An article in the newspaper by Kathleen Parker reports that a geneticist named Francis Collins, an evangelical Christian, asserts that one can believe in both God and science. He's wrong. First of all, one does not "believe" in science the way one "believes" in "God". In the latter case one undertakes to assume the existence of a "God" without any requirement that the assumption be based on evidence. That is, in fact, the definition of "faith" as it is strenuously prescribed by religionists. On the other hand, science consists not of a philosophy or plan for living but rather a technique for making and testing hypotheses about how nature works.

Francis Collins claims that "God" is both outside of nature and outside of time. He also claims that science tends to "prove" the existence of "God". However, since science deals only with the testing of hypotheses about nature, I don't see how Collins can claim that science proves the existence of a god as he conceives it.

In fact, Collins definition of "God" shows that he is a deist rather than a Christian as he claims to be. The Bible makes it very clear that the Jewish and Christian "God" is in and of this world, and in fact is a very parochial being, limited mainly to the Near East.

Collins also says that he was once an atheist but encountered questions that science could not answer and thus renewed his religious faith. The problem with that is that science does not undertake to answer all questions since one can pose any number of non-sensical questions such as "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin"? Many of the questions that Christians claim science cannot answer assume the existence of a directive mind - one that is suspiciously like a human mind. Questions such as "What is the purpose of the universe, or my life, or the tornado that destroyed a school?" are addressed to nature as though nature had a personality and motives like a human being. This is simply the sort of projection of human attributes onto nature that has been the basis of so many religions such as that of the ancient Greeks. In fact, nature has no purpose, plan, personality or motives. It simply is. It cares nothing for our human concerns which is why the tornado destroys the good with the bad. Unless you wish to believe in an evil and destructive "God" you must accept that.