Francis Collins, Director of National Human Genome Research Institute has just published a new book entitled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

The book was featured in an article in this week’s issue of Time Magazine entitled Reconciling God and Science. Collins, not only is a scientist but is a Christian who takes aim in his book at not only the atheist scientists but the creationists and intelligent designers.

This new book brought to mind three other books that have attempted to deal with questions involving God and science. Here they are. If you haven’t read them, I do recommend them.

The first is Dr. Tim Johnson’s book (2004), Finding God in the Questions. Johnson, an MD and a faculty member at Harvard University, and medical advisor for ABC News, is also an ordained minister. In the first part of his book, Johnson explores the “evidence” from science to deal with questions about God’s existence, the existence of the universe, and why we are here, and who we are.

The second book is Kenneth Miller’s book, Finding Darwin’s God. On his webpage, Miller says: “Finding Darwin’s God, “A scientist’s search for common ground between God and evolution,” is a book in which I analyze the religious implications of evolution. If you are interested in such questions, I think you will find it interesting, especially in light of the continuing “evolution – creation” controversies around the country.”

The third book is Stephen Jay Gould’s Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life. Gould’s approach is to accord each, science and religion dignity and distinction in each realm.

The books, taken together, would give high school students and science teachers a good foundation for a unit of teaching on the “nature of science.” Perhaps integrated with a literature or social studies educator, it could provide the basis for an interesting course or unit.