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November 1, 2007

Francis Collins to receive highest civilian award

President Bush names Christian scientist a recipient of the President Medal of Freedom.

Sarah Pulliam

Christian scientist Francis Collins landed on President Bush's list of President Medal of Freedom awards, according to the Associated Press. The director of the National Human Genome Research Institute is being honored with the nation's highest civilian award for his leadership and for expanding the understanding of human DNA.

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Collins is known for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, which mapped and sequenced human DNA and determined its functions. He converted to Christianity after reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.

He also landed on Christianity Today's Book Awards 2007 for his book The Language of God: 'A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

Previous coverage includes:
Not Too Simply Christian | Two approaches to apologetics.
The Genome Doctor | The director of the National Human Genome Research Institute answers questions about the morality of his work
Creation or Evolution? Yes! | Francis Collins issues a call to stand on the middle ground.

posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey | Comments (2)

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You forgot to mention that he is known also for forging a middle ground in the evolution vs. creation debate, which he believes is artificially constructed. In fact, while it may not be why he is receiving this particular award, that is the work for which he has been getting the most attention from evangelicals for the past several years. Readers may find your last link ("Creation or Evolution? Yes!") particularly interesting, especially in light of the following excerpt from an October 14 post on this website:

"Here are the overall results among adults to the question of whether they thought a specific story in the Bible was “literally true, meaning it happened exactly as described in the Bible”:

God creating the universe in six days (60%)."

Posted By: Patrick | November 2, 2007 10:31 AM

There is an excellent article on Collins in National Geographic, Feb.2007 issue. A good read and Collins is being interview by an agnostic. Collins held well!!!

Posted By: jon | November 6, 2007 7:39 PM