Welcome to the FAITH BLOG!

Perhaps we can begin with the issue dominant in the recent film Angels and Demons which is based on the controversial novel written by Dan Brown. The recurring theme of Faith and Science in constant conflict with each other has found its way again in the film. In spite of the fact that there is an insinuation on the openness of the Catholic Church on Science in a certain degree, still the overall effect is a negative image of the Catholic Church in its dealings with Science and the scientists. But of course, this is only true for those who lack an in-depth knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church and Science; and those who could not distinguish between fact and fiction.

In the book How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (2005) Thomas E. Woods, Jr. mentions how Catholics helped build scientific knowledge. In fact, many of these Catholics are priests. Fr. Giambattista Riccioli was the first person to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body. Fr. Athanasius Kircher was the father of Egyptology. Fr. Roger Boscovich was called the father of modern atomic theory.

In another book entitled The Jesuits (2004) Jonathan Wright mentions about the great contributions of the Society in science:

[The Jesuits]… had contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter’s surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn’s rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon effected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light. Star maps of the southern hemisphere, symbolic logic, flood-control measures on the Po and Adige rivers, introducing plus and minus signs into Italian mathematics — all were typical Jesuit achievements, and scientists as influential as Fermat, Huygens, Leibniz and Newton were not alone in counting Jesuits among their most prized correspondents (p. 189).

Catholic universities in the Middle Ages no doubt became fertile grounds for the development of reason and its application in Science. The lists could go on and on. But there should be no conflict between Faith (Church) and Reason (Science). Both came from God. Each has its own area of inquiry. Both must give glory to God.