# Francis Collins American physician-geneticist (b. 1950). Director of the **Human Genome Project** (1993 to 2008), Director of the **National Institutes of Health** (2009 to 2021, the longest NIH directorship in modern history), founder of **BioLogos** (2007). Convert from atheism to Christianity during medical school, his 2006 book *The Language of God* is the most-read popular statement of the **theistic-evolution** position from inside mainstream genetics. ## Biography - **1950**, born in Staunton, Virginia - **1970**, B.S. in chemistry, University of Virginia - **1974**, Ph.D. in physical chemistry, Yale University - **1977**, M.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - **late 1970s**, converted from atheism to Christianity while a medical student attending dying patients; the bedside encounters surfaced existential questions his materialism could not answer. He read C. S. Lewis's *Mere Christianity* on the recommendation of a Methodist minister and walked into Christian faith over the following two years. - **1984**, joined faculty at University of Michigan; led the team that identified the **cystic fibrosis gene** (1989), the **Huntington's disease gene** (1993), and the **neurofibromatosis gene** (1990) - **1993 to 2008**, Director, National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI); led the Human Genome Project to completion in 2003, two years ahead of schedule - **2006**, *The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief* (Free Press), the science-and-faith integration argument - **2007**, founded **BioLogos**, a non-profit promoting evolutionary creationism / theistic evolution and dialogue between mainstream science and evangelical Christianity - **2009 to 2021**, Director, National Institutes of Health (appointed by Obama, retained by Trump, retained by Biden); oversaw NIH response to the COVID-19 pandemic - **2020**, awarded the **Templeton Prize** for contributions to the dialogue between science and religion - **2021 to present**, Senior Investigator, Center for Precision Health Research, NIH; Acting Science Advisor to President Biden (2021 to 2022) ## Major works - ***The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief*** (Free Press, 2006), the flagship statement. Three-part case: (a) the moral law (following C. S. Lewis) plus the universal human longing for God point beyond materialism; (b) the Big Bang, fine-tuning, and the anthropic coincidences are best explained by a Creator; (c) evolutionary biology is compatible with Christian theism if read as the *means* by which God created. Coined the term *BioLogos* to name the synthesis. - ***The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine*** (HarperCollins, 2010), genomics-popularization on the medical implications of the genome era - ***Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith*** (HarperOne, 2010, ed.), edited anthology of classic and contemporary writings on belief - ***The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust*** (Little, Brown Spark, 2024), post-NIH reflection on the breakdown of public trust in science, partly in response to COVID-era polarization ## Distinctive contributions / positions ### 1. Theistic evolution (BioLogos position) Collins's core public position: the **scientific evidence for common descent and an old earth is overwhelming**, and Christian theology has the resources to integrate this evidence without conceding atheism. Evolution is the *mechanism* God used; the *fact* of creation, the *theological* meaning of the Imago Dei, and the *historical* claims of the gospel are unaffected. See [Theistic Evolution](/codex/theistic-evolution/) and Common Descent vs Common Design. This position is contested from two sides: (a) **Intelligent Design** (Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, William Dembski) holds that the information-content of the cell, the irreducible complexity of molecular machines, and the Cambrian explosion all defeat the sufficiency of evolutionary mechanism, and that Collins has ceded too much; (b) **Young-Earth Creationism** (Ken Ham, Henry Morris, John Whitcomb) holds that any view accepting deep time and common descent is exegetically incompatible with Genesis 1-11. Collins engages both critiques in *The Language of God* and the BioLogos materials. See [Intelligent Design](/codex/intelligent-design/) and [Young Earth Creationism](/codex/young-earth-creationism/). ### 2. Conversion-from-atheism testimony Collins is one of the most-cited examples of the *atheist scientist who converted on intellectual grounds*. The narrative arc (atheism through college and graduate school, displaced by medical-school