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The highly respected scientific journal Nature regularly publishes articles on the relationship between religion and science. An article published in 2004, for example, asserts that science and faith have collided with “explosive force” over the issues of “nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, cloning, creationism and genetic modification.” According to the authors of the article, stem cell research, in particular, has strained the relationship between faith and science because it involves a clash between the “religion-based belief in the sanctity of human life even . . . of an embryo,” and the “desire to alleviate suffering and cure disease” which are the aims of stem cell research. Dr. Francis Collins, a Christian scientist who heads up the National Human Genome Research Institute, is quoted as saying he is “intensely conflicted” about stem-cell research. This conflict between the “religion-based” value of embryonic life, and stem cell research which destroys human embryos, the article claims, lay behind the decision of President George W. Bush—who is himself an evangelical Christian—to forbid the use of federal funds to pay for any stem cell research that destroyed more embryos. (This Bush policy ended with President Barack Obama.) Not all scientists feel that religion and science are opposed. The National Academy of Sciences, the most distinguished group of scientists in the United States, declares on its website that “Scientists and theologians have written eloquently about their awe and wonder at the history of the universe and of life on this planet, explaining that they see no conflict between their faith in God and the evidence for evolution.” On the website of the BioLogos Foundation, Francis Collins (the Christian scientist quoted earlier) defends “the compatibility of Christian faith with what science has discovered about the origins of life and the universe.” Collins argues that many scientific findings, such as the Big Bang and the universal effectiveness of our mathematics, “point” to a God, and that scientific theories such as evolution can be reconciled with faith. Questions 1. Are there any aspects of science that make you more inclined to religious belief? Less inclined? 2. Should the sincere religious beliefs of those in public office (such as the president) influence policies regarding scientific research that they put in place? 3. Are the National Academy of Sciences and Dr. Dennis Collins right, or do some scientific theories contradict faith?