Steven Pinker on Francis Collins Why Evolution Is True

Canada Goose Parka In lieu of a phone interview, Steve Pinker wrote the following to a reporter from one such journal (copy slightly edited for web publication). Thanks to Steve for permission to post. Canada Goose Parka

canada goose clearance I have serious misgivings about Francis Collins being appointed director of NIH. It’s not that I think that there should be canada goose coats uk a religious litmus test for canada goose parka outlet public science administrators, or that being a devout Christian is a disqualification. But in Collins’s case, it is not a matter of private belief, but public advocacy. The director of NIH is not just a bureaucrat who tends the money pipleline between the treasury and molecular biologists (which is how many scientists see the position). He or she is also a public face of science, someone who commands one of the major bully pulpits for science in the country. canada goose jacket outlet sale The director testifies before Congress, sets priorities, selects speakers and panelists, and is in many regards a symbol for canada goose outlet trillium parka black biomedical research in the US and the world. In that regard, many canada goose outlet price of Collins’s advocacy statements are deeply disturbing. canada goose clearance

canada goose store For example, I see science as not just cures for diseases and canada goose outlet parka better gadgets but an ideal for how to think about the most important issues facing us as humans in particular, the ideal that we should seek truth through reason and evidence and not through superstition, dogma, and personal revelation. Collins has said that he came to accept the Trinity, and the truth that Jesus is the son of God, when he was hiking and came upon a beautiful triple waterfall. Now, the idea that nature contains private coded messages from a supernatural being to an individual person is the antithesis of the scientific (indeed, rational) mindset. It is primitive, goose outlet canada shamanistic, superstitious. The point of the scientific revolution was to do away with such animistic thinking. canada goose store

This is not just autobiographical. Collins, in his book, eggs on fellow evangelical Christians in their anti scientific beliefs. He tells them that they are “right to hold fast to the truths of the Bible” and to “the certainty that the claims of atheistic materialism must be steadfastly resisted.” Granted, he is not a young earth or intelligent design creationist. canada goose outlet belgium But he has stated that God interacts with creation, in particular, that he designed the evolutionary process to ensure that human intelligence, morality, and Judaeo Christian religious belief would evolve.

uk canada goose outlet That is far more than just expressing an opinion. That is advocacy, which gives incalculable encouragement the forces that have been hostile to science for the past eight years. uk canada goose outlet

canada goose uk black friday Also, the human mind and brain constitute one of the frontiers of biomedical science. Cutting edge research treats intelligence, morality, and religious belief as products of evolution and neuroscience. The idea that there is divine design and teleology behind these functions, on the basis of Iron canada goose outlet england Age and medieval dogma, is antithetical to this vibrant research area. How will Collins preside over the allocation of research priorities if he believes in “”the certainty that the claims of atheistic materialism must be steadfastly resisted”? canada goose uk black friday

canada goose clearance sale Again, it’s important that there not be an atheist litmus test for science administrators. A person’s private beliefs should canada goose outlet kokemuksia not keep him from a public position. But Collins is an advocate of profoundly anti scientific beliefs, and it is reasonable for the scientific community to ask him how these beliefs will affect his administration of the Institute and his efforts on the behalf of the scientific enterprise in Congress and in public. At the very least, he should distance himself from the BioLogos Foundation and any other advocacy group. canada goose clearance sale

Canada Goose Online For more on Collins, see the conversation between him and Richard Dawkins that ran three years ago in Time magazine; it has been reposted on the Dawkins website. Slate just published a discussion of Collins appointment called Goes to Bethesda. I weighed in yesterday. Canada Goose Online

canada goose uk outlet Dr. Collins said the following in response to a question about fine tuning. canada goose uk outlet

COLLINS: The gravitational constant, if it were off by one part in a hundred million million, then the expansion of the universe after the Big Bang would not have occurred in the fashion that was necessary for life to occur. When you look at that evidence, it is very difficult to adopt the view that this was just chance. But if you are willing to consider the possibility of a designer, this becomes a rather plausible explanation for what is otherwise an exceedingly improbable event our existence.

cheap Canada Goose Unfortunately, this statement is now known to be no longer true as the expansion of the universe is dominated by dark energy, not the value of the gravitational constant. cheap Canada Goose

COLLINS: If it suits him to be a deity that we must seek without being forced to, would it not have been sensible for him to use the mechanism of evolution without posting obvious road signs to reveal his role in creation?

canada goose coats on sale Makes sense, except for one small detail. The deity still ain anywhere in sight, even for the people who it. Seek and ye shall find not. A canada goose outlet in new york minor canada goose outlet canada detail for sure, and quite contradictory to what even Mr. Collins himself can observe, but one that tends to be overlooked quite often. Cuckoo! canada goose coats on sale

