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Nobody gets argued all the way into becoming a believer on the sheer basis of logic and reason. That requires a leap of faith.

Francis Collins

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Francis Collins
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: April 14
Author
Chemist
Geneticist
Physician
Physicist
Virginia
United States
Francis S. Collins
Francis S Collins
F. S. Collins
F S Collins
Francis Sellers Collins
Logic
Requires
Gets
Argued
Nobody
Sheer
Becoming
Leap
Faith
Basis
Reason
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Way
Bases

More quotes by Francis Collins

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As our closest relatives, they (chimpanzees) tell us special things about what it means to be a primate and, ultimately, what it means to be a human at the DNA level.
Francis Collins
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What faith has not been used by demagogues as a club over somebody's head?
Francis Collins
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Faith is not the opposite of reason. Faith rests squarely upon reason, but with the added component of revelation.
Francis Collins
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What does it take to get people interested, what does it take to get people engaged, what does it take to get them to give a biospecimen? What does it take to get people like Jim [Ostell] to get interested and engaged, versus someone like my mother?
Francis Collins
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I think history would say that medical research has, throughout many changes of parties, remained as one of the shining lights of bipartisan agreement, that people are concerned about health for themselves, for their families, for their constituents.
Francis Collins
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[Decoding the human genome sequence] is the most significant undertaking that we have mounted so far in an organized way in all of science. I believe that reading our blueprints, cataloguing our own instruction book, will be judged by history as more significant than even splitting the atom or going to the moon.
Francis Collins
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All illnesses have some heredity contribution. It's been said that genetics loads the gun and environment pulls the trigger.
Francis Collins
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I've never heard God speak out loud to me. That's not an experience I have had.
Francis Collins
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I think there are people who's lives have been saved because of the study of the genome.
Francis Collins
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C.S. Lewis had a big influence on me in this spiritual realm - this sort of sense of longing. A longing for a knowledge that is just outside of our reach, a knowledge for a spiritual connection.
Francis Collins
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When does life begin? When does the soul enter? That's a religious question. Science is not going to be able to help with that.
Francis Collins
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I had the analysis of a million or so SNPs [single nucleotide polymorphisms] just to see what was there. That's partly because I was writing a book about DNA and personalized medicine and I thought it would be a little bit disingenuous to talk about what could be done without actually having the experiment done on yourself.
Francis Collins
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What wakes me up at night is this next generation and what's happening to them. And they're invariably excited about the science that they're doing, but invariably anxious about where there's a future.
Francis Collins
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Are we using science in ways that it wasn't intended to, in which case we should be a little careful, or are we using faith in ways that faith wasn't really designed for? There are certain questions that are better answered by one approach than the other, and if you start mixing that up, then you end up in ... conflict.
Francis Collins
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There are good reasons to believe in God, including the existence of mathematical principles and order in creation. They are positive reasons, based on knowledge, rather than default assumptions based on a temporary lack of knowledge.
Francis Collins
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I'm a pretty informal guy. I ride a Harley.
Francis Collins
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God gave us free will, and we may choose to exercise it in ways that end up hurting other people.
Francis Collins
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Science is... a powerful way, indeed - to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective... in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other.
Francis Collins
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A lot of science doesn't require big ns but if you're trying to understand something about human health and you're looking at interventions that are not going to be either killing you or making you live forever - they're going to have some tweaking on the outcome - you need big numbers or you don't have enough power.
Francis Collins
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When I discover something about the human genome, I experience a sense of awe at the mystery of life, and say to myself, 'Wow, only God knew before.' It is a profoundly beautiful and moving sensation, which helps me appreciate God and makes science even more rewarding for me.
Francis Collins