• The Language of God

  • A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
  • By: Francis S. Collins
  • Narrated by: Francis S. Collins
  • Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,920 ratings)

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The Language of God  By  cover art

The Language of God

By: Francis S. Collins
Narrated by: Francis S. Collins
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Publisher's summary

Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is one of the world's leading scientists, yet he is also a man of unshakable faith in God and scripture. Dr. Collins has resolved the dilemma that haunts everyone who believes in God and respects science. Faith in God and faith in science can be harmonious, not separately but together, combined into one worldview. For Collins, science does not conflict with the Bible, science enhances it.

The Language of God makes the case for God and for science. Dr. Collins considers and dismisses several positions along the spectrum from atheism to young-earth creationism, including agnosticism and Intelligent Design. Instead, he proposes a new synthesis, a new way to think about an active, caring God who created humankind through evolutionary processes.

He explains his own journey from atheism to faith, and then takes listeners on a stunning tour of modern science to show that physics, chemistry, and biology can all fit together with belief in God and the Bible. The Language of God is essential for anyone who wonders about the deepest questions of all: Why are we here? How did we get here? And what does life mean?

©2006 Francis S. Collins. All rights reserved. (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Collins' credibility as a scientist and his sincerity as a believer make for an engaging combination, especially for those who, like him, resist being forced to choose between science and God." (Publishers Weekly)

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Science and Faith Together

Super read. I am a believer and an engineer. Collins addresses the key questions with balance and rationality. He makes very compelling arguments for his conclusion that science and faith can be (and should be) integrated and compatible. I like his narration of his own work. I've gone through lots of books on this subject -- and this is the most on target for me.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Lucid, thought-provoking and convincing

If you are a Christian interested in the relationship between science and your faith, this light-weight listen will focus your thoughts and provide some new light on old subjects. It is well-thought out, logical and sensible. it is written for the lay person, not scientists, and would be particularly helpful to someone not convinced of God's existence but seeking answers. However, if you are a convinced Creationist already, you should leave this one on it's virtual shelf.

The theology is straightforward and non-aggressive, and his approach is open-minded and probing. I found this book helpful and a stimulus to further thought and reading. The crystallisation of some beliefs I have pondered for years was refreshing and liberating. I'm glad people like Collins are willing and able to put their beliefs into print like this.

However, he should stick to science and leave the singing to the professionals...

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Shallow, disappointing arguments!

I got this book hoping to hear some interesting arguments from a well-known scientist. I was utterly disappointed: his arguments are very shallow repetition of what you can get from the sermons all over the world. For example he discredits many findings of evolutionary and cultural explanations for existence of altruism in two short paragraphs and then uses this to claim the existence of god.
Moreover, he even does not achieve what he claims in the beginning of the book, that is, he does not show anything more than the possibility of existence of god, which agnostic people can also believe in (and he claims not to be one).
In short, don't waste your money on this book, go to the local church, or one of this guys references (e.g. Lewis from Oxford).

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Now I Understand

As a Christian and a non-scientist, I have always struggled with the apparent conflict between the Bible and science. While I wanted so much to believe the Christian faith, I just could never accept that God would "trick" us by putting dinasours on earth and by putting in place such strong evidence for evolution.

This book answers all the questions, and allows me to keep my precious belief in God and also to embrace science. I wish this book had been available years ago. I can't thank the author enough for writing this--it has brought me such peace.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Interesting but weak.

It was inspiring but his arguments I found were uncompelling and fraught with misrepresentations of the current discussion of the matter. It doesn't add much to the debate versus atheism, but it is a strong statement contra fundamentalist creationism.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Christian Atheist guitar player, will travel...

I really never believed in hell, but that was before I listened to this recording, but then he played his guitar and sang to me and I became a believer... I never cried so hard in all my life... over the loss of a credit. Why I ask you, why? Have I ever done anything to you? For the love of God do not purchase this audio, run, save yourself...

The books title is unfortunately misleading and lacking any new content to make it worth picking up and the songs... The songs, it will take a week of watching Event Horizon non stop to shake the catchy home spun tunes from further damaging your cerebral cortex.

His Christianity, mostly based on "Personal feelings" at the same time is trying to be rationale and scientific. The book does progress in a very logical fashion by debunking the big bang theory, which he attributes to atheism and agnostics, creationism and intelligent design (ID) which probably will surprise some...

Did I mention he plays the guitar and sings songs? The difference between his songs and an Uzi, The Uzi stops after 20 rounds the songs continue to cause massive damage.

Francis finally explains his own theory and has a clear agenda for supporting theistic evolution, which he dubs BioLogos.

Trust me when I say you'll never be the same after listening to this audio book....

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Well done

Fascinating book certainly gave me a lot to think about.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Unconvincing

Enjoyed the stories that Collins could offer and the insight on some of the subjects, but as soon as he gets out of his purely genetic background, his positions are unconvincing. For example, he tells us that the fossil record is now full of transitional species and then provides and adapted species (still the same species) as the example. He also takes on the problem of irreducible complexity, but has more to say when explaining the problem than he does a presentation of a solution. His hypothesis of random mutation yielding complexity is terribly wanting.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Outdated Arguments: No Convincing Proof

The author has some wonderful credentials. But like the credentials he earned, he is outdated. Collins seems to be a very kindly man, and quite genuine. So I truly hate to have to give this such a poor review. Let me explain why I do.

He lost me in the first chapter when he set up the strawman of sociobiology. Anyone who has studied evolutionary psychology knows that it has replaced sociobiology. Sociobiology is a flawed series of arguments that were supplanted by superior reasoning and further scientific discoveries. It would be as if someone argued strenuously against Lamarckian evolution, which was supplanted by Darwinian evolution which, in turn, has also been supplanted.

Collins also quotes a great deal of CS Lewis. I am a huge fan of CS Lewis, and I've read almost everything he ever wrote. I am quite familiar with Mere Christianity, which was written in the early 40s. Many Christians feel that this is the book to hand to any questing intellectual and that it will solve all problems. I wish it were so. But Lewis is also very outdated. it would be far better to quote someone like Dr. Brian Miller of The Discovery Institute, who is a modern intellectual Christian apologeticist who speaks to intelligent design.

I bought this book with the hope that it would help me see a superior, or at least an equal argument, to evolutionary psychology. However, Collins is not so much about evidence as he is about attempting to justify, and put an intellectual spin on his faith. I am perfectly fine with that, but I was not looking for a book on faith. I was looking for a book that would help an educated skeptic generate faith, instead. This would never do so.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

terrible

amazing how one so brilliant can be so mistaken. so many factual errors, theological blunders, logical fallacies, misinformation etc. very sad

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