Vatican Astronomer Maintains Christianity is Not Adverse to Science

by Kenneson 18 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Kenneson

  Is Christianity anti-science? Are Christianity and science compatible? The following are the thoughts of Brother Guy Consolmagno, curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory; in a recent interview, he made some interesting observations I was unaware of. He states: "The whole scientific enterprise really does coincide well with Christian theology. The whole idea that the universe is worth studying is a Christian idea. The whole mechanism for studying the physical universe comes straight out of the whole logic of the scholastic age. Who was the first geologist? Albert the Great, who was a monk. Who was the first Chemist? Roger Bacon, who was a monk. Who was the first guy to come up with spectroscopy? Angelo Secchi, who was a priest. Who was the guy who invented genetics? Gregor Mendel, who was a monk. Who was the guy that came up with the Big Bang theory? Georges Lemaitre, who was a priest. There is this long tradition; most scientists before the nineteenth century were clerics. Who else had the free time to gather leads and measure star positions?"

  He also discusses the case of Galileo, wherein the Church admitted its error.

  One of his three comments on extraterrestials made me chuckle: "A third scenario: we find a dozen civilizations out there, and a bunch of Jehovah's witnesses go up and convert them all. At the end of the day, every civilization is Christian, except the human race is not too sure about this. I mean anything's possible."

  See

  http://www.astrobio.net/news/article966.html

  An article by the same brother entitled "Would you baptize an extraterrestial? A Jesuit priest says the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe would pose no problem for religion" is also an interesting read.

  http://www.beliefnet.com/story/35/story_3519_1.html
• 

  Elmer J. Fudd

  Dubs in space. I would venture to say "New Light " would come out on this one!

  LOL

  Elmer
• 

  frankiespeakin

  What a bunch of bull crap.

  The church has hindered science for centuries,,and now they are trying to give it a good spin to keep themselves from looking totally stupid.
• 

  Kenneson

  Frankie,

  He offered proof of where the church contributed to science. Now where is yours that it hindered it?
• 

  frankiespeakin

  I don't have to offer proof when it comon knowledge. Do you want me too offer proof that the sun will come up in the east tomorrow too?
• 

  True North

  Thanks for the links -- very interesting.

  You might also like to check out this online article: "Evolution: What the Pope Said". Apparently, at least since a 1950 encyclical from Pope Pius XII, the official position of the Catholic Church is that there is no inherent contradiction between the theory of evolution and Christianity so long as certain core beliefs -- such as the direct creation of the soul and original sin -- are accomodated. Here's a good quote from the article:

  The Church has had a provisional finding since 1950 that the idea that God used intermediate living forms to produce the body of the first man can be reconciled with the deposit of faith, but that it must still be acknowledged that the soul is created immediately by God from nothing. The evolutionary hypothesis still must stand or fail on the scientific evidence for it, and nobody is a bad or a good Catholic based on whether they accept or reject it, for the Church does not teach matters of science as if they were matters of faith.

  I also found Kenneth R. Miller's book Finding Darwin's God to be very helpful. As I mentioned a while back on another thread, "Mr. Miller is both a professor of biology at Brown University and a practicing, believing Christian (Catholic it would seem). He has often publicly debated professional creationists -- whom he finds in varying proportions ill-informed, illogical, and sometimes dishonest -- and in the first part of his book, he addresses the arguments of various strains of anti-evolution creationists. In the latter part, he presents his attempt at reconciling evolution with Chrisitanity, free will, etc. Very interesting, very good stuff."
• 

  Kenneson

  Frankie,

  Check out the following site:

  http://www.grisda.org/bclausen/papers/aid.htm
• 

  frankiespeakin

  Ken,
  

  Just because some scientists are christian is hardly a good reason to try to pass off Christianity as promoting science. If 1/3 of the world is christian than reasonably 1/3 of the scientist should be,,what's the big deal,,even,, if less than 1/3 of scientists are christian then the influence of christianity is prolly negative,,sheesh. Give me a break.
• 

  Kenneson

  Frankie,

  If Christianity is so opposed to science as you maintain, don't you find it strange that any scientists are Christian at all?
• 

  frankiespeakin

  Ken,

  So what's yopur point? According to your line of reasoning:

  If Christianity is so opposed to science as you maintain, don't you find it strange that any scientists are Christian at all?

  So then if you only have just one scientist that is a christian that's proof enough that the christianity supports science. According to the above reasoning.