Many ancient cultures assumed that we humans and our universe happened by accident, an unintended offshoot of the activities of the gods. Instead, Genesis insists that the universe was made deliberately by God, who exists outside of nature (and thus is super-natural). What does this tell us about God and our relationship as creatures with our Creator?
Br. Guy Consolmagno at University of Illinois: The Unfinished Cosmos: Creation, God, and Hawking’s Grand Design
Video 97 minutes Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory delivered a lecture on “The Unfinished Cosmos: Creation, God, and Hawking’s Grand Design” at the University of Illinois on March 7th, 2013. The event was hosted by the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois.
Continue reading →Charles Darwin – The Role of a Hypothetical Creator is Compatible with the Evolution of the Biological Species
Article (book excerpt) 700 words Level: high school and above Charles Darwin argues that the idea of evolution is a more elegant explanation for the action of a Creator than the idea that each species was individually created as is. Darwin writes: It accords with what we know of the law impressed on matter by the Creator, that the creation and extinction of forms, like the birth and death of individuals should be the effect of secondary [laws] means. It is derogatory that the Creator of countless systems of worlds should have created each of the myriads of creeping parasites and [slimy] worms which have swarmed each day of life on land and water (on) [this] one globe. We cease being astonished, however much we may deplore, that a group of animals should have been directly created to lay their eggs in bowels and flesh of other,— that some organisms should delight in cruelty,—that animals should be led away by … Continue reading →
Cosmology, Evolution, and Christian Faith
The universe as we know it today through science is one way to derive analogical knowledge of God. For those who accept that modern science does say something to us about God, there is a challenge, an enriching challenge, to traditional beliefs about God.
Continue reading →Creation Reveals God’s Glory – St. John Paul II
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences Pope John Paul II in a March 1986 General Audience discusses creation and scriptural references to how creation proclaims the glory of God : A new dimension of God’s glory begins with the creation of the visible and invisible world. This glory is called “exterior” to distinguish it from the previous one. Sacred Scripture speaks of it in many passages and in different ways. Some examples will suffice. Psalm 19 proclaims: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork…. There is no speech, nor are there words whose sound is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Ps 19:1, 2, 4). The Book of Sirach states: “The sun looks down on everything with its light, and the work of the Lord is full of his glory” (42:16). The Book of Baruch has a very singular and evocative … Continue reading →
Emilie Du Châtelet on the existence of God
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). The second chapter of this textbook was addressed to the question of God’s existence. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Emilie Du Châtelet: Selected Philosophical and Scientific Writings
Book 424 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). This collection of her philosophical and scientific writings, edited by Judith P. Zinsser, includes translations of substantial portions of these works and others. Zinsser’s translation of Institutions contains all of the Preface (discussing, among other things, the utility of mathematics and the usefulness of experiments), all of the first chapter (discussing principles of knowledge and reasoning), all of the second chapter (which contains logical arguments for the existence of God and for determining the basics of God’s nature), as well as chapters on time, matter, motion, and force. Emilie Du Châtelet was a complex person—she sought education and access to the world of science at a time when women were largely … Continue reading →
Enrico Fermi – An Umbrian Farmer and the Religious Experience of a Starry Sky
Article excerpt 450 words Level: all audiences A short recollection by physicist Enrico Fermi. Fermi notes: A venerable Hebrew prophet some three thousand years ago decreed: “The Heavens declare the glory of God.” One of the most celebrated philosophers of modern times wrote: “Two things fill me with awe, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.” That Umbrian farmer did not even know how to read. But in his heart, safeguarded by an honest and hard-working life, there was a small corner in which the light of God descended with a power not much inferior to that of the prophets and perhaps greater than that of philosophers. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for Fermi’s discussion (English translation), from Inters.org. [Click here to … Continue reading →
Faith as Small as a Singularity? BOOM goes The Mustard Seed!
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “Though we rightly distance ourselves from certain false presumptions of the natural world held by our ancient brothers and sisters, the core narrative of an intimate connection with our faith and creation is still true.”
