Francis Collins and the Excess Hypothesis

Francis Collins and the Excess Hypothesis Note: This article is from the book (Evolution Oriented between Science and Religion) for more please see the book. The prominent American geneticist Francis Collins was the head of the Human Genome Project, which made a remarkable effort to map the entire human genetic code (about 3.1 billion characters). President Bill Clinton announced the completion of his first survey in June 2000, saying, "Today we are learning the language in which God created life." In 2006, Collins authored his best-selling book, The Language of God, in which he presented his view on reconciling belief in God with belief in science, especially with regard to the theory of evolution, and put forward his thesis on the evolution of the divine known as BioLogos. He was influenced by his book and the theses of Dr. Amr Sharif, one of the most prominent adopters of the doctrine of directed divine evolution, and was cited dozens of times in his book (How Creation Started) and in other writings, articles and public lectures, and due to this great influence of Collins and his theses had to be discussed in this book. Proof of Faith: In the first chapter of the book, Francis Collins tells us how what he calls the Moral Law indicates that there is a meaning of life beyond matter, meaning a sense of right and wrong or knowledge of right and wrong, all people know that there is right and wrong, and that there is right and wrong, and although they differ among themselves in determining right and wrong, but they agree that there is right and wrong in principle, and that man naturally seeks to follow the truth and avoid wrong. The existence of this principle, concept, or law shows that materialism cannot account for all aspects of life, and that there are dimensions outside its scope; it also speaks in the same context of the property of altruism, which cannot be the result of Darwinian evolution or social factors no matter how great.[3] In Chapter 3, Collins tells us that the laws of physics, such as the genetic code, indicate the existence of God,[4] that the Big Bang and the fact that the universe had a beginning require metaphysical explanation beyond the walls of matter[5] and that the fine-tuning of the Big Bang that led to the universe emerging in this way refers to the creator who set and calibrated the settings of the moment of the Big Bang[6], then speaks of the human principle and answers the objections to it.[7] These are the proofs Collins used to indicate the validity of the belief in the existence of God: the Moral Law, the Big Bang, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics, in which she finds no reference to the genetic code or the exquisitely elaborate design of living things, and we will understand why in the following pages. Complexity of living organisms: On the other hand, the complexity seen in living things cannot be used as evidence for the Creator in Collins; because Darwinism has interpreted the existence of this complexity as a result of common origin and natural selection, and therefore it is no longer permissible to infer such complexity on the existence of God and his creation![8] And that the evidence on the theory of Darwinian evolution has become compelling for any scientist to understand it, and therefore the inference of complexity on the creation of God Almighty has become corrupt and incorrect! Even in places where the Darwinian or materialist explanation cannot be filled, such as the origin of life or the origin of the first living cell, Collins warns us not to resort to divine creation as an explanation, because science in the future will not be unable to find a physical explanation, and then this inference will be a reason to destabilize the beliefs of believers, as happened in the past with the scientific disclosures of Galileo and Darwin; where believers are used to explain the knowledge gaps that science cannot explain in terms of God' direct action. God of Knowledge Gaps: What is meant by the God of knowledge gaps? Some Christian theologians were ancient whenever they were conscious of the explanation of a phenomenon or an incident they said: The reason for its emergence, occurrence or occurrence is the direct divine action stripped of material causes, the rainbow caused by God created it to be a sign of such, and the flood of the river caused by God created it for such, and the eclipse of the sun and the eclipse of the moon and the rain and other phenomena were explained by the will of God and his direct action stripped material causes. When science developed and scientists knew that there were physical causes of eclipses, eclipses, rain, floods, rainbows, etc., material causes replaced the divine cause and destabilized faith in God, but there were still phenomena that science could not explain, so they explained that God caused them, but science continued to progress, grow and develop at the expense of God, and whenever he discovered a physical cause of a phenomenon, God's position was eroded and weakened. This concept in which God explains the gaps that science has not filled and knowledge has not reached at this time is what is meant by the concept of the God of knowledge gaps, which makes God vulnerable to criticism and questioning with each development and progress of science and scientific knowledge. The conclusion of this course is to