Life with Lindsey

God and the Genome

February 11th, 2008

That’s me above with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project and devout Christian. Chi Alpha co-sponsored a lecture and q&a session on campus with Dr. Collins last week. The event, entitled God and the Genome, was intended to encourage students that science and faith are not in opposition and it created a lot of interest on campus. We had between 2000-2300 in attendance. We had so many show up, in fact, that we had to create 5 overflow rooms with streaming video on the fly. You can watch his presentation below.

Since then, we’ve been involved in faciliating discussion groups on the topics Dr. Collins addressed and encouraging our students to follow up with their friends as well.  As part of the event, we gave away 500 copies of the C.S. Lewis book “Mere Christianity” and it’s been interesting hearing students report on the conversations that the lecture, the q&a, and the book are bringing up with their friends on campus.

Tomorrow Chi Alpha is serving at New Creation Homes, a neat local ministry which provides assistance to unwed mothers and victims of domestic violence.  We’ll be making dinner, serving it to the gals and their children and providing childcare while they attend a parenting class.  Tonight, though, I’m headed back to campus for gal’s Bible study, we’re looking at the book of 1 John this quarter.  I leave you with one of my favorite passages from the book, from chapter 3, which we’ll be discussing together tonight.  It’s a big part of why we think serving others is so important:

16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Entry Filed under: Personal News