Reactions to the nomination of Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health keep on coming. As we told you earlier this week, Sam Harris wrote an op-ed strongly criticizing the nomination. Ken Miller then wrote a letter in response. Now, biologist Francisco Ayala and Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, weigh in. It’s well worth reading the entire exchange, but below, some choice snippets.
Ayala writes:

Do I expect Collins to use his office as NIH director to promote religion? No. His past career—both scientific and administrative—justifies this expectation. Would I be concerned that a lapsed Catholic or a fully convinced atheist, if one were appointed NIH director, would use the office to promote atheism or attack religion? I wouldn’t, as long as their resumes would not show such transgressions in the past or give reason to anticipate them in the future.

Shermer counters:

The whole point of being an evangelical Christian is to love the Lord openly and try to bring to Christ as many people as possible; otherwise you wouldn’t be an evangelical. I know because I was once an evangelical Christian, having been born again in 1971 and for many years devoting my life to evangelizing for Christ, first to my fellow high school students, then as an undergraduate at Pepperdine University (a Church of Christ institution), and later going door-to-door. I was doing God’s work, and what could be more important than that?
In the evangelical worldview, there really is no separation of church and state. Yes, Jesus told us, in Matthew 22:21, to “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” but that applies to specific things such as taxes and tithings, not the general goal of bringing all Americans to the Lord. So I worry that Collins’ evangelical enthusiasm may blur the lines separating the profane and the sacred, church and state, Caesar and God.