*Not really. A few weeks ago I did go to hear Francis Collins speak at Stanford with Paul and Kindel. They filmed it and apparently you can see me in the audience during the Q&A time at the end. Here's a link to the video.
So who is Francis Collins? He led the successful government attempt to decode the human genome and is an outspoken Christian. He travels around and gives talks about how being a Christian is not at odds with studying science and how in fact science has given us some big "pointers" to God's existence.
The talk was excellent and so was the Q&A time, although I wasn't a huge fan of some of his theological perspectives as revealed in his answers to questions. A highlight was when he played a video of his visit to the Colbert Report. Some things that I learned:
- The constants that show up in equations that govern physics are very finely tuned to allow for complexity to arise in the universe.
- Intelligent design is on weaker intellectual footing than I realized. He has an appealing alternative viewpoint called "Theistic Evolution".
Some questions the talk and Q&A opened or re-opened for me:
- If Adam and Eve are representative of humans then why does Paul go on in Romans about us all being fallen sinners because we come from Adam?
- When we communicate with God in prayer is that a miracle?
- Free-will vs God's sovereignty
Okay that's enough of that for a Saturday morning... now off to LA to visit Matt and Kristie!
