Francis Collins

[Markus6]

At my last small group the leaders told us that on Wednesday we're going to go on a group field trip... to hear Francis Collins speak in the Veritas Forum at Rice University. What's interesting is that I'm the only theistic evolutionist in the group (I think) and I had nothing to do with this. It could spur some very interesting discussions.

I bought his book, 'The Language of God' yesterday to read before I go. If anyone is very familiar with him and has any interesting questions they'd like answers from him for let me know and I'll see what I can do during the Q&A.

 

[shernren]

The thing was today, wasn't it? How did it go? =)

 

[gluadys]

The thing was today, wasn't it? How did it go? =)

You are asking this at 12:59 AM Eastern Standard Time. Give him another 24 hours. (Pesky time zones!)

 

[Markus6]

Wow, this forum is slooooowww!

Actually you were both a week out. It happened on the 21st. The event was good but if you've read his book you've pretty much heard all of it. We were meant to get in the main auditorium because we turned up early enough but somebody misscounted so we had to run to a satellite room at the last meant which was rather annoying. Afterwards I got my book signed and a photo with him though, which was nice.

There was an interesting question from an AV1611-esque guy. He started with some bizarre story about finding a watch when it said 6 and then finding it when it said 6.01 and not knowing whether it had been 12 hours or 1 minute that was rather convoluted and he got mixed up a couple of times. The point was, "What if the earth just looks like it's 13.4 billion years old". Very entertaining. Actually most of the questions seemed to come from a more literal stance and less from atheists which was interesting.

A lot of people from my church went, including my pastor. I'm really interested to speak to him and see what he though and what his opinion on the whole topic is.

I asked one of my friends what he thought and he said he liked the guy but hadn't changed his opinion at all. Me and him had a very brief email exchange after he claimed there were no intermediate fossils. I sent him some links and he said something to the effect of, "They all look like great fully functioning creatures but where are the fossils of creatures with half a heart which is completely useless". I tried to explain that that is totally against the theory of evolution but he's pretty set on his position. He is now the leader of our small group and led a follow up discussion on it this wednesday. However, it was clear he didn't want the discussion of evolution to come up. In his email he said the discussion would be "not about the specific information Dr. Collins was sharing, but more the impact of a high profile professional, who is also a Christian, speaking in a public forum" and he kept singing that tune during the discussion. "We don't want to get into details..." meaning I don't want to discuss evolution in my ear.

 

[Fed]

I organized a Veritas forum at my university and we had Collins speak too. He's a very personable guy. There were more atheist/agnostic questions as expected, but questions from Christians as well (probably since we advertised at Fuller).

I remember him saying (at a small discussion earlier in the day) that 9/10 bashing emails he receives are from YEC Christians, not atheists. I joked to him that 100 years ago conservative Christians accepted evolution; now they don't (in reference to B.B. Warfield & others) and he seemed pretty amused/disappointed about that too.

 

[Christian Sojourner]

I love Collins. A really nice guy and part of the reason I came to accept Evolution.

 

[crishmael]

I'm reading "The Language of God" now. Very interesting so far.