Book Review: The Language of God
Francis Collins - head of the Human Genome Project - is among the world's most respected scientists, and does a remarkably honest job in expressing some of the central tenets of his Christian faith within a sphere that is somewhat ambivalent towards theistic belief. Collins basic premise: that "truth cannot disprove truth", or to use another term, "Total Truth" means that ultimately all truths point to God. In fact I would go on to add that the Truth is "All things being True at the same time" - or what I would term as the "eternally existential" truth.
Collins - like many Christians out there - is greatly influenced by the ideas and works of CS Lewis, which can be seen his opening chapter in which he briefly sketches his journey of faith to Christ. Nevertheless, the use of the moral argument for the existence of God - in my opinion - is somewhat difficult to substantiate, at least on an evidential plane, and while it is useful tool in expressing the "reasonableness of our faith", a presuppositional approach is necessary - if we are going to challenge today (post)modern culture.
Personally I do have several reservations on accepting the theistic evolution beliefs that Collins espouses; nevertheless, it is an area that I am not overly worried or dogmatic about - and perhaps time will change my beliefs or strengthen my existing ones. In any case, The Language of God is a book that I would highly recommend to folks whose faith is somewhat challenged by "science". As Collins sums it, "Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced, God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible".
Collins - like many Christians out there - is greatly influenced by the ideas and works of CS Lewis, which can be seen his opening chapter in which he briefly sketches his journey of faith to Christ. Nevertheless, the use of the moral argument for the existence of God - in my opinion - is somewhat difficult to substantiate, at least on an evidential plane, and while it is useful tool in expressing the "reasonableness of our faith", a presuppositional approach is necessary - if we are going to challenge today (post)modern culture.
Personally I do have several reservations on accepting the theistic evolution beliefs that Collins espouses; nevertheless, it is an area that I am not overly worried or dogmatic about - and perhaps time will change my beliefs or strengthen my existing ones. In any case, The Language of God is a book that I would highly recommend to folks whose faith is somewhat challenged by "science". As Collins sums it, "Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced, God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible".
posted by Benjamin Ho at
7:13 AM
3 Comments:
Benjamin, thanks for your comment. I'm surprised to see you updated your blog! Anyway I have a question: why do you find the moral argument not too plausible for the existence of God? Personally it's pretty strong for me, although when I skimmed that bestseller 'The God Delusion' its atheist author claimed that God wasn't necessary to explain morality.
There's a difference in using the moral argument to demonstrate the rationality of believing in the existence of God and using it to prove that God exists. Immanuel Kant in his famous Critique of Pure Reason has pointed out why it is not possible to infer that God exist simply through the use of the moral argument. You may want to check out the following link:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-arguments-god/
Thanks for that too, I've actually had GP readings from that site before, will check it out.
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