Personal accounts Archives - Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Finding God in the Cosmos: An Interview with a Vatican Astronomer

Article 1700 words General Audiences A 2018 interview of Vatican Observatory astronomer David Brown, S.J., by Sean Salai, S.J., for America: The Jesuit Review. Salai writes: David Brown, S.J., is a Vatican astronomer specializing in stellar evolution and a native of New Orleans who joined the Society of Jesus in 1991 after earning his B.S. in physics at Texas A&M University. Ordained a priest in 2002, Father Brown completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Oxford in England in 2008. Father Brown joined the Vatican Observatory in November 2008, working as a research astronomer and serving as caretaker of the telescopes in Castel Gandolfo. He is a member since 2009 of the American Astronomical Society and since 2012 of the International Astronomical Union. On Oct. 2, I interviewed him at Rockhurst High School during a lecture stop in Kansas City. The focus of the interview is the overlap between Fr. Brown’s vocation as a Jesuit and his work … Continue reading →

Catholic physicist says harmony of faith, science is seamless, not effortless

Article 1000 words General Audiences This 2018 article on CatholicPhilly.com features Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist and physicist at Cornell University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a convert to Catholicism. Lunine has worked on the Cassini mission to Saturn, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Juno mission to Jupiter. The article also touches on the Vatican Observatory and the Society of Catholic Scientists, both of which Lupine has been involved with. Click here to access this article courtesy of CatholicPhilly.com. … Continue reading →

A Quaker Astronomer Reflects

Book 48 pages General audiences Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s A Quaker Astronomer Reflects: Can a Scientist also be Religious?, was published in 2013 by The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia. It is a short overview of what is known in astronomy, with comments relating to religious belief. This small book grew from a lecture she gave in Australia. Click here for a PDF copy of A Quaker Astronomer Reflects, courtesy of Quakers Australia. Click here for a preview, courtesy of Google Books. Burnell is an accomplished astronomer, now retired, who has served as President of the Royal Society and President of the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom. She is perhaps best known for her role in the discovery of pulsars in 1967. She has also held leadership positions in the Quaker denomination, and in this book she touches on worship, Bible study, and St. Theresa of Avila as well as astronomy. Her theology is unorthodox, as she in … Continue reading →

Ciencia, razón y fe: Un reto de nuestro tiempo

Article 700 words General audiences In this short 2012 article author José Manuel Giménez Amaya argues that three things are changing the relationship between science and religion. These are 1) the last two pontificates of the Catholic Church in which much emphasis has been placed on the rationality of the faith and on the question of the knowledge of the truth 2) social problems produced from the experimental sciences 3) a desire for an interdisciplinary unity of knowledge. Giménez Amaya writes: En este diálogo la cuestión de fondo es el conocimiento de la verdad. Fe y ciencia no se oponen sino que se complementan para llegar a la verdad. Es este uno de los puntos nucleares del mensaje del Papa actual: el convencimiento de que todo lo que realmente es racional es compatible con la fe revelada por Dios y con las Sagradas Escrituras. Click here to access this article, courtesy of the Grupo Ciencia, Razón y Fe at Universidad … Continue reading →

Semblanza de Michael Heller (Premio Templeton 2008)

Article 1100 words General audiences A brief discussion by Javier Sánchez Cañizares regarding the life and work of Fr. Michael Heller (Fr. Heller is an adjunct scholar with the Vatican Observatory), on the occasion of Fr. Heller being awarded the 2008 Templeton Prize. Javier Sánchez Cañizares is part of the Grupo Ciencia, Razón y Fe at Universidad de Navarra. He writes: A partir de la supremacía de una superestructura matemática ideal (un campo formal o campo de ‘racionalidad’) sobre la materia, su pensamiento conduce a la idea tradicional de un Dios trascendente que, por otra parte, es el origen creador, el fundamento del ser, del que surge el espacio-tiempo del mundo creado. Heller explica su posición así en la conferencia de recepción del premio: “Los procesos del universo pueden ser visualizados como una sucesión de estados de modo que el estado precedente es causa del siguiente (…). Hay siempre una ley dinámica que prescribe cómo un estado genera otro. Pero … Continue reading →

