Decoding the Language of God: Can a Scientist Really Be a Believer?: A Geneticist Responds to Francis CollinsIn his bestselling book, The Language of God, Francis Collins-the director of the National Institutes of Health and the scientist who led the Human Genome Project-attempted to harmonize the findings of scientific research with Christian belief. In this response to Collins''s work, fellow geneticist George C. Cunningham presents a point-by-point rebuttal of The Language of God, arguing that there is no scientifically acceptable evidence to support belief in a personal God and much that discredits it.Written with admirable clarity for the nonscientist, Decoding the Language of God covers much of the same ground addressed by Collins in his book: the origins of moral behavior, the difficulty of reconciling belief in a good God with the existence of evil.and anthropic coincidences as evidence of God as creator.Cunningham also devotes chapters to the unreliability of the Bible as a basis for belief; the conflict between naturalistic explanations of reality, which are anchored in scientific research, and supernatural interpretations, which are not; and the many difficulties in conceptualizing the origins of the universe in terms of a personal God. Unlike recent hostile attacks on religious belief, Cunningham''s respectful, well-reasoned discussion will appeal to open-minded people across the whole spectrum of belief and unbelief. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 13 |
FROM BELIEF TO ATHEISM | 29 |
EVIDENCE | 37 |
Burden of Proof | 45 |
THE WAR OF WORLDVIEWS | 47 |
WHATS WRONG WITH | 75 |
What Accounts for Altruism? | 81 |
Is the Moral Law as Natural as Speech? | 88 |
The Case for Atheism | 176 |
Who Causes Natural Evil? | 186 |
SUPERNATURALISM | 189 |
Is There Evidence for the Supernatural? | 196 |
Prayer | 202 |
Paranormal Claims | 208 |
CHAPTER NINE | 217 |
CONCLUSION | 233 |
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