Along with the more specific discussions in the other sections, there are also a number of resources where scientists of faith reflect on how they personally approach questions of faith and life.
Being Human and Christian in a Darwinian World: An Appreciation of Józef Zycinski
Article- 29 pages
- University level
This article,by Phillip R. Sloan was published in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture in 2012. Sloan (who is professor emeritus in the program of liberal studies and in the graduate program in history and philosophy of science at the University of Notre Dame and whose research specializes on the history and philosophy of life science from the early modern period to contemporary molecular biology) writes:
This article is not intended to question the general validity of the Darwinian theory of species transformism by natural selection which I consider to be the best available scientific explanation of the origins and diversity of the organic forms we see around us. I am also concerned to engage with what John Haught has termed “unedited” Darwinian theory—Darwinian theory as accepted and discussed generally within the scientific community—rather than pursuing discarded alternative neo-Lamarckian, orthogenetic, and strong teleological evolutionary theories. I also do not minimize the detailed debates that surround certain points of evolutionary theory at present, such as those surrounding the long-standing debate over the competence of natural selection alone to explain macro as well as micro evolution, or the disputes currently dividing traditional population-genetics interpretations of Darwinism and those emphasizing the importance of developmental genetics, morphological constraints, and organismic considerations in evolution, commonly now termed “evo-devo.” But it is not essential to my purpose that these intratheory disputes be adjudicated. My concern is to generate some new lines of reflection on the important question that makes the issue of evolution interesting—what does it really have to do with human beings as we now find them? And particularly, what bearing does this have on the faith of Christians who ground their belief on the historical incarnation of the Son of God, and who accept some final historical destiny of humankind in relation to Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection?…
In this article, my intention is to go directly to the theological, anthropological, and philosophical question that is at the center of Darwinism and human existence—what does it mean to be human and Christian in the post-Darwinian world? The urgency of this question is forced upon us by the widespread revival of variants of sociobiology as a reigning paradigm within professional anthropology departments under such names as “biological anthropology” and “evolutionary psychology,” and by the intersection of this broad paradigm with the reigning Anglo-American philosophy of biology, and with molecular biology. The combination presents us with reductive evolutionary explanations of virtually all aspects of human existence.
Biology in a Christian University
Article- 5600 words
- General audiences
Alister McGrath is the Andreas Idreos Professor in Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. 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. In “Biology in a Christian University” McGrath writes:
The complexity and importance of discussions about biological evolution, human identity and human beliefs is of such importance that it is essential to establish an informed forum within which they can be discussed and explored. Modern biology is beginning to rediscover the notion of teleology, and explore its possible implications. Might evolution be much more directed as a process than might hitherto have been realized? Might we begin to speak of islands of stability (Conway Morris) in biological space? This important discussion requires a community which is both biologically and theologically informed – a relative rarity in today’s world. Yet the vision is worth pursuing, not least on account of the intellectual enrichment that it offers. If such an intellectual community does not presently exist, then it must most certainly be invented.
Click here for McGrath’s essay, from Inters.org.
Cosmology, Evolution and Christian Faith
- Journal Article
- 9700 words
- University level and above
In this paper, published in the journal Higher Education of Social Science, Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, writes:
To what extent can what we know from science about the evolution of life in the universe influence our religious attitudes? And, on the other hand, to what extent can religious thought make a contribution to our scientific understanding of the origins and evolution of life in the universe? This twofold question poses the serious risk of transgressing upon the epistemological independence of the various disciplines: theology, philosophy, astrophysics, biology and cosmology, and creating, thereby, more confusion than understanding. It is, therefore, necessary to maintain a consistent posture of preserving the integrity of each of the disciplines, especially that between the natural sciences and theology.
Click here for the full text of Fr. Coyne’s paper from Higher Education of Social Science.
Extraterrestrial Life
- Video
- 8 minutes
- General audiences
This video from the Vatican Observatory Foundation features a conversation with Vatican astronomers Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., and Fr. Chris Corbally, S. J., on the religious significance of discovering extraterrestrial life: “Some theologians don’t make God big enough.”
Click here for the Vatican Observatory Foundation’s YouTube channel.
From Modern Research in Astrophysics to the Next Millennium for Mankind
Book chapter (PDF)- 10 pages
- University level
A paper by Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, that was published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) in a volume on Science and the Future of Mankind.
Is the Tension Between Faith and Science ‘Merely’ a Breakdown in Communication?
- Article (blog post)
- 1000 words
- General Audience
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. “Can the perceived tension between evolution and God as Creator be fully addressed by clarifying a breakdown in communication over the word ‘random?’ Of course, the answer is no. As is the case with many strained relationships, there isn’t just one issue that leads to a breakup. Nevertheless, I do feel that these explorations are needed for both believer and non-believer if we are to move away from faith and science as adversaries and toward a position of faith and science as dialogue partners in search of truth.”
