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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

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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
Beautiful
Mystery
Profoundly
Human
Knew
Sensation
Humans
Moving
Wow
Even
Experience
Awe
Something
Science
Sensations
Life
Sense
Helps
Helping
Discover
Genome
Makes
Appreciate
Rewarding

More quotes by Francis Collins

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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
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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 think there are people who's lives have been saved because of the study of the genome.
Francis Collins
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God is an awesome mathematician and physicist.
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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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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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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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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[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
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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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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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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
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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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In my own experience as a physician, I have not seen a miraculous healing, and I don't expect to see one.
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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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
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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 God appreciates that we appreciate his creation.
Francis Collins
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I believe in the literal rising of the body of Christ. It's the cornerstone of my Christian faith.
Francis Collins
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Science's tools will never prove or disprove God's existence.
Francis Collins