Continue reading →God is dead; long live the eternal God
Article (blog post) 1200 words Level: all audiences A post on The Catholic Astronomer blog by Vatican Observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., commenting on Stephen Hawking’s ideas regarding God: Hawking does us an important favor by eliminating [a certain] image of God. The “god” that Stephen Hawking doesn’t believe in is one I don’t believe in either. God is not a force to be invoked to swell a progress, start a scene or two, and fill the momentary gaps in our knowledge. God is the reason why existence itself exists. God is the reason why space and time and the laws of nature can be present for the forces to operate that Stephen Hawking is talking about. What’s more, I believe in such a God not because of the absence of any other explanation for the origin of the universe, but because of the person of Jesus Christ — in history, in scripture, and in my own personal … Continue reading →
God’s Chance Creation
Article 1700 words General audiences Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, writes: We can only come to know God by analogy. The universe as we know it today through science is one way to derive an analogical knowledge of God. For those who believe modern science does say something to us about God, it provides a challenge, an enriching challenge, to traditional beliefs about God. God in his infinite freedom continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity. God lets the world be what it will be in its continuous evolution. This article was originally published in The Tablet in 2005. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →God’s Planet
Book 192 pages Level: high school and above This short book was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. It is by Harvard astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich. From the publisher: With exoplanets being discovered daily, Earth is still the only planet we know of that is home to creatures who seek a coherent explanation for the structure, origins, and fate of the universe, and of humanity’s place within it. Today, science and religion are the two major cultural entities on our planet that share this goal of coherent understanding, though their interpretation of evidence differs dramatically. Many scientists look at the known universe and conclude we are here by chance. The renowned astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich looks at the same evidence—along with the fact that the universe is comprehensible to our minds—and sees it as proof for the planning and intentions of a Creator-God. He believes that the idea of a universe without God … Continue reading →
God’s Universe
Book 160 pages Level: high school and above A short book by Harvard University astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich, published in 2006 by Harvard University Press. Gingerich addresses whether “mediocrity” (the “Copernican Principle”) is a good idea, whether a scientist dare believe in design, and the idea of questions without answers (persuasion vs. proof in science). From the publisher: We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine? Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the … Continue reading →
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – The Ultimate Origin of Things
Article (book excerpt) 3800 words Level: high school and above Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is credited with the invention of the mathematics of Calculus. Isaac Newton is also so credited, but it is the notation and language of Leibniz that is used in modern calculus. Here Leibniz argues that reason points to the existence of a being outside the universe who governs it and built it: In addition to the world or aggregate of finite things, there is some unique Being who governs, not only like the soul in me, or rather like the Ego itself in my body, but in a much higher relation. For one Being dominating the universe not only rules the world but he creates and fashions it, is superior to the world, and, so to speak, extra mundane, and by this very fact is the ultimate reason of things. For the sufficient reason of existence can be found neither in any particular thing nor in the whole … Continue reading →
How to Search for the Truth
Article 800 words Level: all audiences An essay by George Washington Carver on science, nature, God, and truth. Carver interprets in a scientific sense the verse from John that reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Isaac Newton – God and the Universe in the ‘General Scholium’ of the Principia
Book chapter 5 pages Level: university Isaac Newton is arguably the most important scientist of all. His Principia Mathematica (written in Latin, and first published in 1687), in which he develops a physics of the solar system to compete with the “vortex theory” of René Descartes, is arguably his most important work, for it developed the physics still taught in classrooms and used in science and engineering today. Newton sees in this physics and in the solar system the action of God. Newton is often said to have written more about theology than about mathematics and physics, although his views on the nature of God were unorthodox and much of what he wrote regarding matters relating to religion was never published. From the ‘General Scholium’: This most beautiful System of the Sun, Planets, and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. And if the fixed Stars are the centers of other like systems, … Continue reading →
James Clerk Maxwell and the equations of light
Article 5000 words Level: university An article about physicist James Clerk Maxwell, by historian and philosopher of science Thomas Forsyth Torrance. Maxwell, a devout Christian, is one of the most important figures in the history of science. Students in physics courses everywhere study “Maxwell’s Equations” that mathematically describe electromagnetic waves. These waves include light, radio, x-rays, etc. They are how astronomers learn about the universe and they are the basis of all wireless communication technology, including smart phones. Torrance writes about Maxwell: [I]t is certainly clear that the kind of physical science which he advocated is much more congenial to Christian theology than that which developed when absolute notions of space and time were arbitrarily clamped down upon the empirical world and had the effect of reducing understanding of it to a hard and closed mechanistic system. For Clerk Maxwell himself rigorous scientific inquiry and simple devout Christian faith were life-long partners, each in its own way contributing to the strength … Continue reading →
Kepler’s Prayers to God in Harmony of the World
Articles 2200 words total Level: high school and above Johannes Kepler is one of the major figures in the history of astronomy. He was a profoundly religious man who interspersed prayers and hymns within his scientific writings. One example of this is his 1619 book Harmony of the World, which contains, among other things, this prayer for his scientific work: Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one, just as Thou art one with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, and just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one; and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord the body of Thy Church may be rebuilt up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies. Click here for an excerpt from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced … Continue reading →
Modern Cosmology, a Resource for Elementary School Education
Book chapter (PDF) 9 pages, 7000 words Level: all audiences A book chapter from the 2001 book The Challenges for Science. Education for the Twenty-First Century, published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In this chapter Fr. George Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, writes: (1) We should start teaching children from where they are at present, their current knowledge, interests, fears, and so on; (2) all of us humans, those who teach and those who are taught, “have been made in heaven”, it has been said. This refers to the well known need for stellar nucleosynthesis to provide the chemical abundances required for life in the universe. It has been indicated that one of principal goals of teaching children should be an awareness of this birth of ours from star dust, if only at an elementary level. I would suggest that the didactic order be reversed and that this awareness should be the beginning … Continue reading →
Reading Creation: Exploring The Book of Nature and The Book of Scripture
The first of two posts by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer that explores a theme that goes back to St. Augustine, is referenced by Galileo and Kepler, and has been a theological interest of St. John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis: The relationship between the book of nature and the Book of Scripture.
