Man of Science, Man of Faith

“The Doctor’s Art” is a weekly podcast that explores what makes medicine meaningful, featuring profiles and stories from clinicians, patients, educators, leaders, and others working in healthcare. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, Stitcher, and Podchaser.

The Human Genome Project was a 13-year-long international effort to map and sequence all of the genes in the human genome.

Leading this ambitious endeavor was Francis Collins, MD, PhD, who was also director of the National Institutes of Health from 2009 to 2021. His work has had a far-reaching impact on our understanding of diseases and the development of new therapies. In addition to being one of the foremost physician-scientists of our time, Collins is also well known for his bold defense of his Christian faith and for his steadfast promotion of dialogue between science and religion. His book The Language of God was an international bestseller.

In this episode, Collins joins us to share his remarkable path in medicine, the origins and evolution of his faith, and his perspectives on the moral mission of medicine.

In this episode, you will hear about:

• 1:56 A close personal look at Collins’ career, leading to his directorship of the Human Genome Project
• 10:02 The mission and implications of the Human Genome Project
• 15:25 The cultural upheaval that has occurred during Collins’ lifetime and the way popular culture tends to pit science and faith against each other
• 24:47 The origin of BioLogos and its mission to foster a community that strives to harmonize science and Christian faith
• 28:26 A brief discussion of Intelligent Design, a movement that aims to prove the existence of God through science, and how it differs from BioLogos
• 32:42 Collins’ reflections on the reconciliation between his faith in God and the human suffering he has witnessed throughout his career
• 40:38 Advice on finding meaning and fulfillment in both life and work, as well as how community can help combat burnout

Following is a partial transcript (note errors are possible):

Bair: Hi. I’m Henry Bair.

Johnson: And I’m Tyler Johnson.

Bair: And you’re listening to The Doctor’s Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine. Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered what makes medicine meaningful. Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors? How can we build health care institutions that nurture the doctor patient connection? What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?

Johnson: In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across healthcare, from doctors and nurses to patients and healthcare executives — those who have collected a career’s worth of hard-earned wisdom, probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine. We will hear stories that are, by turns heartbreaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging and enlightening. We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do. Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us about some of life’s biggest questions.

Bair: The Human Genome Project was a 13-year-long international effort to map and sequence all of the genes in the human genome. It was one of the most ambitious and exciting scientific research endeavors in human history, with wide ranging implications on our understanding of diseases and the discovery of new therapies. Leading the project was Dr. Francis Collins, who was also a director of the National Institutes of Health from 2009 to 2021. In addition to being one of the foremost physician scientists of our time, Dr. Collins is also well known for his bold defense of his Christian faith and for his steadfast promotion of dialog on the relationship between science and religion. His book The Language of God was an international bestseller.

In this episode, Dr. Collins joins us to share his remarkable path in medicine, the origins and evolution of his faith and his perspectives on the moral mission of medicine.Francis, it’s truly an honor to have you with us today. Welcome to the show. You’ve had such a long, winding and incredibly accomplished career that our intro did absolutely no justice in explaining. I think it would be helpful in framing the rest of our conversation if you could trace your journey for our listeners. What have been the major way points along your trajectory throughout training and career?

Collins: Nobody could say it was a linear pathway. When I was in college at the University of Virginia, the only thing I was really interested in was science, and specifically the science of chemistry. I’d gotten excited about chemistry in high school from a very talented teacher, and I figured, okay, that’s it. That’s what I’m supposed to do. So I majored in chemistry, took every chemistry course I could and a lot of physics and a lot of math. I avoided humanities, because I thought they were squishy. And I avoided biology, because I thought it was messy. So I was rather narrow horizons at that point. And finishing my college degree figured, “Well, what do you do next? You go get a PhD. And guess what? Chemistry.” So I went off to Yale, and I was mostly interested in quantum mechanics and thermodynamics — the sort of mathematical side of chemistry and physics. And I enjoyed that for the first year or so. And then I began to sort of have this dawning feeling that maybe there were other things going on in science that were pretty interesting, but I had avoided them. And I took a course in biochemistry just to see what that was all about. And I was totally blown away, because I had this sense that biology was just going to be descriptive. There weren’t going to be any organizing principles. I just had to memorize a lot of stuff and there wasn’t going to be really interesting science to be done. And I discovered I was completely wrong about that.

For the full transcript, visit The Doctor’s Art.

If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in healthcare who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

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