As Saint Thomas Aquinas taught us, there is no contradiction between Reason and Faith. As the poet Blake summarizes:
Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, Mock on, ’tis all in vain.
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a Gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel’s paths they shine.
The Atoms of Democritus
And the Newton’s Particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore
Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.
Thanks for posting this Don. I quote Psalm 19A: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament manifests his handiwork.” I don’t understand how any scientist who knows how wonderfully and intricately all has been created can be an atheist.
One quibble, however. Science can’t “Prove God.” All that science knows for sure to be “true” (in the scientific context of empirically verifiable” is consistent with the existence of God, but it doesn’t prove in a logical or mathematical sense. Science changes. A theory once held, e.g. caloric theory of heat) is disproved by Count Rumford’s cannon boring experiments; the ether drift is disproved by the Michelson-Morley experiments, etc… Whereas dogma and doctrine–Revelation–are eternal truths.
but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
Why would God want His existence proved scientifically? Imagine what our politicians could do with that information? They would establish themselves as spokesmen for God and lots of other bad stuff. They don’t need any more methods of deception for sure.
Belief in God must always be based on faith in order for us to be able to use our free will.
Why would God want His existence proved scientifically?
Why would He not? The idea of the government attempting to take over religion is as old as Man, and not terribly successful where it has been tried. Usually religion has been one of the main sources of opposition to the State over the history of Man, no matter how subservient the state religions seemed to be.
As to science proving the existence of a Creator, I have always been struck by the fact that matter and energy can not be created ex nihilo. Unless one posits an eternal universe, a manifest absurdity, there has to be a Creator, a prime mover, to get the process started. Science goes that far. Almost everything else about God has to filled in by revelation and faith.
“unless one posits an eternal universe, a manifest absurdity…”
Alas for science, Don. That was scientific dogma until the 1920’s. Hubble, Friedmann & LeMaitre showed that there was a creation of the universe. And even after that scientists (Hoyle, for one) tried to maintain that the Universe was eternal. Even recently Hawkings proposes no instant of creation just a vague going back to an unreal time (actually an imaginary time, it). And there a passel of multiverse eternal Universe theories. Of course all these are more mathematical metaphysics than science, since they can’t be validated empirically. But the people who put them forward call themselves scientists.
True Bob. It is the turtles all the way down thesis!
Nothing created in time and space is infinite.
All creation in time and space is finite, not infinite. Only The Supreme Sovereign Being, God, is infinite.
How does science measure infinity outside of time and space and the material universe? Science itself is the study of creation and the material. The metaphysical rational human soul cannot be measured by science. The destiny of man, the eternal cannot be measured by science . The potential cannot be measured (nor taxed) because the potential has not yet become actual.
Only in Jesus Christ can man understand eternity.
Mary De Voe is correct – again.
That said, having worked in nuclear energy all my adult life, I continue to be amazed at the mathematical order that exists which makes everything work as it does.
The only thing that science can tell us is what happened AFTER matter entered the scene and nothing before.
Bob K, “Father” George LeMaitre. And initially Einstein said this catholic priest was wrong. Guy, Texas
LUCIUS QUINCTIUS CINCINNATUS The Felician Sisters of Lodi, N. J. who taught at St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic School taught the Baltimore Catechism 1 through 8 grade. I learned St. Thomas Aquinas in 2nd grade. The sisters’ love for Jesus Christ and the Real Presence in the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist was imparted to all the students. The students went to 9 AM Mass every Sunday with their class and led by their sister.
I learned our Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the 7th grade. I also learned how to figure my taxes in the 6th grade and comprehensive reading in the 4th grade. We need teaching sisters.