Continue reading →Reality and Virtual Reality: Speculations On A Potential Overlap Between Faith And Science
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer: “a true pursuit of the true heaven grounds you more deeply in the real world with the fruits of joy, peace, meaning, and purpose. A false pursuit of a false heaven can lead to escapism, sadness, exclusion, and depression.”
Continue reading →Robert Boyle – A Classical Example of Anglican Apologetics, from “Christian Virtuoso”
Article (book excerpt) 2400 words Level: university Robert Boyle is an important figure in the history of science. Indeed, students in chemistry classes of all levels learn of “Boyle’s Law” of gasses. This is an excerpt from Boyle’s 1690 work The Christian Virtuoso. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for an excerpt from Inters.org. Click here for this material from Boyle’s original work, courtesy of Archive.org.
Continue reading →Saint Ephrem the Syrian: Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius
Book 393 Pages Level: university Click here for a preview of this book, Selected Prose Works: Saint Ephrem the Syrian, from Google Books. The book’s publisher, Catholic University of America Press, writes: This volume presents for the first time in the Fathers of the Church series the work of an early Christian writer who did not write in either Greek or Latin. It offers new English translations of selected prose works by St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. A.D. 309-373). The volume contains St. Ephrem’s Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius. The translators have enhanced the volume with a general introduction, extensive bibliography, and specific introductions to each of the works. Together these features provide an overview of the major scholarship on St. Ephrem and Syriac Christianity. St. Ephrem, the “Harp of the Spirit,” composed prose commentaries and sermons of skillfull charmand grace, in addition to beautiful hymns, during the time he spent teaching … Continue reading →
Science Does Not Need God… or Does It?
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement actually belittles God, makes her/him too small and paltry; while our scientific understanding of the universe, untainted by religious considerations, provides for those who believe in God a marvelous opportunity to reflect upon their beliefs.
Continue reading →Some Theological Reflections on the Anthropic Principle
A pdf of an eight-page article by Dr. George Coyne exploring the Anthropic Principle and its possible theological implications. He ends with four questions that are raised about the way one normally talks about God, in light of cosmological principles.
Continue reading →St. Anselm – God is not in place or time but all things are in Him
Article (book excerpt) 1200 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from the eleventh-century Proslogion of Anselm of Canterbury on the mind-bending nature of God and God’s existence beyond space and time. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Anselm writes: And You are the being who exists in a strict and absolute sense because You have neither past nor future existence but only present existence; nor can You be thought not to exist at any time. And You are life and light and wisdom and blessedness and eternity and many suchlike good things; and yet You are nothing save the one and supreme good, You who are completely sufficient unto Yourself, needing nothing, but rather He whom all things need in order that they may have being … Continue reading →
St. Athanasius – The Harmony of the Universe: the Work of the Logos, Who Acts as a Musician
Book excerpt 1300 words Level: university An excerpt from Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes), by Athanasius of Alexandria. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Athanasius writes: [B]y one and the same act of will He moves all things simultaneously, and not at intervals, but all collectively, both straight and curved, things above and beneath and intermediate, wet, cold, warm, seen and invisible, and orders them according to their several nature. For simultaneously at His single nod what is straight moves as straight, what is curved also, and what is intermediate, follows its own movement; what is warm receives warmth, what is dry dryness, and all things according to their several nature are quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous and truly divine … Continue reading →
St. Bonaventure – on the value of sensing and measuring the world
Articles (book excerpts) 5200 words total Level: university Two excerpts from the twelfth-century The Mind’s Road to God of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, both of which focus on the use of the senses to study the world. St. Bonaventure writes of the use of the sense to observe the world, noting measurements of size, type, number, order etc. of the created things of this world. And, he writes, the …creatures of this sensible world signify the invisible things of God, partly because God is the Origin, Exemplar and End, of every creature, and (because) every effect is a sign of a cause, and an example of an exemplar, and a way for the end, towards which it leads: partly from itsown representation; partly from a prophetic prefiguration; partly from angelic activity; partly from a superadded institution. For every creature by [ex] its nature is a certain likeness and similitude of that eternal Wisdom, and especially those things which have been assumed in the book of … Continue reading →
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Knowledge of the Creatures is Useful to Avoid Errors Concerning God
Book excerpt 1400 words Level: university In this Summa contra Gentiles discussion on created things (that is, on the creatures or the works of God), Thomas Aquinas comments on the value for Faith inherent in understanding these things. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Thomas gives a number of reasons for studying the works of God: First, because meditation on His works enables us in some measure to admire and reflect upon His wisdom…. Secondly, this consideration [of God’s works] leads to admiration of God’s sublime power, and consequently inspires in men’s hearts reverence for God…. Thirdly, this consideration incites the souls of men to the love of God’s goodness…. Fourthly, this consideration endows men with a certain likeness to God’s perfection…. It is therefore evident that the consideration … Continue reading →
Sun and Moon, Bless the Lord: Understanding Our Part of the Hymn of Creation
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. “Astronomy can be an exercise of seeing a dynamic part of creation giving praise to God… in this “Cosmic Liturgy,” we begin to see that we are invited to participate in this praise of God as well, adding a small, humble, but necessary voice to the vast chorus of creation.”
