The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Collins recalls his upbringing in rural Virginia after World War II. While his family fostered a “remarkable culture of ideas,” including a love for science and the performing arts, religious faith “just wasn’t very important” (11). By the time he began college, Collins had a strong interest in science, especially chemistry, but had settled into a basic agnosticism in religion.

After college, his scientific horizons widened; he pursued a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Yale, and then abandoned this path for studies in medicine. As he cared for patients with serious or terminal illnesses, he was struck by the strength of their spiritual beliefs in the face of their suffering. Collins reached a spiritual crisis when an older patient asked him what he believed. Realizing that he had never “seriously considered the evidence for and against belief” (20), Collins decided to delve into the study of religions.

When Collins went to a local Methodist minister for help, the minister lent him the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. The book “rocked my ideas about science and spirit down to their foundations” (22), especially in its arguments about the universality of right and wrong, or Moral Law. Putting this argument together with his personal experience of altruism, or selfless love, Collins came to admit that belief in God is perfectly plausible; indeed, “faith in God now seemed more rational than disbelief” (30). However, as a scientist admitting the possibility of the supernatural, Collins wondered if the “war of worldviews” (31) could have drastic consequences for him.

Collins admits that doubts and objections to a belief in God are natural, and indeed part of the very process of believing.

The search for the divine is “one of the most universal of human strivings” (35)—an “intense longing” that is often triggered by the experience of beauty. Collins believes this feeling cannot be explained by physiological processes; instead, it is something like the Moral Law—a “signpost placed deep within the human spirit pointing toward something much grander than ourselves” (37).

One possible atheist position is that this feeling of longing is simply wishful thinking and self-projection. But Collins argues that this view does not hold water: The ideas of God presented by the world’s religions do not reflect wishful thinking, because God is often presented as a stern moral judge rather than as someone who coddles us and caters to our whims.

Another objection to faith is that much evil has been done in the name of religion. Collins admits that this is true, but this does not invalidate religious ideas themselves. We must judge those ideas on their merits and not on the basis of how religious people behave. Furthermore, just as much evil, if not more, has been done in the name of atheism.

A third objection to belief is that a good and just God would not allow suffering. Collins classifies suffering into two categories: moral evil, brought about by our exercising our free will, and physical evil, evils not caused by us. Collins argues that evils may sometimes inevitably result from the fact that, as science shows, our universe is “engaged in an evolutionary process” (45). Moreover, God may use evil for our growth and to pursue a plan that we may not understand. For God to interfere with our free will would have disastrous consequences.

A final objection is that a scientist cannot possibly believe in miracles—the suspension of natural laws. This depends on whether one thinks there is anything beyond nature; Collins believes there is, and that God can suspend natural laws for a reason. However, people of faith should be cautious in ascribing occurrences to the miraculous because science may later discover that they had a natural explanation.