Faith and Reason

by Fr. John Parks  |  10/06/2024  |  Weekly Reflection

Some years ago I was on a plane flight where I struck up a conversation with the young man next to me. He was a college student at the University of Arizona. After discussing a number of topics about family and personal interests the conversation turned towards faith. He informed me that he used to be Catholic but was no longer practicing. When I inquired as to why he left the practice of his faith, he responded (to my frustrated dismay), “I got really into science.”

Despite the claims of the “new atheists” (e.g. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens) there simply is no war between faith and science or faith and reason. It may be true of certain protestant denominations with fundamentalist leanings, but in the Catholic Church—we believe that faith and reason are two harmonious paths to the truth— and that faith and science (properly understood) never contradict each other. God is the author of both creation (including the scientific laws that govern it) and faith. Since he is the author of both “books” and he never deceives or lies, those two “books” cannot contradict each other.

In fact, the Catholic Faith is a perfect faith for the practice of science. Why? Because we believe that the world was created by an intelligent mind whose intelligibility we discover through our practice of science. The second reason is that we are not pantheists (i.e. thinking the world itself is divine) and therefore we are free to perform experiments on the world (while maintaining respect for God’s creation).

Finally, the amount of Catholic scientists alone would seem to have put this old ‘faith vs. science’ canard to bed. Think of Gregor Mendel who is considered the father of genetics due to his experiments on pea plants. Nicolaus Copernicus was instrumental in discovering heliocentrism—that the sun is at the center of our solar system; Nicolas Steno is considered a pioneer in geology and the study of rock layers (who eventually became a Catholic Bishop) and lastly, Fr. Georges LeMaitre made crucial discoveries in theorizing the ‘big bang’ theory (which he called the ‘cosmic egg’ theory). These are just a few of the pioneering scientists who were devout Catholics and saw no dichotomy between faith and science or reason. (One day, search the internet for “Catholic scientists’ and prepare to be impressed.)

So, the next time someone claims that faith and science are opposed, please remind them that as Catholics we believe knowledge is wonderful because it comes from our loving Creator who is the author of both scripture and creation.