John Henry Newman – on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Article (letter)- 500 words
- High school level and above
John Henry Newman writes about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and asks what people find atheistic about it. Newman writes:
It does not seem to me to follow that creation is denied because the Creator, millions of years ago, gave laws to matter. He first created matter and then he created laws for it — laws which should construct it into its present wonderful beauty, and accurate adjustment and harmony of parts gradually. We do not deny or circumscribe the Creator, because we hold he has created the self acting originating human mind, which has almost a creative gift; much less then do we deny or circumscribe His power, if we hold that He gave matter such laws as by their blind instrumentality moulded and constructed through innumerable ages the world as we see it.
Click here for an excerpt 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. The excerpt is from The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, published by Oxford University press in 1961.
Kenneth R. Miller – To Find God in All Things: Grandeur in an Evolutionary View of Life
- Video
- 56 minutes
- High school level and above
Kenneth R. Miller, a biologist at Brown University and author of a widely-used textbook for high school biology, gives the St. Albert Award Lecture at the inaugural conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Miller gives an overview of conflicts that have arisen when people have opposed teaching evolution as subject matter in high school, discusses the tendency of some scientists to frame evolution in exactly the way foreseen by those who oppose its teaching, and provides a contrasting view of evolution: a view that “Finds God in All Things”.
Click here for an article from Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Catholic scientists discuss faith’s role in work”, on the first conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists—“Origins”—held April 21-23, 2017 in Chicago.
Click here for the Society of Catholic Scientists “Origins” conference page.
Being Human and Christian in a Darwinian World: An Appreciation of Józef Zycinski
- Article
- 29 pages
- University level
This article,by Phillip R. Sloan was published in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture in 2012. Sloan (who is professor emeritus in the program of liberal studies and in the graduate program in history and philosophy of science at the University of Notre Dame and whose research specializes on the history and philosophy of life science from the early modern period to contemporary molecular biology) writes:
This article is not intended to question the general validity of the Darwinian theory of species transformism by natural selection which I consider to be the best available scientific explanation of the origins and diversity of the organic forms we see around us. I am also concerned to engage with what John Haught has termed “unedited” Darwinian theory—Darwinian theory as accepted and discussed generally within the scientific community—rather than pursuing discarded alternative neo-Lamarckian, orthogenetic, and strong teleological evolutionary theories. I also do not minimize the detailed debates that surround certain points of evolutionary theory at present, such as those surrounding the long-standing debate over the competence of natural selection alone to explain macro as well as micro evolution, or the disputes currently dividing traditional population-genetics interpretations of Darwinism and those emphasizing the importance of developmental genetics, morphological constraints, and organismic considerations in evolution, commonly now termed “evo-devo.” But it is not essential to my purpose that these intratheory disputes be adjudicated. My concern is to generate some new lines of reflection on the important question that makes the issue of evolution interesting—what does it really have to do with human beings as we now find them? And particularly, what bearing does this have on the faith of Christians who ground their belief on the historical incarnation of the Son of God, and who accept some final historical destiny of humankind in relation to Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection?…
In this article, my intention is to go directly to the theological, anthropological, and philosophical question that is at the center of Darwinism and human existence—what does it mean to be human and Christian in the post-Darwinian world? The urgency of this question is forced upon us by the widespread revival of variants of sociobiology as a reigning paradigm within professional anthropology departments under such names as “biological anthropology” and “evolutionary psychology,” and by the intersection of this broad paradigm with the reigning Anglo-American philosophy of biology, and with molecular biology. The combination presents us with reductive evolutionary explanations of virtually all aspects of human existence.
What God “Whispers” through Radio Telescopes
Article- 2500 words
- General audiences
Jennifer Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where she serves as the senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. She is also Director of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Wiseman writes:
Radio telescopes, and indeed all telescopes, reveal a universe of complexity and beauty that speaks of great care and creativity in its design. This very reality tells us that our lives mean more than simply survival. Indeed, we can even see that God is very good for even choosing to make a universe of beauty that leads to life, and thus everything good must proceed from God.
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 Wiseman’s discussion, from Inters.org.
Life as We Know It
Article- 3000 words
- General audiences
A 2012 article from Notre Dame Magazine, by Michael J. Crowe, a historian of science with the University of Notre Dame, and Christopher M. Graney. Crowe and Graney write:
The Aristotelians were wrong; the Copernicans were right. Our home is not the center of the universe; it is merely one planet circling one star in an incomprehensibly vast universe. But what is the deeper significance of this important claim?
