Francis Collins, writer of The Language of God : a scientist presents evidence for belief (Free Press, 2007) is a highly competent scientist who works in the field of medical genetics. He was head of the Human Genome Project. He is also a committed Christian and in his book he shares his personal journey from agnostic to atheist to faith. He writes to challenge Christians to seek the truth science teaches about God’s world even if this upsets their preconceived ideas. Collins is a profound believer in evolution and presents convincing evidence from genetics to support his views. He feels evolution, ‘far from standing in the way faith, reveals a universe of ever greater ingenuity and sublety’. In the past teaching about evolution has excluded God whereas in Collins’ book he explains why evolution requires a creator. Collins also discusses other topics including: Intelligent Design, Young Earth Creationism, genetic diseases, stem cell research and cloning.

While Collins feels science is the only legitimate way to investigate the natural world he also believes that science is not enough to answer all the important questions about life. This is one of the main reasons he came to believe in God. Science could not offer him a satisfactory explanation to what he describes as the Moral Law, that sense of rightness and wrongness that seems to be universal amongst humans but rarely observed in animals.

This is a very worthwhile book coming from such a distinguished scientist and devout Christian. It will cause many (including me!) to rethink their beliefs about science.