Science and Religion as Allies?

Are science and religion adversaries? In his youth, Dr. Francis Collins believed they were. He was an atheist, but his studies led him to find Christianity and to explore harmony between science and faith. Boomer writer Martha Steger describes the message he shared in a May 2026 lecture.

If you’ve ever wondered how God created the heavens and the earth in seven days while life evolved over three-plus billion years, you might enjoy reading a message of what physician-scientist Dr. Francis Collins calls “thoughtful faith.” Having established his reputation as a giant in genomics in 1992 when he worked with 2,400 scientists from six nations to discover the human genome, he became leader of the International Genome Project in 1993 in the effort to map all human genomes. He went on to serve – under presidents Obama, Biden, and Trump (the first Trump term) – as director of the National Institutes of Health, which he described as “the largest engine for medical-science discoveries in the world.”

The author of six books ranging from medical genetics to the subject of faith and hope, Dr. Collins spoke in Richmond, Virginia, on the compatibility of science and religion. He addressed the creation stories of Genesis upfront by explaining the first book of the Bible was never meant to be read as science. “Evolution,” he said, “is now as well-established as gravity” – adding later, “God is still God no matter what we do or think…”

The puzzle

Dr. Collins began with the teaser, “Science is putting pieces of a puzzle together – like a detective story.” He gave an extensive explanation of how recombinant DNA technology has enabled the production of therapeutic proteins (insulin, for example, as well as genetically modified organisms and vaccines), to advance medicine and agriculture. As grandmother to a child with serious food allergies who carries an epipen with her at all times, I noted his failure to mention health concerns regarding unexpected allergies to GMOs, potential antibiotic resistance, and unintended immune responses.

If the large crowd at River Road Church had been flummoxed by his extensive explanations of chemicals in the “mixing and matching” of human DNA, they were much more in tune with his faith journey, beginning as an atheist in medical school and emerging as a Christian at age 27. He related how, as a third-year medical student, he had an encounter with an elderly hospital patient, who asked him, “What do you believe?”

He realized he hadn’t thought about the subject and began a deep dive into belief systems. Collins said he went back to G. K. Chesterton’s anticipation of the Big Bang theory, which posits the universe began from an unimaginable point of “something” – as opposed to the materialist existence of nothing. That “something” included matter and energy.

It all comes down to quantum mechanics, Collins said, and “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” – which “a pretty amazing mathematical physicist can figure out bit by bit.” But “taking the leap from science to faith involves utilizing hope.” Few would disagree with that, but Collins went further, saying this leap “in every sphere of life, is attached to action.” How many of us, in leaping from science to faith, act – even if we have “hope”? Perhaps what he meant to say was that faith demands we should act in many ways, including caring for each other, which he addressed a bit later.

The leap

He cited C. S. Lewis, who, in his book “Mere Christianity,” argues a universal moral law or law of human nature exists – suggesting a higher power behind the universe. Lewis doesn’t hold this belief as mere convention but as objectifiable reality. Collins quoted Lewis, saying, “All human communities have agreed the principle of right and wrong holds a moral clue to the universe” … and caring for one another is “radical altruism,” the essence of Christianity. The tougher question, Collins said, is, “‘Does this god care about me?’” As a third-year medical student, he came to believe God did care about him as well as other humans. “People became estranged from God, and Jesus Christ was the path back,” he said in capsulizing Christianity’s beginnings.

He concluded with words about wisdom from the New Testament Book of James – “the wisdom from above.” A lot of theology, he said – attempting to unite it with science as promised, “makes you think of the laboratory as a kind of cathedral: It increases human awe” – not a new thought but one obviously appreciated by the standing-ovation crowd at the church.

Writer Martha Steger purchased the ticket for this lecture.