Outspoken atheist and biologist Richard Dawkins sends a simple message in his book The God Delusion that real scientists are not and cannot be Christians. Similarly, the New Atheist movement has theorized that religion will die out. So how do Catholic students studying the sciences build bridges between the two cultures?
Dr. Alister McGrath, an Irish professor of Theology, Ministry and Education at King’s College London in England, argues that science is not wrong, but it’s incomplete. It can open our eyes to the nature of the universe, to the way it operates in the smallest of scales, to how it is structured, but it needs supplementation. Science cannot answer our biggest and most pressing questions. Why are we here? What is the point to life?
Author C.S. Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Faith offers supplementation, those answers that science lacks. Catholic students studying science have a unique opportunity to see the universe in a fuller light.
Br. Guy J. Consolmagno, Vatican scientist and research astronomer, tells us that “if you believe that God created the universe, then knowing how God created the universe is a way of getting to know God.” Furthermore, when we find inconsistencies between the two, we shouldn’t throw our hands up in the air and say we give up. Rather, we should be compelled to look deeper and appreciate that we have an opportunity to understand something new, something that our previous narrow thinking did not allow us to grasp. And we have the teachings offered by faith and science to assist us in deepening our understanding.
We, as Catholics, find common ground with atheist and agnostic science students in that we both “worship at the altar of truth,” said Consolmagno, and in that way we worship the same God.
Albert Einstein said that “a legitimate conflict between science and religion cannot exist. Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” As a young Catholic intending to pursue a degree in science, I’ve come to approach this as a calling.
Fr. Robert Barron, from media ministry Word On Fire, argues we must have a mystical intuition to be a scientist. McGrath encourages students like me to also treat our affinity for science as a calling to be the salt and light of the scientific culture, to build bridges between religion and science and to communicate the message of the Gospel with clarity and compassion. God invites us all to participate in His creation, because in creation He expresses His love.
(Wojdylo, 17, is a Grade 12 student at Bishop Allen Academy in Toronto.)