The latest Time magazine included a “God Vs. Science” dialogue between Richard Dawkins, an atheist, and Francis Collins (right), a Christian who headed up the human genome mapping project. Collins is an interesting fellow. He’s not a literal seven-day creationist and holds old-earth views, which places him in opposition to our fundamentalist brethren (and perhaps a majority of UBs). I’m very intrigued with and drawn to his views, and I appreciated his spirit in this dialogue. Dawkins came off as very combative and close-minded, whereas the Christian was courteous and more open-minded on things. Interesting.

At one point, Dawkins suggests that Collins “cease to give [Fundamentalists] the time of day. Why bother with these clowns?”

Collins responds, “I think we don’t do a service to dialogue between science and faith to characterize sincere people by calling them names. That inspires an even more dug-in position. Atheists sometimes come across as a bit arrogant in this regard, and characterizing faith as something only an idiot would attach themselves to is not likely to help your case.” Touche!

A bit later, Dawkins suggests that Christians are lazy and lacking in scientific credibility. Collins replies, “I would challenge the statement that my scientific instincts are any less rigorous than yours. The difference is that my presumption of the possibility of God and therefore the supernatural is not zero, and yours is.”

I loved it! Collins was showing that the atheist was the close-minded, dug-in person because he refused to accept the possibility of a supernatural world. Elsewhere, he said because scientists are restricted to the physical world–what they can see, hold, and measure–they can’t truly weigh-in regarding God, because God isn’t restricted to the physical world.

It’s great seeing a Christian like Francis Collins show, to hard-core scientists, that God and science are not incompatible. Unfortunately, many Christians would shun Collins because he accepts the idea that God might have created the world through evolution. I, too, hold that view. The difference is that I would get demolished if asked to defend that view around anyone with a halfway decent IQ.