Three names rarely put together: Darwin, Albert the Great, Gregor Mendel...

This past Saturday was the Feast of Saint Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus), who was one of the great scholars of the Church. His life continues to bear testimony to this day that there is no contradiction between the knowledge gained through science and the divine insight provided through faith. This has always been the teaching of the Church, in fact many historians today even acknowledge that with out the "Christian Revolution" of 316 A.D. (the date of the Constantine's triumph at the Milvian bridge, and the Edict of Milan) there would have been no Scientific revolution of 1543 (the date of the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus's On the revolutions of celestial spheres).

Scopes Monkey Trial

This probably sounds odd to our ears. When we put the words "science" and "faith" together in the same sentence the idea of the trial of Galileo Galilei (a topic that would require its own essay), advocacy of the "creationist" view of the origins of the world, and the Scopes Monkey trial. It seems as though the basic claim of the major religions, that God created the universe, and the claims of various scientific theories, including Darwinian evolution, modern genetics, and the "big bang" theory, are in constant conflict. This unfortunate circumstance is not truly a conflict of knowledge claims -- the apparent contradictions between both the claims are inevitably resolved through further study, inquire, and reflection. Sometimes it takes centuries for this to happen, for example the 500 years between the trial of Galileo and the Church officially offering an apology, most often though this is just not the case. The conflict between certain Christians and Prof. Scopes who wished to teach evolution was the result of a fundamentalist reading of scripture, a type of interpretation that the Catholic Church does not support, a confusion of what both faith and science claim in this, and Prof. Scopes makind philosophical and metaphysical claims that extended beyond the realm of the empirical sciences. The very claims of the "big bang" theory are beyond the grasp of the empirical sciences. They move from the realm of inquiry about physics, to the realm of inquiry about metaphysics, when they propose a theory about the origin of everything. In the end no apparent contradiction between science and faith persist.

S. Albertus Magnus, Doctor of the Church and teacher of S. Thomas d'Aquinas (another Doctor of the Church)

Today's saint, Albert the Great, is an example of the peaceful and even benefical coexistence of the science of theology and the natural empirical sciences. He is regarded as one of the greatest theologians to ever write, with his achievments including being one of the first to apply the works of Aristotle to Christian thought. This basic, and at that time controversial move, served as a significant influence on his most famous student, Saint Thomas Aquinas. He was a prolific writing, with his collected writings compiled into 38 volumes. These cover all topics from logic, theology, botany, georgraphy, astronomy, chemistry, and zoology. His intellectual authority was considered to equal that of Plato's and Aristotle's. In his thought there is no possibility of a true contradiction existing between science and theology, since all was made by God, so there must be a harmony among all branches of knowledge. As he writes, we are created in "the image of God," and this image is found primarily in our ability to reason. So the reason that we share in, is the same Reason (LOGOS) that shaped, formed, and crafted all of creation.

Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, Archbishop of Vienna, spiritual brother of Albertus Magnus, and stiff defender of the positive relationship between faith and science

The project of Albertus Magnus continues to this day. This is seen in some of the great thinkers of the Catholic intellectual tradition of today, including Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and Christoph Cardinal Schonborn. Schonborn writes:

I see no difficulty in joining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, but under the prerequisite that the borders of scientific theory are maintained.

and

When science adheres to its own method, it cannot come into conflict with faith. But perhaps one finds it difficult to stay within one's territory, for we are, after all, not simply scientists but also human beings, with feelings, who struggle with faith, human beings, who seek the meaning of life. And thus as natural scientists we are constantly and inevitably bringing in questions reflecting world views....I am thankful for the immense work of the natural sciences. Their furthering of our knowledge boggles the mind. They do not restrict faith in the creation; they strengthen me in my belief in the Creator and in how wisely and wonderfully He has made all things.

(both citations from Purpose or Chance?, Cardinal Schonborn)

One of the oldest mechanical clocks in the world, located at Saint Vitus Cathedral in Prague -- an early product of the cooperation between religious and scientifica authorities

But I do not just maintain that there exist no real contridiction between faith and science, but that without the development of the Christian world view, there would have been no Scientific revolution. Simply put ideas have consequences. Before Christianity the most prominent idea about the universe was the heavens, what we now call outer space, was the domain of gods. It did not follow the same physical laws that applied on earth. There was a divide between the capacity of reason and the world. This view was shattered by the advent of Christianity. It introduced the idea that all was governed by reason, which was seen as a reflection of the mind of God (see Benedict XVI's Regensberg Address). So the human mind could discern the reason and rythmn of the stars, the world, and even the human mind. Without this shift in ideas, there could have been no discernment of universal laws of nature and motion, there would have been no intellectual basis for rational experimention (which developed into the scientific method -- it is interesting to note that Aristotle is not known to have ever conducted a single experiment -- despite the volumes he writes on the natural sciences). Science is just not possible without the Christian world-view.

This is demonstrated from the earliest period of the scientific age. It should come as no surprise that the oldest mechanical clocks are found in Catholic cathedrals (see the picture of the clock at Saint Vitus Cathedral in Prague, above), that the most reliable medical care in the medieval period was found at monasteries, that the first modern observatories usually shared tower space with Church bells, and the oldest blast furance is found at Fountain Abbey in England (this furance was destroyed by the forces of Henry VIII during the dissolution of monasteries in 1536 -- delaying the Industrial revolution by centuries).

Even such modern ideas as genetics, the "big band" theory were first developed by Catholic priests; Gregor Mendel and Georges Lemaître , respectively.

This work of scientific exploration continues through the work of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Church will always support scientific exploration since this type of exploration has shown that it is a way of discovering the truth, of increasing human knowledge, bettering the human condition in many practical ways, and diving deeper into the mystery of creation. She is confident that there will never be a persistent contradiction between the truths of science and the Truth of Faith, since there is only one Truth. At the same time She also recoginizes that at times there seemed to be apparent contridictions between science and faith, but often this has been the result of the disciplines of science and theology being unfaithful to their respective methods. Only when scientist halt from making metaphysical and ethical claims about the empirical knowledge that they discern, and only when theologians refrain from making claims in the hard science beyond their field, will these contridictions be resolved.

Suggested Reading: Fides et Ratio

Suggested website: http://www.intelligentproject.net/

In the beginning, there was the creative word. In the beginning, the creative word -- this word created everything and created this intelligent project that is the cosmos -- is also love.

Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI