Sam Harris had a good piece in the NY Times yesterday that discussed the unsettling tendency of Dr. Francis Collins, President Obama’s nominee as the next director of the National Institutes of Health, to try to reconcile science and religion.

Most scientists who study the human mind are convinced that minds are the products of brains, and brains are the products of evolution. Dr. Collins takes a different approach: he insists that at some moment in the development of our species God inserted crucial components — including an immortal soul, free will, the moral law, spiritual hunger, genuine altruism, etc.

As someone who believes that our understanding of human nature can be derived from neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science and behavioral economics, among others, I am troubled by Dr. Collins’s line of thinking. I also believe it would seriously undercut fields like neuroscience and our growing understanding of the human mind. If we must look to religion to explain our moral sense, what should we make of the deficits of moral reasoning associated with conditions like frontal lobe syndrome and psychopathy? Are these disorders best addressed by theology?

Speaking of Harris, his Reason Project is up and running now.  It’s certainly worth checking out, particularly for the more “rational” among us.  Hehe.