Francis Collins tells the story of his conversion from atheism to faith as a young doctor. As he began a journey looking for evidence of God, he expected only to strengthen his atheism. Instead he encountered Jesus and made the decision to follow him.
—–
In the home where I grew up, faith was not something that was talked about very much. My father was a professor of drama, my mother was a playwright. When I went to college and those discussions in the dorm late at night about religion began to occur, I found no reason to attach value to a faith worldview. I assumed that any religious feelings that anyone held must be on the basis of some emotional experience—and I didn’t trust those—or on the basis of some childhood indoctrination, which I felt I was fortunate to have missed.
In medical school, I loved the experience of learning about the human body and all of its complexities. And I particularly loved being introduced to genetics. But then I moved on to the clinical training portion, learning to take care of patients with real diseases. This was no longer an abstract study of molecules and organ systems. These were real people with real suffering. One afternoon, I was with one of my patients, a wonderful woman, much like a grandmother, who had very bad heart disease. She had a particularly bad episode of chest pain while I was with her. She got through it, and at the end of that, explained to me how her faith in Jesus was the thing that helped her in that situation. She realized that the doctors around her weren’t really able to give her that much help, but her faith was. And after she finished her own very personal description of that faith, she turned to me. I had been silent, and she looked at me quizzically, and then she asked, “What do you believe, Doctor?” I was stunned. I said I didn’t really know. Her question had made me realize that as an atheist, I had arrived at an answer to the most important issue that we humans ever deal with. Is there a God? And I had arrived there without ever really looking at the evidence. I was supposed to be a scientist. If there’s one thing scientists claim they do is to arrive at conclusions based upon evidence. And I hadn’t taken the trouble to do that.
So I was determined to search for evidence. I was greatly assisted by a pastor who lived down the road, who tolerated my blasphemous questions and gave me a copy of CS Lewis’ wonderful book, Mere Christianity. Here was an Oxford scholar, a prodigiously developed intellect, who had traveled the same path. Within those pages, I realized for the first time that one can come to belief on a rational basis. In fact, I soon discovered that there are many pointers towards a creator that come from science itself. The universe had a beginning. It follows elegant mathematical laws. And it is fine tuned by the way all those constants that determine the behavior of matter and energy seem to have been set just in a certain, very precise range to make life possible.
As I searched for more evidence of what God must be like, I encountered the person of Jesus Christ. I was amazed to discover how much we know about his life. I had thought that Christ was as much myth as history. As I studied more, I learned there is a great deal of evidence for his teachings, and even for his having risen literally from the dead. The evidence was compelling, and it demanded a decision. That day at my patient’s bedside started a journey for me, a journey that I was reluctant to begin, but I felt I needed to. It was a journey that I thought would result in strengthening my atheism — but to my surprise, resulted in my conversion. I am now a follower of Jesus.
——
Francis Collins is one of the world’s leading scientists and geneticists, and the founder of BioLogos, where he is now a Senior Fellow. In his early scientific career, he discovered the gene for cystic fibrosis. Then he led an international collaboration that first mapped the entire human genome. For that work he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science. In 2009 he was appointed as Director of the National Institutes of Health, where he served three presidents until 2021, including oversight of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2006, Collins wrote the best-selling book The Language of God. It tells the story of his journey from atheism to Christian belief, showing that science actually enhances faith. The tremendous response to the book prompted Collins to found BioLogos. He envisioned it as a forum to discuss issues at the intersection of faith and science and to celebrate the harmony found there. His reputation quickly attracted a large network of faith leaders, including Tim Keller and NT Wright. These and others joined the BioLogos conversation and affirmed the value of engaging science as believers. BioLogos is now an organization that reaches millions around the world. In celebration of his world-class scientific accomplishments and deep Christian faith, Collins was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2020. It honors individuals who are “harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.” He joined a prestigious group of previous winners, including Mother Teresa, Francis Ayala, Charles Townes, Desmond Tutu, and Billy Graham.
This article was originally published on BioLogos and is republished here with permission. Original web link: https://biologos.org/resources/francis-collins-a-testimony.