The 2020 Templeton Prize Virtual Ceremony for Dr. Francis Collins (2020)

This isn't a movie like we normally review in this space. Rather, it's an 85-minute YouTube of the live 2020 Templeton Prize Virtual Ceremony for Dr. Francis Collins that took place last September at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. And let me be clear: I wish this video would be shown in every church in the country. Francis Collins has been a geneticist, a physician, the head of the Human Genome Project, and, since August 2009, the head of the National Institutes of Health, with its $42 billion budget and 6,000 research scientists. He's one of the country's most important public intellectuals, and an outspoken Christian (cf. his book The Language of God; A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief in God (New York: Free Press, 2006)). After a few remarks by the Templeton people, the video begins with an eight-minute biographical overview of Collins's remarkable life. Then, there are seven short pieces congratulating Collins: by Debra Haarsma (an astronomer who is the president of BioLogos, an institute founded by Collins and his wife to promote the harmony of science and religion); the New Testament scholar Tom Wright of Oxford; the operatic singer Renée Fleming; the primatologist Jane Goodall; the Surgeon General Jerome Adams; and then former presidents Bush and Obama. Upon receiving the award, Collins gives a 20-minute talk that challenges us to become "depolarizers" in our badly divided country. See here to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezVO7gLg8nw

Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net