take purely material reasons as a comprehensive scientific framework to explain the various phenomena of the universe and life, and then if scientific evidence is lacking in one place and an explanatory knowledge gap occurs in this place, God's creationism and direct action are called to fill this deficit and this gap, so God is present only in the unexplained part of science, and with the progress of science and the emergence of new scientific explanations this part is diminished and may disappear completely, and this course is not straight mind, and void in terms. In fact, the answer is no, because whoever infers the design and complexity of living things follows a mental rule of perception of teleology and purpose in design or complexity, thus realizing that it is the work of a teleological creator. In contrast, random mutations and natural selection are either unable to provide a true explanation for the imposition of this design or complexity or new information in the genetic strip or the new function or the new organ of the organism or are weak. For example, we Muslims see that the existence of complexity and organized structure teleological in the organism indicates that it was created by God, or that it has a creator by direct mental inference, and when the school of intelligent design considers the interpretation of design and complexity, especially if it is specialized complexity or irreducible that the act of an intelligent designer is earlier than the interpretation that it is the product of randomness Darwinism, The issue in us Muslims is a direct mental conclusion, while it is in the supporters of the school of intelligent design is a differentiation. Interestingly, if Francis Collins had been tried for what he describes as the knowledge gaps principle, he would have been the first to be convicted in this trial. In the third chapter of the book, when it comes to the interpretation of the fine tuning of the laws of physics, he makes a comparison between the different interpretations to come up with the best explanation, which is that there is a creator of this universe versus the physical explanations that deny its existence. And that the day may come when science will decide that the Big Bang and the fine-tuning of the laws of the universe may be the product of a purely material random process? Then let us ask Collins: Is the existence of order in the universe more called for by belief in the existence of God than by specialized complexity and irreducible complexity? This same moral law gives Darwinians many interpretations that make it merely a product of the process of evolution![13] Isn’t this, according to Collins, calling for the exclusion of metaphysical interpretation and the following of Darwinian “scientific” interpretation? Collins' thesis in fact contains surprising contradictions; he considers that the cosmic order signifies the existence of God, while the vital complexity that is the strongest indication of the mere order is not evidence of the existence of God! Then he accepts Darwinian interpretations along the line, but rejects them regarding the spiritual and moral side of man without a clear justification for this distinction between Darwinian interpretations! Biologos BoiLogos: Francis Collins formulated his doctrine of divine evolution which he called "biologos" in six points: • The universe came into existence about 14 billion years ago. Although highly improbable, the properties of the universe seem to be fine-tuned for the emergence of life. Although the exact mechanism of life on Earth is still unknown, once life emerged, the process of evolution and natural selection allowed biodiversity and biological complexity to emerge over very long periods of time. Once the wheel of evolution has turned, there is no longer any need for divine intervention. Humans are part of this process, and share a common ancestor with great apes. Humans are unique in that they reject Darwinian interpretation, including moral law (knowing right and wrong), and the pursuit of God, which has distinguished all human cultures throughout history. These six points show that God created only the initial configurations of the universe, and then let it proceed without any interference whatsoever except in granting man his spiritual and moral qualities and nothing more. Dr. Amr Sharif was right when he stated that Collins believed that "the Creator placed the genetic code (the genome) in the first cell in harmony with the laws of nature."[15] In fact, Collins believes that God did not actually place the genetic code in the first cell, and that although there is no physical explanation for the origin of life or the first cell,[16] this does not mean that we will not be able to find this explanation in the future, and warns against hasty! It is also clear from these theses that Collins rejects the principle of God's "meddling" in creation after the moment of the first creation, which is the moment of the Big Bang, and is elsewhere in the writer's disparaging view of this principle: "Intelligent design manifests God as a floundering God who is forced to intervene at regular intervals to fix the shortcomings of his initial plan to create the complexity of life."