David Wootton suggests an answer in his recent biography, Galileo: Watcher of the Skies. The Copernican theory, he writes, “[O]ffered a view of the cosmos in which humankind, and the things that matter to humankind — love and hatred, virtue and vice, mortality and immortality, salvation and damnation — were irrelevant. Far from embodying a scheme of values, far from embodying a telos or purpose, [this] universe appeared to be indifferent to moral and metaphysical issues, and even indifferent to our own existence. . . . Galileo’s greatest and at the same time most disturbing achievement was to recognize that the universe was not made for the sake of human beings.”
Thus many see the significance of the Copernican theory as summed up in what is called the “Copernican Principle” or sometimes the “Principle of Mediocrity”: the claim that there is nothing special about our Earth, and by extension, nothing special about its inhabitants.
We, however, suggest the surprising conclusion that a number of important scientific results indicate that our great-grandchildren may live in a world where the “Copernican Principle” has been consigned to the dustbin. In their world Earth will be understood to be special indeed, possibly even unique, swimming in a vast alien universe that speaks to them about Earth’s specialness.
Moreover, in this universe they will still recognize the universe that many early Copernicans originally envisioned. For although the first Copernicans did see the Earth as orbiting the sun, most viewed the sun and solar system as being unique within a vast and alien cosmos of strange bodies that had little in common with the Earth, the sun and the solar system — a cosmos that spoke to Earth’s inhabitants of the power of God….
Certainly future generations will develop some equally interesting ideas regarding what science has told them about the universe and what it has to say about them and the special world on which they (and we) live, ideas that will affect their perception of religion and their popular culture, just as the “Copernican Principle” had an impact on Paine and Adams and brought us Star Wars. Their view of the universe will be as different from ours as ours is from that of the Aristotelians.
Click here to access this article from Notre Dame Magazine.
Click here to download a PDF of this article.
Cosmology, Evolution and Christian Faith
- Journal Article
- 9700 words
- University level and above
In this paper, published in the journal Higher Education of Social Science, Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, writes:
To what extent can what we know from science about the evolution of life in the universe influence our religious attitudes? And, on the other hand, to what extent can religious thought make a contribution to our scientific understanding of the origins and evolution of life in the universe? This twofold question poses the serious risk of transgressing upon the epistemological independence of the various disciplines: theology, philosophy, astrophysics, biology and cosmology, and creating, thereby, more confusion than understanding. It is, therefore, necessary to maintain a consistent posture of preserving the integrity of each of the disciplines, especially that between the natural sciences and theology.
Click here for the full text of Fr. Coyne’s paper from Higher Education of Social Science.
Modern Cosmology, a Resource for Elementary School Education
Book chapter (PDF)- 9 pages, 7000 words
- General audience
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 point of elementary school education; (3) the aim to develop “scientific literacy” has been a recurrent theme but I have not heard it defined. I propose an elementary definition which suits the purposes of my presentation: To be scientifically literate means to have an understanding of ourselves in the physical universe (the emphasis being on physical, but with the implication that I am speaking of all of the natural sciences: biology, physics chemistry and their derivatives); (4) Much has been made of the distinction between the methodology and the content of teaching. I would like to suggest that these two aspects of elementary school teaching find a unity in an ideology, a guiding theme, a single dominant perspective on ourselves in the physical universe.
Click here to download the chapter from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Matrix Thinking: An Adaptation at the Foundation of Human Science, Religion, and Art
- Article
- 28 pages
- Academic specialist level
A paper by Margaret Boone Rappaport and Fr. Christopher Corbally, an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, published in Zygon: The Journal of Religion and Science. From Zygon:
Abstract:
Intrigued by Robinson and Southgate’s 2010 work on “entering a semiotic matrix,” we expand their model to include the juxtaposition of all signs, symbols, and mental categories, and to explore the underpinnings of creativity in science, religion, and art. We rely on an interdisciplinary review of human sentience in archaeology, evolutionary biology, the cognitive science of religion, and literature, and speculate on the development of sentience in response to strong selection pressure on the hominin evolutionary line, leaving us the “lone survivors” of complex, multiple lines of physical and cultural evolution. What we call Matrix Thinking—the creative driver of human sentience—has important cognitive and intellectual features, but also equally important characteristics traced to our intense sociability and use of emotionality in vetting rational models. Scientist, theologian, and artist create new cultural knowledge within a social context even if alone. They are rewarded by emotional validation from group members, and guided by the ever present question, “Does it feel right?”
Click here to access this paper from the journal’s publisher.
Is the Tension Between Faith and Science ‘Merely’ a Breakdown in Communication?
