Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Soul
Begin
Going
Question
Life
Religious
Help
Science
Helping
Doe
Able
Enter

More quotes by Francis Collins

Image
I trained initially as a physical chemist, and then, after becoming interested in biology, I went to medical school and learned how to be a physician. So, I'm a physician scientist.
Francis Collins
Image
I think there are people who's lives have been saved because of the study of the genome.
Francis Collins
Image
So much of what we are currently seeing as far as human suffering and misery comes from diseases that should have been preventable but were not.
Francis Collins
Image
[The tests agreed] that I was at higher risk than the average person for Type 2 diabetes, which is what my lab works on. In fact, some of the things they were testing for were variants that we had discovered.
Francis Collins
Image
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
Image
I think God appreciates that we appreciate his creation.
Francis Collins
Image
[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
Image
In my own experience as a physician, I have not seen a miraculous healing, and I don't expect to see one.
Francis Collins
Image
If God is real, and I believe he is, then he is outside of nature. He is, therefore, not limited by the laws of nature in the way that we are.
Francis Collins
Image
We are still working with an incomplete compass. The time is right to bring the full power of genomics to bear on the problem of cancer.
Francis Collins
Image
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
Image
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
Image
God is an awesome mathematician and physicist.
Francis Collins
Image
We give our kids vaccinations. That's a biological enhancement that's considered not just acceptable but actually admirable.
Francis Collins
Image
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
Image
A technological advance of a major sort almost always is overestimated in the short run for its consequences - and underestimated in the long run.
Francis Collins
Image
Science's tools will never prove or disprove God's existence.
Francis Collins
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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