In the wake of administrative upheaval for federal health and safety departments, former National Institutes of Health director and geneticist Francis Collins is coming to Spokane to discuss the themes of his book, \u201cThe Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event is the next in Whitworth University\u2019s President\u2019s Leadership Forum and will be held at the Fox Theater on Oct. 2, in partnership with The Spokesman-Review\u2019s Northwest Passages.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a book that I wrote two years ago, but it seems more relevant than ever right now,\u201d Collins said. \u201cIt basically is talking about the way in which our society is in a difficult place, having become so divided \u2013 so polarized \u2013 about so many topics, to the point where we\u2019ve stopped trusting each other as much as probably we should. And where we are also, in some instances, not even quite sure what to say about what\u2019s true and what\u2019s not true. A society that has lost its grip on truth is not a good place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
At age 75, Collins has a long history in the sciences. He led teams in discovering the genetic causes of diseases including cystic fibrosis, headed the Human Genome Project where he oversaw the first human DNA sequencing, and served as the NIH director for 12 years under Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden before retiring at the end of February after 32 years with the agency.<\/p>\n
Collins has also been an evangelical Christian since his 20s, saying his faith is a big part of who he is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to also, in this presentation at Whitworth, talk about how I see the insights that can come from science on the one hand, because I\u2019m a scientist, and from faith on the other hand, because I\u2019m a Christian, are actually wonderfully supporting and harmonious. They\u2019re not in conflict the way some people seem to think.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big fan of Collins, according to Whitworth spokeswoman Trisha Coder, Whitworth President Scott McQuilkin has invited Collins to be a guest on the forum twice before. Prior to retirement, Collins said he had to decline due to constraints as a government employee. In a later interview McQuilkin said that Collins called it a \u201cgift to have somebody of that stature in Spokane.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis achievement in science and as someone who is also aligned with Whitworth, missionally, in what we\u2019re trying to do with students. Equip our students to honor God, follow Christ and serve humanity. To pursue truth, wherever it may lead. He\u2019s done that,\u201d McQuilkin said. \u201cThe pairing of those two elements \u2013 science and faith \u2013 aligns with what we want to investigate and study and talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The President\u2019s Leadership Forum will feature a 30-minute presentation from Collins on his book followed by a 15- to 30 -minute Q&A with McQuilkin. Coder said conversations with other leaders have gone in all kinds of directions in the past, McQuilkin having a \u201cway of putting people at ease.\u201d She expects the talk to be focused largely on Collins\u2019 journey with God and science.<\/p>\n
Whitworth theology Chair Jonathan Moo uses Collins\u2019 book \u201cThe Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief\u201d to \u201chelp students explore the relationship between science and religion.\u201d Moo said that Collins is a model for the goal of Whitworth\u2019s liberal arts programs \u2013 to help students grow into people who can \u201cthink broadly about the world and themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I love about Collins is that he is this extraordinarily accomplished scientist, but he also has this real breadth of interest,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s a musician. He loves motorcycles. He is someone who obviously reads widely in theology and philosophy as well as science.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a Whitworth student exclusive portion of the Oct. 2 event. Moo said his current class will have read Collins\u2019 first book, written a review of it and had class discussions on it by the talk.<\/p>\n
Though unable to attend the event personally due to a prior engagement, Whitworth senior student Ella Davis read Collins\u2019 first book in Moo\u2019s course last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the big questions growing up as a Christian and also loving science was how do I personally balance scientific truth and, to me, biblical truth?\u201d Davis said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a question that I had for a long time and, frankly, was scared to ask and really dive into.\u201d<\/p>\n
An environmental science major and theology minor, Davis said learning about Collins\u2019 proposition was a \u201crelief,\u201d finally giving her an answer as to how science and religion can interact. When she found out he was coming to Whitworth, Davis said she was both surprised and excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhitworth is this smaller, private D3 school and a Christian College at that,\u201d Davis said. \u201cBeing visited by someone as prominent as Collins is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is no coincidence that Collins is coming to Spokane now, nor is his recent retirement a coincidence in the grander scheme of federal unrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy retirement from the NIH was not entirely voluntary. I\u2019ve been there for 32 years and I was made so unwelcome that I had to leave,\u201d he said. \u201cI was in a position where I was not allowed to go to meetings, not allowed to speak even to other scientists at a meeting. My laboratory was basically told, \u2018you may not start any new projects. You can only work on things that you were working on before Jan. 20.\u2019 I mean, that\u2019s the worst thing you can say to scientists trying to come up with new, innovative ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the months since his retirement, Collins said he has been focusing on advocating to \u201ceveryday Americans\u201d about the importance of medical research. With the help of patient advocate groups across the country, he hopes to create a \u201cbank of stories of people whose lives have been significantly affected by medical research.\u201d The effort is not political, Collins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re cutting back support for medical research, which is happening right now, we\u2019re going to lose that next round of breakthroughs. There\u2019s consequences when you cut 2,500 research grants without really good reason, and fire 2,500 NIH staff, all of which has happened since January,\u201d Collins said. \u201cSo, yeah, I have a lot of concerns about the direction things seem to be going right now, and hoping that Americans will start to recognize this is not what they want and begin to say so.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the topic of \u201ctruth,\u201d one of the four key themes in his recent book, Collins used vaccines as an example.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I know to be true is that science is capable of discerning facts about the universe, including how life works and how disease happens. Vaccines don\u2019t care how you feel, they just are what they are. Vaccines save lives,\u201d he said, adding that the COVID-19 vaccine has saved around 3 million lives in the U.S. \u201cAnd yet, now there are a lot of people questioning whether this was a good thing or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently narrowed the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines to individuals \u201cat high risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prevalence of Christians in anti-vaccine circles \u201ckind of breaks my heart,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look at the places where science is most likely to be attacked, it seems to come from my own fellow Christians who are uneasy about whether science is really just about an effort to try to undercut their faith,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Collins cited a study from Harvard, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other researchers that indicated more than 232,000 people died unnecessarily from May 30, 2021, through Sept. 3, 2022, because they opted not to get a COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of those were Christians. So unnecessary,\u201d he said. \u201cGraveyards full of gravestones that shouldn\u2019t be there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite the \u201cdivisiveness and polarization\u201d in the country, Collins said that he hopes people can come away from his talk with a renewed sense of hope and responsibility for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt won\u2019t just be a gloomy diagnosis of societal malaise. It will be also a proposal of ways that each of us might be able to be part of the solution by becoming more willing to listen to people who don\u2019t agree with us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe always, as Americans, have figured out how to dig down deep and find a path forward that depends upon those principles of faith and freedom and family and belief and justice and goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the wake of administrative upheaval for federal health and safety departments, former National Institutes of Health director…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":243477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-243476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115241374353879290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}