Dr. Francis Collins was a bold atheist. He said, “I would have challenged anybody who wanted to have some discussion about God. I would have asserted they were basically stuck in some past era of supernaturalism that is no longer necessary because science has eliminated the need for it.”
Then something changed.
He watched people caught in the grip of serious illness. He noticed they had peace and joy, even though it would terrify him.
“I had never really gone beyond the most superficial consideration of whether God exists or a serious consideration about what happens after you die,” commented Collins.
Then, a patient suffering from an incurable illness drove the point home.
She told him, “I have talked to you about my faith, and you listened but never said anything. What do you believe?”
Collins said it was like getting hit by lightning. It was the most crucial question anyone had ever asked him.
He struggled, and then a man introduced him to C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. In the end, he found an answer.
“I realized … that most of my objections against faith were utterly simplistic. Here was an Oxford intellectual giant who had traveled the same path from atheism to faith, and had a way of describing why that made sense that was utterly disarming. It was also very upsetting. It was not the answer I was looking for.”
Every person must ask the question, which today is even more relevant. What do I believe and what happens if I die? It’s not an idle question.
It is in the eternal questions of life and death that the correct question forms. What am I living my life for?
After asking the questions of himself, Collins came to faith at the age of 27.
What do you believe?
-Robert G. Taylor-
