A Few More Thoughts on Francis Collins

After writing my own thoughts on Francis Collins and his appointment to head the National Institutes of Health, I read this piece by Chris Wilson at Slate.

Two excerpts stood out to me, addressing the concerns of many atheists:

This formula [between the “unsolved” and the “unsolvable”] offers a convenient litmus test for where Collins falls on a variety of questions: If a given problem appears to be merely unsolved, then he’ll leave it to the realm of science; if, on the other hand, Collins deems a question to be unsolvable, it’s fair game for inclusion in a spiritual interpretation of the universe.

And:

… [Collins] thinks the presence of the divine can be directly observed, even if it cannot be measured and tested.

This is an audacious claim for any scientist to make, and Collins does not deserve a free pass on this from the scientific community. He is also undeserving of suspicions that he harbors a conservative Christian agenda. As it happens, the most salient point raised by his critics tends to work in his favor. Jerry Coyne rightly describes Collins as a talented administrator. After all, he led the public effort to sequence the human genome and loves to point out that he did it “ahead of schedule and under budget.” That’s the most important virtue for the job he is about to undertake. If Collins’ faith mollifies even a few political conservatives who would otherwise continue to waste time and money fighting research efforts that violate their specific religious tenets, then the benefits of his faith should outweigh whatever qualms scientists might have.

The full article can be read here.