The Significance of the Human Genome Project
In The Right Questions, Phillip E. Johnson, states that when President Clinton announced the first substantial success of the human genome project in June of 2000, recognizing the many tangled ethical issues which would be raised by understanding the genome better, attempted to reassure the nation by stating that…
as we consider how to use these new discoveries, we must also not retreat from our oldest and most cherished human values… All of us are created equal, entitled to equal treatment under the law.
He also said…
… today, we are learning the language in which God created life; we are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift.
Dr. Francis S. Collins, the scientific director of the Human Genome Project, similarly claimed:
It is humbling for me and awe-inspiring to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God.
Collins’ words remind me of Keppler’s exclamation of praise and awe that by understanding the heavens he was able to bring glory to God. At face value, it would seem that the genome research actually supports the view that a supernatural mind designed the instructions which brought about complex life. Why is it, then, that many biologists and other scientists emphatically deny that God had anything to do with the existence of complex life on earth. Dr. David Baltimore wrote concerning the genome project that…
our genes look very much like those of fruit flies, worms and even plants… we are all descended from the same humble beninnings (which)… should be, but won’t be the end of creationism.
Another scientist stated that the President’s reference to a language in which God created life…
could not be further from the truth. (And that it)… give(s) more ammunition to creationists to further their destructive social and political agenda.
On the other hand, another scientist, Gene Myers claimed:
What really astounds me is the architecture of life. The system is extremely complex. It’s like it was designed… There’s a huge intelligence there. I don’t see that as being unscientific. Others may, but not me.
Why the differing opinions? I’ll tackle that in my next post.