Fr Georges Lemaître Have you ever found yourself in the often-awkward position in work or in another other social setting where you are somehow elected the spokesperson for all things Catholic?
Last week we took a look at a question so often asked with bemusement: “Why do you go to Mass. To read more on how we can respond to these questions as Catholics, be sure to check out previous articles from this series here.
This week I consider an issue which I encounter almost every week in parish ministry: Does science debunk religion?
Rising numbers of Western Catholics are not just abandoning the Church over various institutional problems, but rather they are abandoning any religious belief in favour of a secular relativism. For the first time in history, this is now a growing phenomenon in Ireland, as the second largest ‘religion’ on the census is the ‘no-religion’ category. On one level we shouldn’t be too surprised by this statistic as it corresponds with all the research and surveys as to why people are leaving the Church: Faith is increasingly understood as irrational and therefore it is irrelevant.
Regularly, I am confronted either by a non-believer who asks how anyone can take religion seriously anymore with the success of the sciences, or else by a faithful Catholic who is seeking advice on how to respond to similar comments from friends or colleagues. But what is the relationship between faith and science and how do we respond to the charge that scientific discoveries make religion obsolete?
Faith?
As Catholics, the first and most important thing to consider when discussing this topic is that Christian faith and science are not contradictory. Rather, they are mutually complementary. The catechism in fact goes as far to explicitly state that scientific truth “can never conflict with faith” (CCC 159). Then, why does the culture perceive such a division?
Underlying this misjudgement appears to carry confusion around the word ‘Faith’. For the Catholic who understands their faith in the light of truth and reason, faith and science merely explain different types of truth; the same way psychology and biology might explain different types of truth about the human person. They are both, as stated by Pope St John Paul II, “partners in the common quest for an ever more perfect understanding of the universe.”
The person who considers faith as an irrational ‘leap in the dark’ sees material science as the only reliable source of truth. But what’s wrong with this worldview and how do we reason with people that our faith is not a blind ‘leap in the dark’?
Faith, in any real sense, is the reasonable belief in something to which we have evidence for but goes beyond our capacity to fully understand it”
Perhaps the best way to begin responding to these issues is by asking them what exactly do they mean by the word faith? They may reveal a common answer along the lines of the following: “Faith is believing in something when there is no evidence.”
Faith, in any real sense, is the reasonable belief in something to which we have evidence for but goes beyond our capacity to fully understand it. If your proponent insists that this is simply the same thing as ‘blind-faith’, you then have the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that they too make acts of faith in the same vein every day. There was one question that stumped even hardened atheist Richard Dawkins when asked by the Christian-scientist John Lennox at a public debate: “Do you have faith in your spouse?”
This opens a new way of seeing and understanding the purpose and importance of faith. Faith is not a once off ‘leap into the dark’, rather faith is an evidence-based way of seeing beyond our capacity to fully ‘prove’. In the case of the spouse for example, the person will say ‘of course’ they have faith in their spouse. But why? There is no scientific material evidence that your spouse is being faithful. Yet love and trust require an act of faith on behalf of the individual that goes beyond their capacity to fully ‘prove’. This love and trust in a relationship are by no means an ‘unevidenced’ based approach, people have faith in their spouses because they have a multitude of reasons to believe that their partner is morally upright and faithful to them. To live out this trust, however, requires an act of faith.
The early scientists of the scientific revolution were by-in-large all Christians or theists in some form or another. Why is this significant?”
Similarly, when it comes to our religious faith, we too have a whole array of reasons to believe in what has been revealed to us. What evidence do we have for the claims of Jesus? Thousands of years of evidence through witness, study and spiritual encounters with the divine that give us reasonable explanations to believe that our faith is not simply a ‘leap into the dark’.
Scientism
What’s more is that ‘faith’ is a necessary requirement to even do science in the first place. The early scientists of the scientific revolution were by-in-large all Christians or theists in some form or another. Why is this significant? Because the sciences didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It was the Christian-cultural context from which the sciences emerged and for one simple reason: scientists like Galileo and Newton expected observable truth in the universe because they understood there is a ‘truth giver’, a rational ‘logos’ (logic) or ‘mind’ behind creation.
How is it that mathematical formulas which exist in the mind as abstract theories are transferable to the tangible universe? Because, as Galileo himself said: “Mathematics is the alphabet with which God wrote the world.”
If your proponent insists that scientific methods are the only source for truth, simply ask them to ‘scientifically prove it’. A statement like that cannot be scientifically proven because it is not a scientific statement. It is a philosophical statement – one that requires an act of faith.
Limitations of Science
Science is a wonderful discipline. Yet, reports tell us time and again that we are experiencing a mental health epidemic. High rates of suicide and depression are continually reported by the media as society moves away from religious belief and yet develops in the areas of science.
Nobel prize winning British Biologist Sir Peter Medawar put it very simply: “The existence of a limit to science is made clear by its inability to answer childlike elementary questions… What are we all here for? What is the point of living?”
As rightly pointed out by Medawar, these are much deeper questions than ‘science questions’. The most fundamental questions to our existence are by definition ‘religious questions’. It is here you can say to your friend and colleague the simple but true adage: “Science answers the ‘how’ questions, but religion answers the ‘why’ questions.”
The Big Bang
Even if the secular minded person is willing to agree to the value of religion in providing meaning to someone’s life, a question I hear so often is “what about the Big Bang Theory? Doesn’t that disprove the biblical accounts?” The Catholic answer, which so often surprises people, is that the Big Bang Theory is far from going against the biblical understanding of creation, it lends its support to the biblical idea of a creator. How so?
The Big Bang Theory, which is so often invoked by people in contemporary culture to disprove religious beliefs, was first formulated by Fr Georges Lemaître”
For millennia, Judeo-Christian teaching has maintained based on revelation that there even was a ‘beginning’. We may think of this as a given, but the reality is that many philosophers and scientists have long disputed this reality as unprovable and offered interpretations of a universe that did not ‘begin’ but has ‘always’ existed. The Big Bang Theory, however, forms the scientific basis for something that Christians have long believed, that there was indeed a beginning.
What’s more, the Big Bang Theory was first formulated by a Catholic priest. You read that correct! The Big Bang Theory, which is so often invoked by people in contemporary culture to disprove religious beliefs, was first formulated by Fr Georges Lemaître, theoretical physicist, mathematician, astronomer and Belgian Catholic priest.
Are faith and science opposed to one another? To the contrary. As written by the psalmist over 3,000 years ago: “The Heavens declare the glory of God.” The wonders of the heavens and nature point to something greater. Science discovers the how of the universe, uncovering the workings behind creation, while faith uncovers the why, offering us the deeper meaning and purpose to life.
Read Part 1 of the series here – Talking about faith in a sometimes hostile modern Ireland
Read Part 2 of the series here – ‘Religious Conversations’: What’s going on with religion in Ireland?
Read Part 3 of the series here – ‘Religious Conversations’: God & the man in the sky
Read Part 4 of the series here – ‘Religious Conversations’: Why do you to go to Mass