Science and religion? More about that in Seeking Truth and Finding Truth, Using Our Brains, below.
- Science AND Religion
Seeking Truth
It’s science and religion, faith and reason.
I see no problem with seeking truth that we find in this universe and seeking truth’s source. Honest research cannot interfere with an informed faith.
Not for a Catholic, at any rate.
Seeking truth and seeking God are compatible. So are faith and reason. I thought this was true before I became a Catholic, and still do. More importantly, that’s what the Church says. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 35, 50, 154, 274, 283, 1706)
For a Catholic, faith should be consciously embracing “the whole truth that God has revealed.” (Catechism, 142-150)
Truth and beauty are expressed many ways. In words, “The rational expression of the knowledge.” In “the order and harmony of the cosmos” and “the greatness and beauty of created things.” (Catechism, 32, 41, 74, 2500)
Noticing the beauty, order and harmony surrounding us is part of being human. Studying the cosmos is a good idea. Learning more about this universe, ourselves, and how we relate to it can and should inspire “greater admiration” for God’s work: and God. (Catechism, 283, 341-344, 1147, 2500)
Finding Truth, Using our Brains
We find truth in the Bible. That’s one reason we’re expected to study the Scriptures. (Catechism, 101-133)
And we find truth in the natural world’s order and beauty. (Catechism, 32, 41, 74, 283, 341, 2500)
Pursuing truth and beauty is a good idea. They will lead us to God. Or should. (Catechism, 27, 31-35, 74)
Remembering that the Bible wasn’t written by today’s Western literalists is also a good idea. (Catechism, 110, 390)
I think that God creates everything: the physical realities studied by science and the spiritual realities that faith pursues. (Catechism, Prologue, 27, 74, 214-217, more under Truth in the Catechism’s index)
Faith, the Catholic version, embraces truth. It’s a willing and conscious “assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.” (Catechism, 142-150)
Faith and science work together, if we’re doing both right. Studying this wonder-filled universe, using the brains God gave us, is part of being human. (Catechism, 39; 159; 282-289; 341; 2292-2296)
So is developing new technology, using what we’re learning. And following ethical standards that apply to everything we do (Catechism, 2293-2295)
Believing this while fearing knowledge of God’s world would be — illogical.
“…God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures – and that therefore nothing can be proved either by physical science or archaeology which can really contradict the Scriptures. … Even if the difficulty is after all not cleared up and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest must not be abandoned; truth cannot contradict truth….”
(“Providentissimus Deus,” Pope Leo XIII (November 18, 1893) [emphasis mine])
Full text, English translation:
- “Providentissimus Deus“
On the Study of Holy Scripture
Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII (November 18, 1893)
(From www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_18111893_providentissimus-deus_en.html (December 18, 2014))