Canada Goose Jackets I am among those who are unhappy with the choice of Collins as the head of the NIH. It true that it could have been far worse: Zerhouni did precious little beyond being a political figurehead, as is the invariably the case with NIH heads who were MDs. Nevertheless, Obama had a veritable horde of over qualified candidates to choose from, yet decided to sacrifice excellence to expedience instead. Talk about shifting of the Overton window! Canada Goose Jackets

canada goose factory sale I worried about Collins tenure not only because of his connection to BioLogos, but also because of his liking for large scale science. This http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org approach is already yielding diminishing returns in research, yet the NIH tanker is sailing blithely onward into the iceberg covered seas of gene chips and their ilk. canada goose factory sale

Canada Goose sale There are at least two thing that Collins did right, and they must be acknowledged. Making sure that the human genome sequence was complete, accurate and free did much to deflate Venter ridiculous scientific and financial claims. Also Collins metaphor of DNA canada goose discount uk is close to the truth in fact, far simpler than the truth. Junk DNA is anything but. It contains regulatory signals for replication, transcription and splicing, plus the numerous microRNAs that are also involved in regulation. There is nothing mystical about it, it the usual jury rigging that commonplace in every aspect of all living organisms. Canada Goose sale

canada goose uk shop However, when everything is measured and weighed, the major unavoidable shoal is Collins public advocacy of evangelical Christianity. Had he done this at his laboratory, it could well have constituted grounds for dismissal on the basis of active canada goose outlet germany proselytizing. canada goose uk shop

“The Quest for Right: A Creationist Attack on Quantum Mechanics. Here a different take on creationism/ID: The Quest for Right, a multi volume series on science, attacks Darwinism indirectly, by attacking quantum mechanics. A more sophisticated way to argue against Darwin is certainly to argue against modern physics. The book was Dr. Collins book, _The Language of God_. Later, he came and spoke to our university. And I heard him interviewed on NPR at least once. canada goose outlet miami From everything I know about him, he seems an excellent choice to head the NIH. The only criticism I heard is based on the fact that he a Christian. I heard no credible evidence that he was anything other than a superb administrator of the Human Genome Project (succeeded under budget and ahead of schedule), and a superb scientist (helped identify the genes for cystic fibrosis and Huntington disease, etc.). So, if Americans want the NIH to be run effectively and efficiently, and to do good science, why does it matter that the person at the helm has a particular religious belief? Are his critics arguing that the NIH head should only be canada goose outlet store uk an atheist or someone who keeps her/his faith private? Is it equally fair to ask atheists who practice science canada goose outlet edmonton or lead an important public/private organization to be silent about their atheism?

Or do the critics just not want Christians to hold a position of leadership canada goose outlet us in science and/or government?

There is a very important lesson to learn from the history of religious oppression, most certainly about oppression of Christians: it not only doesn work, it strengthens the oppressed. Oh, Jesus is quoted in the Bible as having predicted it would happen just like that. Yes, science but so does faith. One who does not know or practice science cannot truly understand its value. Same goes for faith. I pray you give it a chance.

I understand doublespeak when I read it:

buy canada goose jacket not that I think that there should be a religious litmus test for public science administrators, or that being a devout Christian is a disqualification. Then he proceeds to argue for such a litmus test by sneaking a distinction of private beliefs canada goose outlet toronto address and public stance, which would work on beliefs but fails with ontological statements. a devout Christian. is an ontological statement and as such by definition encompassing both public and private worlds. If Dr. Collins is a Christian, he is a Christian at home, at church, in the office and in his work. By starting out with a lie Pinker does want a limtus test, one can hold religious beliefs, canada goose victoria parka outlet it is just one cannot BE a Christian. He weakens his argument into the am not prejudice, I just don want (fill in X) dating my daughter sort of Orwellian doublespeak. It is a nice rhetorical trick (though illogical). Pinker is smart enough to know that if he does state his position honestly (Christians should not hold powerful posts in Science), it would be rejected as bigoted. Rightly so, as be all accounts, Dr. Collins has done top notch science. One could use his letter canada goose outlet in canada in a freshman logic as feast of fallacies. buy canada goose jacket

Pinker is right. One category of judgement is ones religious litmus and other is ones active canada goose outlet locations in toronto advocacy. The point is that Collins is not a Christian, but he is actively engaged in promulgating bad science from his current place. If he kept canada goose outlet online his hobbies to himself just like everyone who is professional does at ones work there would be no issue at all.

canada goose coats You just raise a straw man, as if atheists do not like Collins because he is Christian, when the main reason in fact is what he actively does at his work and this at question. canada goose coats

buy canada goose jacket cheap Being head of NIH is public job, canada goose outlet niagara falls loaded not only with science, administration tasks but advocacy canada goose outlet sale aspects too. He represents science so why canada goose canada goose outlet outlet store quebec he drags his Jesus around, for Christ sake buy canada goose jacket cheap.