What about the dinosaurs?

This entry is about my thoughts on the book "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief" by Francis S. Collins

I am a very scientific and a very troubled person. Therefore, I was excited to read this book by one of the most prominent scientists in the world right now who is also a devoted Christian. He led the Genome Project and is the highest authority on all-things genetic, and things genetic are very cutting-edge, the newest of the new.

I was particularly excited to find out how it's possible that the world was created in seven days. See, everything I've read and seen and studied my whole life (except the Bible) tells me that the first few chapters of Genesis are NOT possible and that the world is more than a few billion years old. I guess it dates back to at least seventh grade, where at the end of our science exam on evolution, the question was posed: Do you believe in evolution or creation? I only answered in a very badly-phrased sentence: "Evolution, because what about the dinosaurs?" OK apparently our teacher wanted us to give a more detailed explanation of how we feel, so I didn't get many points on that question, but it shoulda said so. Over the years, I've cited the dinosaurs as a major question I have about Christianity. Many MANY people have looked at me like I'm really weird or questioned why that's my main concern when there can be so many others. But it is! I can't help it. Also I've always wondered why would God create humans and chimps to have such similar genes but be unrelated, what's the point of that? Genesis just doesn't sit in my brain the way it does to others. So I was excited that a scientist was gonna tell me how it's all possible.

Unfortunately, he says that everything I think is correct. Which technically isn't bad.

Genetic science proves (in his opinion, without a shadow of a doubt) that people and monkeys and dogs and cats and every other animal are descended from one ancestor and evolved to where we are over time, just as Darwin said. The reasoning is our genes are really similar, and there are even some "junk" genes that don't seem to serve any function that are similar... okay there is a really detailed scientific explanation so this is just a summary. He says evolution is not a theory but a fact, and the Big Bang is true. So he says there's no way the world was created in seven days, and he even uses scripture to argue that the word for "day" in Genesis could mean a period of time and not a 24-hr day, which would make more sense. Moreover, he argues that Genesis is written poetically and allegorically, as Psalms is, and God doesn't intend for us to take it literally. So obviously, he doesn't think Adam and Eve were the first people, that in the story of Adam and Eve, there could've been some kind of civilization, while the story centered on them two (one scriptural support is the existence of Cain's wife).

Now one time I came upon a show on the Christian channel where a guy was explaining how dinosaurs and people lives together in harmony, and he attempted to prove this by showing fossils of footprints and stuff that showed the dinosaurs to be a soft creature and non-predatory, etc., which made me say This is the lamest thing I've ever seen (but, who am I to say). Well, Collins (again) wholeheartedly agrees, using harsh words against the view of Young Earth Creationism, which comes up with all these bogus things like soft dinosaurs and missing links and inaccuracy of radioactive dating of rocks, that contradicts everything and all we know about science. He also criticized the widely-accepted Intelligent Design, as every living thing is evolved and God did not just plop new species on Earth. He also thinks Christians who believe these things are not truly trying to understand the world God created.

The absolute most dissapointing thing about this book (which I was kinda expecting, because I read a review that pointed this out) is that it doesn't "prove" God exists but rather "proves" God MAY exist, that it's possible, since the world is so complex and we don't know exactly how it all got started. Although he doesn't really have an argument for belief, he definitely argues that atheism is just plain stupid, considering no one can be sure that God DOESN'T exist, while agnosticism is better but those who do not try to figure out the truth are just lazy.

His whole explanation of his faith can be summed up in "Mere Christianity," most notably the Moral Law. OK, been there, read that.