Continue reading →Terrifying Silence or Wondrous Generosity?
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on The Catholic Astronomer. “The Universe is terrifying in its majesty when it does not speak to us, when we doubt that it could be telling us anything, and even if it were, whether we might presume ourselves worthy of its message, unless it be the message that we are insignificant and irrelevant… [but] we astronomers… believe that the Universe does speak to us, what is more, that we know its language, that it wants to reveal itself to us, and we believe that we are invited to continue ever deeper on the path of understanding.”
Continue reading →The Book of the Word: Reading God’s Creation
Article (PDF) 8 pages Level: university Article by Elizabeth Theokritoff published at Baylor University in 2012. “The world is not simply a resource, or a garden entrusted to our care, but above all a revelation of the ways and will of God. how might we recover a robust yet nuanced understanding of nature as truly a book of God’s words with several levels of meaning?” Click here to read the full article from Baylor directly. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →The Kalam Cosmological Argument
Video 4 minutes Level: all audiences A short discussion of a “cosmological argument” for the existence of God, with brief references to modern science, including Fr. Georges Lemaître. The emphasis of the video is that belief in God is an act of reason.
Continue reading →The Mind’s Road To God: St. Bonaventure and String Theory.
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. Modern science is not inconsistent with the spiritual ascent of Saint Bonaventure from the standpoint of the beginning of our ascent to God. However, we need to avoid an implicit reduction of our defense of God’s existence to only the scientific.
Continue reading →The Philosophy of St. Bonaventure On Creation – Étienne Gilson
Article (book excerpt) 2800 words Level: university The twentieth-century French philosopher Étienne Gilson writes on St. Bonaventure and Aristotle: All order, in fact, starts from a beginning, passes through a middle point and reaches an end. If then there is no first term there is no order; now if the duration of the world and therefore the revolutions of the stars had no beginning, their series would have had no first term and they would possess no order, which amounts to saying that in reality they do not in fact form a series and they do not precede or follow one another. But this the order of the days and seasons plainly proves to be false…. In St. Bonaventure’s Christian universe there is, in reality, no place for Aristotelian accident; his thought shrinks from supposing a series of causes accidentally ordered, that is to say, without order, without law and with its terms following one another at random. Click here … Continue reading →
The Road of Science and the Ways to God
A judicious, and tightly reasoned treatise on the interconnections of science and religion
Continue reading →The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences – Eugene P. Wigner
Article 6400 words Level: university Physicist Eugene Wigner discusses the remarkable fact that the universe is understandable in terms of mathematics. Wigner received half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 “for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles”. Wigner writes: There is a story about two friends, who were classmates in high school, talking about their jobs. One of them became a statistician and was working on population trends. He showed a reprint to his former classmate. The reprint started, as usual, with the Gaussian distribution and the statistician explained to his former classmate the meaning of the symbols for the actual population, for the average population, and so on. His classmate was a bit incredulous and was not quite sure whether the statistician was pulling his leg. “How can you know that?” was his query. “And what is this symbol here?” “Oh,” said the statistician, … Continue reading →
Thomas Aquinas – On Creation and Time
Book excerpt 1600 words Level: university This discussion on creation and time, from the Summa contra Gentiles of Thomas Aquinas, contrasts and compares in interesting ways with the modern understanding of the origin of the universe as described in the “Big Bang” theory (in which neither matter, nor time, nor space exist prior to the “bang”). For example, St. Thomas argues that the act of creation is not a change of one thing that exists into another thing. Rather, appealing to both reason and to St. Basil, St. Thomas argues that both material things and time itself were formed when God created the universe, a process which St. Thomas argues was instantaneous. He says, “And so it is that holy Scripture proclaims the creation of things to have been effected in an indivisible instant; for it is written: ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ (Gen. 1:1). And Basil explains that this beginning is ‘the beginning of time’.” This excerpt … Continue reading →
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty: Exploring the transcendent through the immanent.