[17] But the fact that the inference of the determination and complexity found in living things on the existence of the wise Creator of the requirements of human nature and common sense, and I explained this in my book on atheism[18], as well as being a legitimate path followed by the Holy Quran when he called to think about the creation of man and the creation of animals and camels and horses and mules and donkeys, and even in the creation of flies and mosquitoes! Therefore, we find that Dr. "Amr Sharif" - with great admiration for the thesis of the Biologos of Collins and his support for it and citing its vocabulary - demonstrates the determination and complexity in living organisms on the necessity of the Creator blessed and Almighty, and uses theses strongly denounced by Collins; such as specialized complexity and irreducible complexity, and even defends the principle of intelligent design against its deniers.[19] Added to this is the fact that the claim that God does not intervene in the universe or the world created already directly strongly contradicts our belief in God, and in his qualities of superiority, "God is the Creator of all things and is the agent of all things" [20], we do not believe that God is far from the management of the world and then at certain times "interferes" with the correction and direct modification of the course of events!! But God manages the affairs of the universe through cosmic laws and natural material causes, so that it proceeds along the paths that God intended and decided upon in His eternal knowledge, and this does not mean at all that He does not create the direct, abstract act of physical causes and cosmic laws, but sometimes does according to His will and wisdom, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Professor Rowan Williams, was deeply embarrassed when he claimed that God created the universe so that he would not interfere with his course! God is the Creator of all things, and He does not want to create anything, nor does He want to create everything. He creates through physical causes and natural cosmic years, sending clouds and rain and sowing crops and providing sustenance for humans, and nothing on earth or in the sky comes out of His creation and command. But the problem of Francis Collins is that he wants to create a new theology suited to modern Darwinism and compatible with the common origin through random mutations and natural selection, and this will only be by reducing God's creationism and divinity to be a God on the pattern of deism that does not care about the world and does not interfere with it, but leaves it to random development to work in and facilitate it. In addition, natural physical and chemical laws cannot explain the existence of the genetic code with its rich information content, nor can they explain the emergence of complex biological devices and machines either at the level of the cell or at the level of the tissues and organs of the organism. The fixed laws of the world may actually lead to order and regularity, but these laws do not explain the existence of complex systems that contain informational codes such as genetic tape, it is possible to actually line up the letters next to each other based on a certain mathematical sequence, but these letters can not put us a romance novel in which the hero took the feelings of the readers and the charm of their minds, and can not put in the same way a computer program to run and guide the spaceships and also can not create us. The fact is that the sequences of nucleotides in the genetic strip are not deaf sequences, but are informational code rich in orders, directives and signals, but it is a complete language (or languages) that is translated through very precise mechanisms to what we see in the functions of the living cell, this information can not come into existence by chance or simply the effectiveness of the deaf laws, but must have a direct creator! This is the difference between the regularity of sea waves and desert sands and the genetic code; the order is primarily the result of the effectiveness of irrational natural laws, and the complexity of the genetic code is the result of the wealth of information it contains. This is why the first examples do not contain information, while the second examples (genetic codes, books, and computer programs) contain information; for this reason, there must be a direct creator of living things who creates beyond the effectiveness of the physical laws of the blind. Bad Design and Scrap DNA: Francis Collins argues that the design of many human organs shows that man did not create a wise, knowing God. Eye design is not ideal because light receptors are located in the lower layer, and therefore light passes on the nerves and blood vessels before reaching them. Also, the design of the spine is not ideal for standing upright humans, as well as wisdom teeth and appendix. He also spoke of false genes and worthless genetic material and their similarity between humans and other mammals as evidence of randomness of evolution, and that this cannot happen if man is a direct creature of the wise God![24] He followed this path of Dr. "Amr Sharif"[25] and even agreed in the expressions of "Collins" of the direct creationists that they interpret the scientific evidence on evolution to mean that God deceives us to test the intensity of our faith.