Physics Today: Thinking differently about science and religion

Article (Letter to Editor) and Responses 9 pages (total) General audiences In February 2018 the journal Physics Today published a letter by Tom McLeish, Professor of Physics at Durham University, chair of the Royal Society’s education committee, and author of the book Faith and Wisdom in Science (Oxford University Press, 2014). The following June Physics Today published a number of responses to McLeish’s letter, along with additional remarks from McLeish. McLeish writes: Driving an unhistorical and unrealistic wedge between science and religion has got to stop. It leads, in part, to the optionalism that we see in some public and political attitudes toward science, from climate change to vaccination. It damages the educational experience of our children, and it impoverishes our understanding of our own science’s historical context. Human beings live not only in a physical world but within historical narratives that give us values, purpose, and identity. Science sits on the branches and draws from the sap of many … Continue reading →

Father George Coyne Interviewed by Richard Dawkins

Video Approximately 1 hour General audiences This is uncut footage of a 2008 interview by Richard Dawkins with Father George Coyne, S. J., who was Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 through 2006. The interview was recorded for Dawkins’ television program “The Genius of Charles Darwin” for Channel 4 in the UK, but was not used. … Continue reading →

Francis Collins on God

Video 20 minutes General audiences Physician and scientist Francis Collins, who completed the first map of the human genetic code in 2000, shares his new book, “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” From the Charlie Rose show of Tuesday 07/25/2006. Collins discusses C. S. Lewis and his insights on God, among other things Click here for the interview on video, along with a transcript. Below is an excerpt from the transcript of the interview. 00:34 Charlie Rose: Why did you write this book? 00:37 Francis Collins: I’ve been trying to write this book for about 25 years, since I became a believer. And I was not raised in a faith tradition, so this is something that occurred to me in my 20s. 00:46 Charlie Rose: Your parents were not believers? 00:49 Francis Collins: They were not. They were respectful of religious perspectives, but they did not themselves share those perspectives, so I was raised in a … Continue reading →

The Scientism Delusion? Ian Hutchinson Explores Science and Faith at Emory University

Video 45 minute talk (+ 45 minutes of questions and answers) General audiences Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is a Veritas Forum talk Hutchinson gave at Emory University. From the Veritas Forum: Since its beginning, science has demonstrated its uncapped ability to uncover and explain our universe… or has it? MIT Professor and Christian Ian Hutchinson argues that the fairly recent view that science can explain everything, or scientism, makes unrealistic promises of the scientific method. Instead, Hutchinson opens up a world in which multiple ways of knowing, including science, are equally legitimate. Among them, Hutchinson argues, is faith. Join Dr. Hutchinson and the Emory audience for a discussion about science, faith, and how we come to know the world. Over the past two decades, The Veritas Forum has been hosting vibrant discussions on life’s … Continue reading →

Hunting for Supernova: Why is Humanity Wired to Explore?

Article (blog post) 1100 words General audiences Fr. James Kurzynski writes on The Catholic Astronomer blog about his participation as an amateur astronomer in “citizen science”, and his hopes of discovering a supernova in another galaxy. Fr. Kurzynski writes: I would invite you to prayerfully reflect upon this question: What are the things God has inspired you to explore? Whether your desire is to understand the world we live in and/or explore questions of meaning and purpose, realize that both types of questions ultimately point to a common origin. Our exploration of this world and our lives prepares us for life’s final exploration in which we will pass through the womb of death from this life to the next. It is through this journey that we will discover the answer to one of the most fundamental questions of life: Who am I in God’s eyes? May all of us discover today the beginnings of the answer to this question that affirms that all of … Continue reading →

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