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer exploring the parallels of observing the night sky (naked eye or with a small telescope) and the experience of prayer.
Continue reading →Charles Darwin – The Role of a Hypothetical Creator is Compatible with the Evolution of the Biological Species
Article (book excerpt) 700 words Level: high school and above Charles Darwin argues that the idea of evolution is a more elegant explanation for the action of a Creator than the idea that each species was individually created as is. Darwin writes: It accords with what we know of the law impressed on matter by the Creator, that the creation and extinction of forms, like the birth and death of individuals should be the effect of secondary [laws] means. It is derogatory that the Creator of countless systems of worlds should have created each of the myriads of creeping parasites and [slimy] worms which have swarmed each day of life on land and water (on) [this] one globe. We cease being astonished, however much we may deplore, that a group of animals should have been directly created to lay their eggs in bowels and flesh of other,— that some organisms should delight in cruelty,—that animals should be led away by … Continue reading →
Creation Reveals God’s Glory – St. John Paul II
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences Pope John Paul II in a March 1986 General Audience discusses creation and scriptural references to how creation proclaims the glory of God : A new dimension of God’s glory begins with the creation of the visible and invisible world. This glory is called “exterior” to distinguish it from the previous one. Sacred Scripture speaks of it in many passages and in different ways. Some examples will suffice. Psalm 19 proclaims: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork…. There is no speech, nor are there words whose sound is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Ps 19:1, 2, 4). The Book of Sirach states: “The sun looks down on everything with its light, and the work of the Lord is full of his glory” (42:16). The Book of Baruch has a very singular and evocative … Continue reading →
Enrico Fermi – An Umbrian Farmer and the Religious Experience of a Starry Sky
Article excerpt 450 words Level: all audiences A short recollection by physicist Enrico Fermi. Fermi notes: A venerable Hebrew prophet some three thousand years ago decreed: “The Heavens declare the glory of God.” One of the most celebrated philosophers of modern times wrote: “Two things fill me with awe, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.” That Umbrian farmer did not even know how to read. But in his heart, safeguarded by an honest and hard-working life, there was a small corner in which the light of God descended with a power not much inferior to that of the prophets and perhaps greater than that of philosophers. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for Fermi’s discussion (English translation), from Inters.org. [Click here to … Continue reading →
Faith as Small as a Singularity? BOOM goes The Mustard Seed!
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “Though we rightly distance ourselves from certain false presumptions of the natural world held by our ancient brothers and sisters, the core narrative of an intimate connection with our faith and creation is still true.”
Continue reading →God is dead; long live the eternal God
Article (blog post) 1200 words Level: all audiences A post on The Catholic Astronomer blog by Vatican Observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., commenting on Stephen Hawking’s ideas regarding God: Hawking does us an important favor by eliminating [a certain] image of God. The “god” that Stephen Hawking doesn’t believe in is one I don’t believe in either. God is not a force to be invoked to swell a progress, start a scene or two, and fill the momentary gaps in our knowledge. God is the reason why existence itself exists. God is the reason why space and time and the laws of nature can be present for the forces to operate that Stephen Hawking is talking about. What’s more, I believe in such a God not because of the absence of any other explanation for the origin of the universe, but because of the person of Jesus Christ — in history, in scripture, and in my own personal … Continue reading →
God’s Chance Creation
Article 1700 words General audiences Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, writes: We can only come to know God by analogy. The universe as we know it today through science is one way to derive an analogical knowledge of God. For those who believe modern science does say something to us about God, it provides a challenge, an enriching challenge, to traditional beliefs about God. God in his infinite freedom continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity. God lets the world be what it will be in its continuous evolution. This article was originally published in The Tablet in 2005. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – The Ultimate Origin of Things
Article (book excerpt) 3800 words Level: high school and above Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is credited with the invention of the mathematics of Calculus. Isaac Newton is also so credited, but it is the notation and language of Leibniz that is used in modern calculus. Here Leibniz argues that reason points to the existence of a being outside the universe who governs it and built it: In addition to the world or aggregate of finite things, there is some unique Being who governs, not only like the soul in me, or rather like the Ego itself in my body, but in a much higher relation. For one Being dominating the universe not only rules the world but he creates and fashions it, is superior to the world, and, so to speak, extra mundane, and by this very fact is the ultimate reason of things. For the sufficient reason of existence can be found neither in any particular thing nor in the whole … Continue reading →
How to Search for the Truth
Article 800 words Level: all audiences An essay by George Washington Carver on science, nature, God, and truth. Carver interprets in a scientific sense the verse from John that reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →James Clerk Maxwell and the equations of light
Article 5000 words Level: university An article about physicist James Clerk Maxwell, by historian and philosopher of science Thomas Forsyth Torrance. Maxwell, a devout Christian, is one of the most important figures in the history of science. Students in physics courses everywhere study “Maxwell’s Equations” that mathematically describe electromagnetic waves. These waves include light, radio, x-rays, etc. They are how astronomers learn about the universe and they are the basis of all wireless communication technology, including smart phones. Torrance writes about Maxwell: [I]t is certainly clear that the kind of physical science which he advocated is much more congenial to Christian theology than that which developed when absolute notions of space and time were arbitrarily clamped down upon the empirical world and had the effect of reducing understanding of it to a hard and closed mechanistic system. For Clerk Maxwell himself rigorous scientific inquiry and simple devout Christian faith were life-long partners, each in its own way contributing to the strength … Continue reading →