encounters with mortality, redirected by C. S. Lewis, settled in evangelical Christianity) is a recurrent reference point in apologetic literature. See [Atheism](/codex/atheism/) §notable conversions and [Argument from Restlessness](/codex/argument-from-restlessness/). ### 3. The honest-naturalist concession on origin-of-life Collins is one of several mainstream biologists who concede that the **origin of life is an unsolved problem**. *The Language of God* (ch. 5) acknowledges that no current naturalistic scenario adequately explains how the first self-replicating cell arose; Collins treats this as an open scientific question rather than a defeater for naturalism, but the concession is itself a useful apologetic data point. He is named alongside Stuart Kauffman, Eugene Koonin, Leslie Orgel, Klaus Dose, and Paul Davies as honest practitioners admitting the gap. See [Argument from Origin of Life](/codex/argument-from-origin-of-life/) and [Information Argument](/codex/information-argument/). ### 4. The moral-law argument from C. S. Lewis The opening chapter of *The Language of God* is essentially Collins's restatement of Lewis's argument from the universal moral law (the *Tao* in *The Abolition of Man*, the *Mere Christianity* book 1 argument): the cross-cultural recognition of binding moral obligation is better explained by a moral Lawgiver than by evolutionary byproduct theories. See [Moral Argument](/codex/moral-arguments/) and [C.S. Lewis](/codex/c-s-lewis/). ### 5. Science-and-faith institutional bridge-building BioLogos has become the most visible institutional voice for evolutionary creationism in evangelical Christianity; its scholar network includes N. T. Wright, John Polkinghorne, Alister McGrath, Deborah Haarsma, Jeff Hardin, Joshua Swamidass (genealogical-Adam position, distinct from BioLogos's mainstream theistic-evolution line), and Denis Alexander. The institutional reach has shaped two decades of evangelical conversation on origins. ## Connection to codex concepts - [Theistic Evolution](/codex/theistic-evolution/), Collins is the most-cited contemporary popular advocate; *The Language of God* (2006) is the primary text - [Atheism](/codex/atheism/) §notable conversions, Collins's atheism-to-Christianity arc is one of the named exemplars - [Argument from Origin of Life](/codex/argument-from-origin-of-life/), Collins named as a mainstream-biology voice conceding the OOL explanatory gap - [Information Argument](/codex/information-argument/), Collins named (with Crick, Kauffman, Orgel, Koonin, Dose, Davies) in the cross-spectrum admission that OOL is unsolved - [Anthropology Defeats Christianity Objection Defeater](/codex/anthropology-defeats-christianity-objection-defeater/), Collins named as one of the five coherent Christian responses to biological anthropology (theistic evolution alongside federal headship, genealogical Adam, OEC, YEC) - Common Descent vs Common Design, Collins's position represents the *common-descent-as-divine-mechanism* synthesis - [Teleological Arguments](/codex/teleological-arguments/), Collins's BioLogos position cited as the third-way that retains cosmic fine-tuning while accepting biological evolution - [Moral Argument](/codex/moral-arguments/), Collins's *Language of God* ch. 1 restates the C. S. Lewis moral-law argument ## See also - [Theistic Evolution](/codex/theistic-evolution/), position hub - BioLogos, institutional hub - [Intelligent Design](/codex/intelligent-design/), the contesting Discovery-Institute position - [Young Earth Creationism](/codex/young-earth-creationism/), the contesting Ham / Morris position - [C.S. Lewis](/codex/c-s-lewis/), the literary catalyst of Collins's conversion - [Argument from Origin of Life](/codex/argument-from-origin-of-life/), the OOL concession - [Information Argument](/codex/information-argument/), the OOL-information angle - Common Descent vs Common Design, biology-of-origins synthesis - [Stephen Meyer](/codex/stephen-meyer/), leading Intelligent Design critic of the BioLogos position - [Michael Behe](/codex/michael-behe/), biochemist-ID critic of the BioLogos synthesis on biology - Alister McGrath, theological ally; both scientist-converts to evangelicalism - Joshua Swamidass, genealogical-Adam variant distinct from BioLogos mainstream - John Polkinghorne, earlier-generation scientist-theologian in the same dialogue tradition - [N.T. Wright](/codex/n-t-wright/), theological dialogue partner on Adam and origins - [Anthropology Defeats Christianity Objection Defeater](/codex/anthropology-defeats-christianity-objection-defeater/), biological-anthropology rebuttal context - [Atheism](/codex/atheism/), conversion-narrative context