VCU news

By Anne Buckley

One of the world’s leading scientists, Francis Collins, who headed the team that decoded the human genome, will speak to a capacity crowd on his faith in God as part of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Science, Reason & Faith lecture and debate series.

Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, will present "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief," on March 8. While no more tickets are available, the lecture will be simulcast at 7 p.m. on closed-circuit television on both of VCU's campuses. The simulcast will be shown in the George Ben Johnson Auditorium at 305 N 12th Street on the VCU Medical Center campus. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. It will also be available in any VCU classroom that is CCTV capable - on Channel 10 on the VCU Medical Center campus and on Channel 9 on the Monroe Park campus.

In his highly acclaimed book of the same title, Collins explores the tension between science and religion in general, and between faith and empiricism in particular.

Making his own case for how one can be a leading scientist and a believer at the same time, Collins draws on his life’s work in science to give a new assessment of the ways in which science and religion are compatible and incompatible. As one of the world’s foremost genetic scientists, Collins puts his scientific credibility on the line with an honest and highly personal account of his faith and his work.

Colllins’ appearance is the fifth of six lectures in the 2006-2007 series in which notable scientists, philosophers and theologians address questions at the nexus of science, reason and faith. The final panel, March 22, will feature Alex Rosenberg, a professor of philosophy at Duke University, and Peter van Inwagen, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

For more information on the series, www.vcu.edu/faithscienceforum/index.html.