Kepler’s Prayers to God in Harmony of the World
Articles 2200 words total Level: high school and above Johannes Kepler is one of the major figures in the history of astronomy. He was a profoundly religious man who interspersed prayers and hymns within his scientific writings. One example of this is his 1619 book Harmony of the World, which contains, among other things, this prayer for his scientific work: Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one, just as Thou art one with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, and just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one; and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord the body of Thy Church may be rebuilt up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies. Click here for an excerpt from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced … Continue reading →
Modern Cosmology, a Resource for Elementary School Education
Book chapter (PDF) 9 pages, 7000 words Level: all audiences A book chapter from the 2001 book The Challenges for Science. Education for the Twenty-First Century, published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In this chapter Fr. George Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, writes: (1) We should start teaching children from where they are at present, their current knowledge, interests, fears, and so on; (2) all of us humans, those who teach and those who are taught, “have been made in heaven”, it has been said. This refers to the well known need for stellar nucleosynthesis to provide the chemical abundances required for life in the universe. It has been indicated that one of principal goals of teaching children should be an awareness of this birth of ours from star dust, if only at an elementary level. I would suggest that the didactic order be reversed and that this awareness should be the beginning … Continue reading →
Reading Creation: Exploring The Book of Nature and The Book of Scripture
The first of two posts by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer that explores a theme that goes back to St. Augustine, is referenced by Galileo and Kepler, and has been a theological interest of St. John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis: The relationship between the book of nature and the Book of Scripture.
Continue reading →Reality and Virtual Reality: Speculations On A Potential Overlap Between Faith And Science
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer: “a true pursuit of the true heaven grounds you more deeply in the real world with the fruits of joy, peace, meaning, and purpose. A false pursuit of a false heaven can lead to escapism, sadness, exclusion, and depression.”
Continue reading →Robert Boyle – A Classical Example of Anglican Apologetics, from “Christian Virtuoso”
Article (book excerpt) 2400 words Level: university Robert Boyle is an important figure in the history of science. Indeed, students in chemistry classes of all levels learn of “Boyle’s Law” of gasses. This is an excerpt from Boyle’s 1690 work The Christian Virtuoso. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for an excerpt from Inters.org. Click here for this material from Boyle’s original work, courtesy of Archive.org.
Continue reading →Some Theological Reflections on the Anthropic Principle
A pdf of an eight-page article by Dr. George Coyne exploring the Anthropic Principle and its possible theological implications. He ends with four questions that are raised about the way one normally talks about God, in light of cosmological principles.
Continue reading →St. Anselm – God is not in place or time but all things are in Him
Article (book excerpt) 1200 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from the eleventh-century Proslogion of Anselm of Canterbury on the mind-bending nature of God and God’s existence beyond space and time. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Anselm writes: And You are the being who exists in a strict and absolute sense because You have neither past nor future existence but only present existence; nor can You be thought not to exist at any time. And You are life and light and wisdom and blessedness and eternity and many suchlike good things; and yet You are nothing save the one and supreme good, You who are completely sufficient unto Yourself, needing nothing, but rather He whom all things need in order that they may have being … Continue reading →
St. Athanasius – The Harmony of the Universe: the Work of the Logos, Who Acts as a Musician
Book excerpt 1300 words Level: university An excerpt from Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes), by Athanasius of Alexandria. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Athanasius writes: [B]y one and the same act of will He moves all things simultaneously, and not at intervals, but all collectively, both straight and curved, things above and beneath and intermediate, wet, cold, warm, seen and invisible, and orders them according to their several nature. For simultaneously at His single nod what is straight moves as straight, what is curved also, and what is intermediate, follows its own movement; what is warm receives warmth, what is dry dryness, and all things according to their several nature are quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous and truly divine … Continue reading →
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Knowledge of the Creatures is Useful to Avoid Errors Concerning God
Book excerpt 1400 words Level: university In this Summa contra Gentiles discussion on created things (that is, on the creatures or the works of God), Thomas Aquinas comments on the value for Faith inherent in understanding these things. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Thomas gives a number of reasons for studying the works of God: First, because meditation on His works enables us in some measure to admire and reflect upon His wisdom…. Secondly, this consideration [of God’s works] leads to admiration of God’s sublime power, and consequently inspires in men’s hearts reverence for God…. Thirdly, this consideration incites the souls of men to the love of God’s goodness…. Fourthly, this consideration endows men with a certain likeness to God’s perfection…. It is therefore evident that the consideration … Continue reading →
Sun and Moon, Bless the Lord: Understanding Our Part of the Hymn of Creation
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. “Astronomy can be an exercise of seeing a dynamic part of creation giving praise to God… in this “Cosmic Liturgy,” we begin to see that we are invited to participate in this praise of God as well, adding a small, humble, but necessary voice to the vast chorus of creation.”