- Article (blog post)
- 1000 words
- General Audience
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. “Can the perceived tension between evolution and God as Creator be fully addressed by clarifying a breakdown in communication over the word ‘random?’ Of course, the answer is no. As is the case with many strained relationships, there isn’t just one issue that leads to a breakup. Nevertheless, I do feel that these explorations are needed for both believer and non-believer if we are to move away from faith and science as adversaries and toward a position of faith and science as dialogue partners in search of truth.”
Like the Universe, Our Mission Must Evolve: Reflections of a Jesuit Scientist
- Article
- 3 pages
- General Audience
In this article published in the journal Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, concludes:
Ignatian mission is a participation in the intrinsically missionary nature of the Church, the
concrete presence of the Creator among his cocreators. God is continually encountering the
world in new and creative ways because the world he created is responsive to his continual encounter. Ignatius sent his men into that world and sought to free them of any encumbrance to a free and total commitment to the world in whatever way their talents would best serve the Church. And their mission was to evolve just as the universe itself is in evolution. But for any individual Jesuit, Jesuit partner or Jesuit institution the evolution of mission must be in consort with the intrinsically missionary Church. The wisdom of God in emptying himself to create a world which shares in his creativity requires that, since God is the one God of all creation, this participation in his creativity must be universal. It cannot favor any particular social, cultural, religious movement. While to function any given mission must be limited, it cannot be exclusive.
Click here to read the full article at Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education.
[Download PDF from Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education.]
Like the Universe Our Mission Must Evolve- Reflections of a Jesu
Kenneth R. Miller – To Find God in All Things: Grandeur in an Evolutionary View of Life
- Video
- 56 minutes
- High school level and above
Kenneth R. Miller, a biologist at Brown University and author of a widely-used textbook for high school biology, gives the St. Albert Award Lecture at the inaugural conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Miller gives an overview of conflicts that have arisen when people have opposed teaching evolution as subject matter in high school, discusses the tendency of some scientists to frame evolution in exactly the way foreseen by those who oppose its teaching, and provides a contrasting view of evolution: a view that “Finds God in All Things”.
Click here for an article from Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Catholic scientists discuss faith’s role in work”, on the first conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists—“Origins”—held April 21-23, 2017 in Chicago.
Click here for the Society of Catholic Scientists “Origins” conference page.
Extraterrestrial Life
- Video
- 8 minutes
- General audiences
This video from the Vatican Observatory Foundation features a conversation with Vatican astronomers Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., and Fr. Chris Corbally, S. J., on the religious significance of discovering extraterrestrial life: “Some theologians don’t make God big enough.”
Click here for the Vatican Observatory Foundation’s YouTube channel.
Life as We Know It
- Article
- 3000 words
- General audiences
A 2012 article from Notre Dame Magazine, by Michael J. Crowe, a historian of science with the University of Notre Dame, and Christopher M. Graney. Crowe and Graney write:
The Aristotelians were wrong; the Copernicans were right. Our home is not the center of the universe; it is merely one planet circling one star in an incomprehensibly vast universe. But what is the deeper significance of this important claim?
David Wootton suggests an answer in his recent biography, Galileo: Watcher of the Skies. The Copernican theory, he writes, “[O]ffered a view of the cosmos in which humankind, and the things that matter to humankind — love and hatred, virtue and vice, mortality and immortality, salvation and damnation — were irrelevant. Far from embodying a scheme of values, far from embodying a telos or purpose, [this] universe appeared to be indifferent to moral and metaphysical issues, and even indifferent to our own existence. . . . Galileo’s greatest and at the same time most disturbing achievement was to recognize that the universe was not made for the sake of human beings.”
Thus many see the significance of the Copernican theory as summed up in what is called the “Copernican Principle” or sometimes the “Principle of Mediocrity”: the claim that there is nothing special about our Earth, and by extension, nothing special about its inhabitants.
We, however, suggest the surprising conclusion that a number of important scientific results indicate that our great-grandchildren may live in a world where the “Copernican Principle” has been consigned to the dustbin. In their world Earth will be understood to be special indeed, possibly even unique, swimming in a vast alien universe that speaks to them about Earth’s specialness.
Moreover, in this universe they will still recognize the universe that many early Copernicans originally envisioned. For although the first Copernicans did see the Earth as orbiting the sun, most viewed the sun and solar system as being unique within a vast and alien cosmos of strange bodies that had little in common with the Earth, the sun and the solar system — a cosmos that spoke to Earth’s inhabitants of the power of God….
Certainly future generations will develop some equally interesting ideas regarding what science has told them about the universe and what it has to say about them and the special world on which they (and we) live, ideas that will affect their perception of religion and their popular culture, just as the “Copernican Principle” had an impact on Paine and Adams and brought us Star Wars. Their view of the universe will be as different from ours as ours is from that of the Aristotelians.
Click here to access this article from Notre Dame Magazine.
Click here to download a PDF of this article.