God and Fluffy Bunnies Come to the NIH

Photo by TheTim

Oh goody, look who our most science-y President Barack Obama has nominated to head the National Institutes of Health:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is choosing an influential scientist who helped unravel the human genetic code — and is known for finding common ground between belief in God and science — to head the National Institutes of Health.

Obama called Dr. Francis Collins "one of the top scientists in the world" in announcing his nomination Wednesday.

"His groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease," Obama said.

...

The folksy Collins led the Human Genome Project that, along with a competing private company, mapped the genetic code — or, as he famously called it, "the book of human life."

"It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God," he said at a 2000 White House ceremony marking release of the genome's first draft.

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NIH is familiar turf: Collins spent 15 years as the NIH's chief of genome research, before stepping down last year to, among other things, work with Obama's campaign. He also helped found the BioLogos Foundation, a Web site formed by a group of scientists who say they want to bridge gaps between science and religion

You know, *that* BioLogos Foundation:

Francis Collins and Karl Giberson, with funding from the Templeton Foundation (who else?), have put together a whole website full of fluffy bunnies and pious weasels to reconcile science and faith.