Continue reading →Terrifying Silence or Wondrous Generosity?
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on The Catholic Astronomer. “The Universe is terrifying in its majesty when it does not speak to us, when we doubt that it could be telling us anything, and even if it were, whether we might presume ourselves worthy of its message, unless it be the message that we are insignificant and irrelevant… [but] we astronomers… believe that the Universe does speak to us, what is more, that we know its language, that it wants to reveal itself to us, and we believe that we are invited to continue ever deeper on the path of understanding.”
Continue reading →The Book of the Word: Reading God’s Creation
Article (PDF) 8 pages Level: university Article by Elizabeth Theokritoff published at Baylor University in 2012. “The world is not simply a resource, or a garden entrusted to our care, but above all a revelation of the ways and will of God. how might we recover a robust yet nuanced understanding of nature as truly a book of God’s words with several levels of meaning?” Click here to read the full article from Baylor directly. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →The Mind’s Road To God: St. Bonaventure and String Theory.
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. Modern science is not inconsistent with the spiritual ascent of Saint Bonaventure from the standpoint of the beginning of our ascent to God. However, we need to avoid an implicit reduction of our defense of God’s existence to only the scientific.
Continue reading →The Philosophy of St. Bonaventure On Creation – Étienne Gilson
Article (book excerpt) 2800 words Level: university The twentieth-century French philosopher Étienne Gilson writes on St. Bonaventure and Aristotle: All order, in fact, starts from a beginning, passes through a middle point and reaches an end. If then there is no first term there is no order; now if the duration of the world and therefore the revolutions of the stars had no beginning, their series would have had no first term and they would possess no order, which amounts to saying that in reality they do not in fact form a series and they do not precede or follow one another. But this the order of the days and seasons plainly proves to be false…. In St. Bonaventure’s Christian universe there is, in reality, no place for Aristotelian accident; his thought shrinks from supposing a series of causes accidentally ordered, that is to say, without order, without law and with its terms following one another at random. Click here … Continue reading →
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences – Eugene P. Wigner
Article 6400 words Level: university Physicist Eugene Wigner discusses the remarkable fact that the universe is understandable in terms of mathematics. Wigner received half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 “for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles”. Wigner writes: There is a story about two friends, who were classmates in high school, talking about their jobs. One of them became a statistician and was working on population trends. He showed a reprint to his former classmate. The reprint started, as usual, with the Gaussian distribution and the statistician explained to his former classmate the meaning of the symbols for the actual population, for the average population, and so on. His classmate was a bit incredulous and was not quite sure whether the statistician was pulling his leg. “How can you know that?” was his query. “And what is this symbol here?” “Oh,” said the statistician, … Continue reading →
Thomas Aquinas – On Creation and Time
Book excerpt 1600 words Level: university This discussion on creation and time, from the Summa contra Gentiles of Thomas Aquinas, contrasts and compares in interesting ways with the modern understanding of the origin of the universe as described in the “Big Bang” theory (in which neither matter, nor time, nor space exist prior to the “bang”). For example, St. Thomas argues that the act of creation is not a change of one thing that exists into another thing. Rather, appealing to both reason and to St. Basil, St. Thomas argues that both material things and time itself were formed when God created the universe, a process which St. Thomas argues was instantaneous. He says, “And so it is that holy Scripture proclaims the creation of things to have been effected in an indivisible instant; for it is written: ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ (Gen. 1:1). And Basil explains that this beginning is ‘the beginning of time’.” This excerpt … Continue reading →
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty: Exploring the transcendent through the immanent.
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer exploring the parallels of observing the night sky (naked eye or with a small telescope) and the experience of prayer.
Continue reading →Br. Guy Consolmagno at University of Illinois: The Unfinished Cosmos: Creation, God, and Hawking’s Grand Design
Video 97 minutes Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory delivered a lecture on “The Unfinished Cosmos: Creation, God, and Hawking’s Grand Design” at the University of Illinois on March 7th, 2013. The event was hosted by the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois.
Continue reading →The Kalam Cosmological Argument
Video 4 minutes Level: all audiences A short discussion of a “cosmological argument” for the existence of God, with brief references to modern science, including Fr. Georges Lemaître. The emphasis of the video is that belief in God is an act of reason.
