{"id":44153,"date":"2011-04-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/"},"modified":"2011-04-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T00:00:00","slug":"christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Scientist Francis Collins Befriends Atheist Christopher Hitchens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t<em class=\"citation\">The Telegraph<\/em>, a newspaper based in Great Britain, reported on an unlikely bond of friendship and trust between two very different people: Francis Collins, a Christian scientist, and Christopher Hitchens, perhaps the world&#39;s most famous atheist. Their popular book titles reveal their profound differences: Collins wrote <em class=\"citation\">The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief<\/em>; Hitchens wrote <em class=\"citation\">God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<p>Even so, a March 2011 newspaper headline announced, &quot;Atheist Christopher Hitchens could be &#39;saved&#39; by evangelical Christian.&quot; The article went on to report, &quot;The two had often met in the past as adversaries in the debate about whether God exists. Against the odds they [have] become friends.&quot; This improbable friendship started because Hitchens, a cancer patient, became part of an experimental treatment program that involves genome sequencing. Doctors plan to map Hitchens&#39; genetic makeup so they can target and treat his damaged DNA. It just so happens that this experimental treatment is being pioneered by Dr. Francis Collins.<\/p>\n\n<p>Hitchens has spent years blasting religious faith and religious believers. In his book <em class=\"citation\">There Is No God<\/em>, he argues that &quot;Organized religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry &hellip;.&quot; But when asked about his friendship with Dr. Collins, Hitchens spoke with only respect and admiration. &quot;It&#39;s a rather wonderful relationship,&quot; he said, &quot;I won&#39;t say he doesn&#39;t pray for me, because I think he probably does; but he doesn&#39;t discuss it with me.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Editor&rsquo;s Update: Christopher Hitchens, died of esophageal cancer on December 15, 2011, at the age of 62.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3450,3726,3897,4021,4096,4736,4749,5284],"tax_ctp_topics":[384],"class_list":["post-44153","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-friendship","tax_ctp_tags-great-commission","tax_ctp_tags-providence","tax_ctp_tags-pursuing-sinners","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian Scientist Francis Collins Befriends Atheist Christopher Hitchens - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Scientist Francis Collins Befriends Atheist Christopher Hitchens - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Telegraph, a newspaper based in Great Britain, reported on an unlikely bond of friendship and trust between two very different people: Francis Collins, a Christian scientist, and Christopher Hitchens, perhaps the world&#039;s most famous atheist. Their popular book titles reveal their profound differences: Collins wrote The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/\",\"name\":\"Christian Scientist Francis Collins Befriends Atheist Christopher Hitchens - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-25T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-04-25T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Christian Scientist Francis Collins Befriends Atheist Christopher Hitchens\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian Scientist Francis Collins Befriends Atheist Christopher Hitchens - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christian-scientist-francis-collins-befriends-atheist-chris\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christian Scientist Francis Collins Befriends Atheist Christopher Hitchens - CT Pastors","og_description":"The Telegraph, a newspaper based in Great Britain, reported on an unlikely bond of friendship and trust between two very different people: Francis Collins, a Christian scientist, and Christopher Hitchens, perhaps the world&#39;s most famous atheist. 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