became a pioneer in studying the human genome and particularly in identifying disease genes. Upon becoming director of the National Center for Human Genome Research in 1993, Collins oversaw the project to map the human genome, which was completed to great publicity in 2000. In 2008 Collins was named director of the National Institutes of Health, a position he held until 2021.

Collins has set himself apart from the scientific establishment by combining research into human genetics with an outspoken Christian faith. His 2006 book The Language of God became a best seller for its treatment of the intersection of science and faith in a way to which people on both sides of the divide could relate. In this book and in other writings and talks, Collins has advocated reconciliation and integration between scientific and religious worldviews.

Charles Darwin

Darwin was a British naturalist (1809-1882) whose theory of evolution by natural selection profoundly influenced modern thought and society. As presented in his 1859 work On the Origin of Species, Darwin’s findings that humans and animals share a common ancestry shocked many in his day, including religious leaders who saw it as a denial of the existence of God and a claim that man had no special status in nature. Biologists now accept Darwin’s theory as the explanation of how life began on Earth. However, Darwin’s research continues to upset some religious believers, who, for example, dispute the teaching evolution in schools.

Galileo Galilei

Galileo was an Italian astronomer and mathematician (1564-1642) whose career during the early Enlightenment is significant in the history of the relationship between science and religion. Galileo contributed to scientists’ understanding of the laws of motion and to the development of the scientific method, but his advocacy of heliocentrism brought him in conflict with Catholic authorities. After being tried by the Inquisition, Galileo was ordered not to teach or defend his views and remained under house arrest for the rest of his life. Galileo remained a strong religious believer who considered science to be a godly activity. In time, scientific research vindicated Galileo’s work; the Catholic Church issued an apology in 1992.

William Paley

Paley was a British Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and professor at Christ College, Cambridge (1743-1805), most famous for his formulation of the Argument from Design. As described in his 1802 work Natural Theology, this is one of the best-known arguments for the existence of God. Building on ideas put forward by St. Thomas Aquinas and other medieval thinkers, Paley compared the universe to a mechanism whose complex structure implies a creator, in the same way that a clockwork mechanism implies the existence of a watchmaker.

Collins refers to Paley because he combined a career as a religious cleric with an interest in natural philosophy (science). Although widely popular since its formulation, Paley’s Argument from Design was criticized as too simple by such thinkers as David Hume and Immanuel Kant and has lost ground due to advances in scientific understanding. Nevertheless, it influenced the young Charles Darwin and continues to inform the Intelligent Design movement.