Last Sunday I had to drive my son back to college. The whole round trip was going to be about 3 hours and I was soooo sleeeeeppppyyyy. I hadn't slept well and I was afraid I'd start nodding off as I drove, so literally, as I was going out to the car to start I grabbed this audio book out of the cabinet. I thought listening to something might help keep me awake. Many years ago I had begun listening to this book, but I had never finished. Well, it kept me awake! And this whole week I've been listening to it and admiring Dr. Francis Collins. He is honest, intelligent, knowledgeable and fair.
Dr. Collins was the head of the Human Genome Project at NIH when it figured out how to read our DNA coding. It is an amazing feat of science. Dr. Collins thinks this is indeed the language of God. Dr. Collins traces his unusual childhood (his parents were hippies before it was cool) who was homeschooled until age ten. He then attended public school in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He went on to study chemistry and then medicine at various places like Duke UVA and Yale. He was not raised in any religion and decided he was an atheist in college. But while working with southern country folks, often poor, who were dealing with terrible illnesses, he saw how strong their faith made them. He admired this. So he started reading. C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity proved to be the tipping point. He decided he did believe in God and was a Christian.
Collins does not see a tension between belief and science. He thinks believing in God is a perfectly rational thing. He is dismayed that the unnecessary hostility between some Christians, especially creationists, and scientists. He is very generous and honorable so he never gets snarky in the least, but he clearly sets out the reasons both sides are to blame for this 'war.'
He makes a great argument for theistic evolution. I found this part especially edifying. Also, at the end of the audio book there is an appendix where he lays out all the issues that bioethics is currently dealing with. He's a tiny bit dated - this book came out in 2006 - about embryonic stem cell research, but on the whole the issues are all still very hot ones that need addressing.
This book is also his memoir about the various illnesses he's worked on such as cystic fibrosis and breast cancer. My high school (and the one Sean is currently attending) has a huge 'superdance' every year to raise money for finding a cure for that disease. There was a family that attended the school when I was there, one of the daughters was a year ahead of me and she died before she graduated. She was a real hero. And in fact her mother was a well known Latin teacher who helped start the National Latin Exam. And one of the exams prizes is named for Maura O'Donnell. So anyway, I was cheered to hear about Dr. Collins' success at uncovering the defective gene that causing cystic fibrosis. Also, compelling was the story of the family that had a very deadly breast cancer running through all the generations. They turned out to be a very dramatic case of genetically inherited cancer. Dr. Collins sings on this audio book! He likes to play the guitar and write songs. He sings rather well!
I highly recommend this book. For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
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