There is an unfortunate perception that there is an unavoidable incompatibility between science and faith. In my experience, this may even be the biggest barrier for more people to consider Christianity. To be certain, there are some fundamentalists that exhibit strong distrust of scientific knowledge, however, the media is also a bit unfair to paint all Christians with that stripe.
It then surprises many to learn that the Catholic Church is very pro-science.
A quick survey of the Church’s past illustrates that serious Catholics have advanced modern science: Gregor Mendel was a monk and the founder of modern genetics, Roger Bacon was a Catholic priest and is also credited with developing the scientific process, Giovanni Riccioli was also a priest and he was the first to measure gravity. The Catholic Church has always believed that faith and science are two means of arriving at truth. Because we believe all truth is from God, then there cannot be a fundamental incompatibility between good faith and good science.
To be certain, there are conflicts between faith and science but they should be viewed through their respective field of competence. Said simply, science is great at how things work but the Church is great at why things matter. The Church addresses questions of ethics and meaning: Where did we come from, what is the nature of Man, where are we going? Science addresses questions of technical expertise: How is life created, what is the nature of substance, how could we heal a patient?
The two types thrive when they work within the bounds of their competence. The Church has admitted to overstepping bounds when they have imposed scientific explanations (e.g. the Galileo controversy). Science needs to recognize that they overstep their bounds when they pursue “progress” without consideration of moral or philosophical implications.
The two must work in tandem. As Pope Benedict recently said, “Faith supports reason…and reason, illuminated by faith, finds strength to raise itself to the knowledge of God."
When faced with a question in the future that appears to demonstrate an incompatibility between faith & science, ask yourself what perspectives faith can uniquely bring to the table and what perspectives science can uniquely bring to the table.
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