Continue reading →Cosmology, Evolution, and Christian Faith
The universe as we know it today through science is one way to derive analogical knowledge of God. For those who accept that modern science does say something to us about God, there is a challenge, an enriching challenge, to traditional beliefs about God.
Continue reading →Emilie Du Châtelet on the existence of God
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). The second chapter of this textbook was addressed to the question of God’s existence. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Enrico Fermi – An Umbrian Farmer and the Religious Experience of a Starry Sky
Article excerpt 450 words Level: all audiences A short recollection by physicist Enrico Fermi. Fermi notes: A venerable Hebrew prophet some three thousand years ago decreed: “The Heavens declare the glory of God.” One of the most celebrated philosophers of modern times wrote: “Two things fill me with awe, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.” That Umbrian farmer did not even know how to read. But in his heart, safeguarded by an honest and hard-working life, there was a small corner in which the light of God descended with a power not much inferior to that of the prophets and perhaps greater than that of philosophers. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for Fermi’s discussion (English translation), from Inters.org. [Click here to … Continue reading →
How to Search for the Truth
Article 800 words Level: all audiences An essay by George Washington Carver on science, nature, God, and truth. Carver interprets in a scientific sense the verse from John that reads: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Science Does Not Need God… or Does It?
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement actually belittles God, makes her/him too small and paltry; while our scientific understanding of the universe, untainted by religious considerations, provides for those who believe in God a marvelous opportunity to reflect upon their beliefs.
Continue reading →Emilie Du Châtelet: Selected Philosophical and Scientific Writings
Book 424 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). This collection of her philosophical and scientific writings, edited by Judith P. Zinsser, includes translations of substantial portions of these works and others. Zinsser’s translation of Institutions contains all of the Preface (discussing, among other things, the utility of mathematics and the usefulness of experiments), all of the first chapter (discussing principles of knowledge and reasoning), all of the second chapter (which contains logical arguments for the existence of God and for determining the basics of God’s nature), as well as chapters on time, matter, motion, and force. Emilie Du Châtelet was a complex person—she sought education and access to the world of science at a time when women were largely … Continue reading →
God’s Planet
Book 192 pages Level: high school and above This short book was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. It is by Harvard astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich. From the publisher: With exoplanets being discovered daily, Earth is still the only planet we know of that is home to creatures who seek a coherent explanation for the structure, origins, and fate of the universe, and of humanity’s place within it. Today, science and religion are the two major cultural entities on our planet that share this goal of coherent understanding, though their interpretation of evidence differs dramatically. Many scientists look at the known universe and conclude we are here by chance. The renowned astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich looks at the same evidence—along with the fact that the universe is comprehensible to our minds—and sees it as proof for the planning and intentions of a Creator-God. He believes that the idea of a universe without God … Continue reading →
God’s Universe
Book 160 pages Level: high school and above A short book by Harvard University astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich, published in 2006 by Harvard University Press. Gingerich addresses whether “mediocrity” (the “Copernican Principle”) is a good idea, whether a scientist dare believe in design, and the idea of questions without answers (persuasion vs. proof in science). From the publisher: We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine? Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the … Continue reading →
Isaac Newton – God and the Universe in the ‘General Scholium’ of the Principia
Book chapter 5 pages Level: university Isaac Newton is arguably the most important scientist of all. His Principia Mathematica (written in Latin, and first published in 1687), in which he develops a physics of the solar system to compete with the “vortex theory” of René Descartes, is arguably his most important work, for it developed the physics still taught in classrooms and used in science and engineering today. Newton sees in this physics and in the solar system the action of God. Newton is often said to have written more about theology than about mathematics and physics, although his views on the nature of God were unorthodox and much of what he wrote regarding matters relating to religion was never published. From the ‘General Scholium’: This most beautiful System of the Sun, Planets, and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. And if the fixed Stars are the centers of other like systems, … Continue reading →
Saint Ephrem the Syrian: Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius
Book 393 Pages Level: university Click here for a preview of this book, Selected Prose Works: Saint Ephrem the Syrian, from Google Books. The book’s publisher, Catholic University of America Press, writes: This volume presents for the first time in the Fathers of the Church series the work of an early Christian writer who did not write in either Greek or Latin. It offers new English translations of selected prose works by St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. A.D. 309-373). The volume contains St. Ephrem’s Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius. The translators have enhanced the volume with a general introduction, extensive bibliography, and specific introductions to each of the works. Together these features provide an overview of the major scholarship on St. Ephrem and Syriac Christianity. St. Ephrem, the “Harp of the Spirit,” composed prose commentaries and sermons of skillfull charmand grace, in addition to beautiful hymns, during the time he spent teaching … Continue reading →
The Road of Science and the Ways to God
A judicious, and tightly reasoned treatise on the interconnections of science and religion
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