[26] As well as the use of the same logic by Dr. Amr Sharif in the context of his response to opponents of the theory of evolution, saying: "What many creationists say is that the Creator deliberately deceives us into thinking that evolution has happened to test our faith! [Confirmation from the author]" Here we are not interested in answering these problems posed by Collins and pursued on some of them by Dr. "Amr Sharif", where the researcher "Kissy Leskin" answered them from a purely scientific point of view in an entire chapter of the book (Science and the origin of man). But this argument leads us to a serious question: If living things do not indicate that they created a powerful and wise God, who created them? It appears from Collins' words and inferences that he means that living things are not the direct creation of God, but are the product of blind nature and random evolution, and therefore the new theology invented by Collins makes in the world two gods: a wise God who knows the creation of the moment of the big bang and adjust its settings, and a foolish God who created all but the world. This is the logical conclusion expected from the belief in the correctness of the theory of evolution Darwinism in all its corners; where God becomes - hallelujah - did not create anything really but the big bang and the spiritual puff of man descending from the great apes! And one wonders in confusion: How would we know that God existed before the appearance of the theory of the big bang and the discovery of the laws of modern physics? Did the revelation deceive us to test our faith, as Collins claims in the case of the biblical creationists? Or did Collins' whole thesis never stand up to nature, reason, or house revelation? Rather, did Collins, a follower of the evangelical church, believe that God broke the laws of the universe, broke the sea for Moses, made Mary put Jesus without a father, and performed the miracles mentioned in the books of the People of the Book? How is this absurd and random perception of creation consistent with what we read in the Qur’an from the call to reflect on the verses of Allah, in creating everything we see around us from birds, trees, animals, even ants and bees? Allah says: “We will show them our verses in the horizons and in themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth.” He says, “And in your creation and in that which is spread by beasts are signs for a people who are certain.” “And it is He who sends down water from the sky, and We bring forth with it the vegetation of all things, and We bring forth from it vegetables, from which We bring forth overgrown love, and from palm trees, from which springs are vineyards, and gardens of grapes, olives, and pomegranates, suspecting and dissimilar. They all believe in the signs and wonders of God. Abu Ja’far al-Tabari (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “In the sending down of Allah from the sky is the water with which He has brought forth the vegetation of all things, and the greens from which He has brought forth the overflowing love.” You know that He has a plan, and there is none like Him except Him, and there is evidence in it for a people who believe. He says, “For a people who believe in the Oneness of Allah and His power over what He wills, and only those who believe, because they are the ones who benefit from the arguments of Allah and those who believe in them, without the one who has Allah’s stamp on his heart, and he does not know any falsehood, nor does he show any guidance from error.” But Collins sees that it is not a sign of God, but rather a product of random mutations and natural selection, and does not indicate the existence of God or his qualities, so does God in the Qur'an deliberately deceive us when he deduces these verses or is the theology of the pilojus preached by Collins does not stand in line with the revelations, as well as nature, reason and sense, which has been revealed to us and can never be reconciled. For this contrary proposition of common sense, Dr. Amr Sharif, with his approval of Collins in part in relation to human DNA, refers to the design around us as proof of the existence of God.[31] He defends the integrity of eye design, that he is not a minor as Collins claimed.[32] He defends the concept of irreducible complexity, which Michael Behe has developed against Collins' objections.[32] The other problem with DNA, which Darwinists claim is jobless, is shared by evolutionists like Collins[34] and pursued by Dr. Amr Sharif[35] who, despite its apparent appeal, fails to distinguish between two things: that something is jobless and useless, and that it is of unknown function and utility to us. The scientific conceit may show us that we know everything and make judgments on large pieces of DNA, about 98% of which are jobless, useless junk. We seek to explain the existence of this useless DNA as the product of random Darwinian evolution, and then when science and scientists begin to discover the functions of this DNA slowly, the Darwinian explanation slowly declines, and then the Darwinian explanation is completely ignorant, so the Darwinian explanation is really only an attempt to fill the gaps of knowledge. While Francis Collins, Dr. Amr Sharif, and the Darwinists all claim that DNA is useless, they are in fact building their inferences on ignorance. The more and more we learn about DNA, the more we discover the functions of these parts of DNA, the less ignorance is established to construct this Darwinian inference. More interestingly, Dr. Amr Sharif, having inferred the functionally inoperable similarity of DNA between man and mouse as Collins did to prove shared ancestry to be a biological fact,[36] returned in the same book to say of intelligent designists: “They saw that it was impossible for the intelligent designer to have done this tampering and misuse, and that he had placed these vast and unnecessary amounts of living matter inside the cell. This was already proven, as it turned out that the DNA that was named careless or fallen had a vital function without which no life could exist [author’s assertion].”