As many of you know by now, Sam Harris published an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times on July 26th expressing reservations about Francis Collins‘ nomination as director of the NIH based on Collins’ views on the relationship between science and his evangelical Christianity. Unsurprisingly, the piece was roundly criticized. In response, Harris has published a longer version of the op-ed piece together with responses to that criticism on the Reason Project website.

As I was reading it I thought that I might put together some of the more quotable moments from the (rather long) article but I soon gave up – there are quite simply too many quotable sentences. So you will have to read the whole thing for yourself (note: every last letter is well worth it).

I will say this, however. It seems that many of the critics of that original piece missed Harris’ main point and just thought that Harris was complaining that Collins is a Christian. In fact, Harris was worried that Collins might be unwilling to invest a lot of NIH money into fields of study that his religion tells him are fruitless. This point is further elaborated and strengthened in the longer article, from which I will quote:

Most religions…assert that human beings possess a unique form of subjectivity that has no homolog among lower animals. Indeed, Collins asserts this. He claims that the human mind cannot be the product of the human brain or the human brain the product of unguided evolution: rather, at some glorious moment in the development of our species God inserted crucial components—including an immortal soul, free will, the moral law, spiritual hunger, genuine altruism, etc. This claim makes a mockery of whole fields of study—neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, behavioral economics, among others—and, if taken seriously, would obliterate our growing understanding of the human mind.

(http://www.reasonproject.org/archive/item/the_strange_case_of_francis_collins2/)

NOTE: If any of the above links to Harris’ longer version do not work, then try this one:

(http://www.reasonproject.org/archive/item/the_strange_case_of_francis_collins/)