On Nov. 5, 2006, Time Magazine published a cover story on the “God vs. Science” debate featuring two prominent scientists, Francis Collins and Richard Dawkins. In the coming month, this debate will be reenacted at Stanford.

Collins is a renowned geneticist famed for heading the 1993-2000 Human Genome Project that resulted in mapping a successful blueprint of human DNA. Aside from his scientific endeavors, however, Collins is also recognized as a religious man. Last night, he delivered a lecture in Memorial Auditorium to a packed audience, discussing his personal confidence in the compatibility of science and faith.

The rebuttal to Collins’ speech will be delivered by his long-time opponent in the faith versus science debate and fellow renowned geneticist, Richard Dawkins. Dawkins will be speaking as part of the Aurora Forum lecture series at Stanford on March 9.

Collins’ speech titled “The Language of God: A Scientist-Believer Looks at the Human Genome” focused on the question: are science and faith compatible? Collins certainly believes so; he utilized both his personal experience with faith and logical evidence to support his theory that God exists.

To begin, Collins recounted his background in science and his initial skepticism regarding faith.

“I wasn’t exposed to faith very much,” Collins said. “As a physics and science person, faith just didn’t seem very plausible to me.”

Collins’ personal revelation in faith occurred during a medical internship.

“As I sat at the bedside of an elderly woman with severe heart failure, she decided to tell me all about her faith and the strength it gave her,” Collins said. “Then she turned to me and asked, ‘What do you believe in?’”

“Her question made me extremely uncomfortable,” Collins continued. “And I realized that as a scientist, I had done something very illogical: I had written off faith without looking at the evidence.”

After reading C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity” — which was distributed free of charge after the lecture — Collins eventually embarked on a spiritual journey that led him to Christianity.

“As I explored faith more and more, I realized that naturalism has limits to understanding the natural world,” Collins said. “There are some questions that cannot be answered by science.”

Collins further explored ideas such as the concept of the Big Bang, the precise tuning of physical constants in the universe and the Moral Law present largely only in human beings to explain aspects of nature that justify God’s existence.

“There are a few constants, such as the gravitational force, that, if changed by even a little, would not allow this present universe to exist,” he said. “It is nearly impossible that nature could have reached these constants on its own.”

Collins ultimately proposed an alternative solution in the science versus faith debate: the idea of “Theistic Evolution,” which rests on the principle that an all-powerful God created the mechanism of evolution to spur diversity and advancement of humanity.

While Collins’ speech addressed many areas of the faith versus science debate, not all audience members found his arguments compelling or logical.

“I found some things that he said doubtful,” said Neil Gupta, a graduate student in electrical engineering. “For example, I just don’t buy the idea that only humans have Moral Law, or that our evolution has slowed. Evolution is just evolving.”

However, to some conflicted science students, Collins’ speech was enlightening and thoughtful.

“Personally, as a Christian, I’m dealing with these questions of faith,” said Dan Tucker ‘09. “It’s encouraging that he could resolve the religion versus science conflict in a logical and coherent way.”