This is a great interview of a Jesuit priest who is also an astronomer. I think if anyone learned anything from this interview, it's the interviewer. The interviewer just doesn't seem to understand Catholic teaching at all, and seems antagonistic. It's funny but after one particular question, the priest actually chuckles. Good clarification of how Catholics view science.
CBCnews.ca - Where is God Today? - God and science, under the stars
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ReplyDeleteI removed burpster's comment because of foul language. I welcome all comments, as long as they are appropriate to the blog post in some way. However, I would prefer not to include overt swearing and foul language.
ReplyDeleteThe gist of burpster's comments are that in the past the Catholic Church did not like science and killed people who advocated its use. He then made a comment about the sex abuse scandal.
I would respond by asking burpster or anyone who agrees with him to indicate a time when the Church was officially against science or condemned it. Many scientific discoveries have been made by Catholics, including many priests. Copernicus, for example, was either a priest or someone closely associated with the Church, yet he made many astronomical discoveries. Gregor Mendel, another priest, discovered genetics. Fr. George Lemaitre theorized on what would become known as the Big Bang theory.
Of course, many people will mention Galileo as an example of the Church being against science. In that case, the theories of Galileo had not been proven and were rejected by the mainstream scientific community. The Church simply asked that he not teach heliocentrism until it had been proven more clearly. Since then, many of the theories advocated by Galileo in regards to the motion of the solar system have proven to be incorrect, such as his theory that the Sun is stationary.
One of the main issues with Galileo was his hubris. Once a good friend of the future pope and several high church officials, he made some gaffes, such as writing a play where he placed the words of the pope in the mouth of a character named "Simplicio".
Because of his persistence in teaching an unproven theory, Galileo was not burned at the stake of thrown into prison, but rather he was placed under house arrest in his mansion. Despite all of this, church officials have apologized for their treatment of the scientist.
It's also interesting to notice that the only example of the Church attacking science which comes readily to peoples' minds is the case of Galileo. Obviously some may do research on other incidences, but in general, that's the example everyone uses. This would seem to indicate there are not very many.
In any event, in reality the Church has always been actively involved in promoting science.
Great because that's interesting reading both points of view.
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