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Thoughts on "For N.I.H. Chief, Issues of Identity and Culture”

Dr. Francis S. Collin’s is quite the interesting character. A man who rides a Harley and plays guitar with rock stars is not someone who you would expect to become the new director of the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.). Culture’s image of a “scientist” and a “biker/rockstar” are quite different. And yet, Dr. Collins is also a firm believer in God: “Dr. Collins believes in him. Passionately. And he preaches about his belief in churches and a best-selling book.” To me it is an interesting lifestyle but to many scientists this conflicts with his work. Eventually he will have to choose between his job and his faith.

Dr. Collin’s claims that faith and science do not conflict significantly. The director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Irving L. Weissman, was concerned that faith and science would conflict. “Dr. Collins promised in a phone call not to let faith interfere with scientific judgment. But Dr. Weissman said that when therapeutic cloning proved successful, as he predicted it would, Dr. Collins would face a conflict between his job and his faith.” I think that those with different views than Dr. Collins would have difficulty understanding why his work would be purely scientific. Typically speaking, culture labels scientists to not be involved with faith. That is just what Dr. Collins has done when he is at work but he is still a follower of God. Collins does not want faith to be involved with his work for the N.I.H.

The way culture labels people or roles in society are not true to reality. Culture will always have views about how a person should be, but a person’s identity is always different. The article talks about some of the aspects of their unusual lifestyles, particularly the rides that various researchers take to work. This includes Dr. Collin’s Harley, Dr. Zerhouni’s Mercedes, and Dr. Varmus’s bicycle. These parts of their lifestyle do not particularly affect the work aspect of their lives. Dr. Collin’s would not be at the “chief” for N.I.H. unless he was trusted. He was given enormous responsible to handle the budget for N.I.H. The institute has a $30 billion annual budget that must be spent wisely. It is quite risky investing that much money in research. With that amount of money you can make progress but you can also lose a lot of money and time. Looking at Dr. Collin’s achievements it shows that science and faith are not conflicting. If they were, the N.I.H. would not have entrusted him with such a position.