[37] Does it have a function, as the intelligent design theorists say we do, or is it without function, as Collins says, so that his reasoning can be straight in proving the common origin? Excess Hypothesis: Collins answers one of the objections against the concept of pilojus that it creates a contradiction between the concept of a wise and merciful God and creation dominated by randomness, chaos and the struggle for survival, saying: "Evolution may seem to us to be driven by chance, but on God's side the final results are predetermined, God may be fully involved in the creation of all living species, while from our limited perspective the influence of linear time seems to be a random and undirected process!" But we really didn’t know what Collins’ answer would be to the existence of bad design in the human body and junk DNA is useless, is God the one who created it? I was very much looking forward to Collins answering those questions. Then why do we need to assume that there is a God in the first place? Does not Darwinian evolution by random mutations and natural selection explain all forms of life on Earth? Then the emergence of the universe can be explained by atheism with theories such as multiverses or pure chance? Then why do we find ourselves forced to assume that there is a God with the pilogos theology preached by Francis Collins? Is it not contrary to common sense to assume that there is a wise God who knows? Does the existence of God explain the existence of the universe and the creatures in it? Does the title of the book (the language of God; a scientist who provides proof of faith), means that its author provides us with scientific evidence of the existence of God? Unfortunately, Collins answers us with the negative, science does not indicate God, "Biologos is not intended to be a scientific theory, and our existence can be explained only by the spiritual logic of the heart, mind and soul."[40] This is taking into account that the scope of experimental material science in its current form does not include the existence of God and other mysteries as subjects subject to science, but we infer the data of science or scientific discoveries on the existence of God do not claim that we have made the issue of the existence of God subject to a scientific microscope or telescope or radiation detection device! We mean that these scientific data are in fact introductions that lead us through sound mental inference to the existence of God, science! Is there anything worse than being told that knowledge does not lead to faith, and that the verses of Allah are not evidence of it, and that it is not possible to know the existence of Allah by looking at them and thinking about them? [1] President Clinton Announces the Completion of the First Survey of the Entire Human Genome,” White House Press Release (June 25, 2000) last accessed July 16, 2015. http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/clinton1.shtml. [2] Francis S. Collins, The Language of God – A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Free Press, New York London Toronto Sydney, July 7 2006, pp. 21−22. [3] Ibid., p. 25. [4] Ibid., pp. 62−63. [5] Ibid., p. 67. [6] Ibid., p. 72. [7] Ibid., p. 74. [8] Ibid., pp. 85−86. [9] Ibid., p. 106. [10] Ibid., pp. 92−93. [11] Ibid., pp. 74−78. [12] Ibid., p. 67. [13] Youtube: The Root of All Evil? − "The Virus of Faith" at 40:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMUG6qd98wc [14] Collins, p. 200. [15] Dr. Amr Sharif, "The Myth of Atheism", p232. [16] Collins, pp. 92−93. [17] Ibid., pp. 193−194. [18] Hisham Azmi, “Atheism for Beginners,” Brahin Center 2015. [19] See the book "How the Creation Began", "The Delusion of Atheism", and "The Myth of Atheism". [20] Recipients: 62. [21] YouTube: Darwin's Genius (Theory of Evolution) Third and final episode in the 30th minute at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXC2CPO1pW0. [22] Custom: 54. [23] Collins, p. 191. [24] Ibid., pp. 124, 126, 130−138. [25] Dr. Amr Sharif, "How Creation Started," p. [26] Collins, p. 176−179. [27] Dr. Amr Sharif, "How Creation Started", p 290. [28] Written by Anne Gouger, Douglas Axe and Casey Leskin, translated by D. Momin El Hassan and D. Moses Idris, Brahin Center, 1st edition December 2014, chapter (DNA Scrap and chromosomal fusion and Francis Collins) pp. 98 115. [29] Sura Al-Jathiya: 4. [30] Sura al-An'am: 99. [31] Dr. Amr Sharif, "How Creation Started," pp. 218. [32] Ibid., pp. 230 232. [33] Ibid., pp. 225 230. [34] Collins, pp. 126−138. [35] Dr. Amr Sharif, "How Creation Started," pp. 289 290. [36] Ibid., pp. 289 290. [37] Ibid., pp. 254. [38] See article (Cognitive Contradiction). [39] Collins, p. 205. [40] Ibid., p. 204. [41] Ibid., p. 165. - Dr. Hisham Azmi — Source: Brahin Center website - Published 2019-07-07 (archived at the Internet Archive) https://braheen.com/articles/evolution-design/فرانسيس-كولينز-والفرضية-الزائدة