Western civilization would not be Western civilization were it not for biblical religion, which reveres and trusts in the one God, Who has made known what He wants of human beings
The "science versus religion" narrative is stale, outdated and largely discredited. It is sustained not by the weight of evidence, but by endless uncritical repetition. We need to
Physical cosmology is that branch of science which studies the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe as a whole. Comprising cosmogony and eschatology, cosmology is a fi
The relationship between religion and science is the subject of continued debate in philosophy and theology. To what extent are religion and science compatible? Are religious
Philosophical discussion of the relation between modern science and religion has tended to focus on Christianity, because of its dominance in the West. The relations between scienc
Dear Solovine, As always, I was delighted by your last letter. As for the changes proposed by you, I am in complete agreement. Carl Seelig is a good man. But he takes the task that
Hence for you also we have a message and it is this: Continue your search without tiring and without ever despairing of the truth. Recall the words of one of your great friends, St
It is with great joy that I celebrate with you the fiftieth anniversary of the act by which Pope Pius XI renewed the Pontifical Academy of the “New Lincei” and made it the Pontific
The ‘debate’ between science and religion goes back to the origins of Western philosophy two and a half millennia ago, when thinkers in modern day Greece and Turkey turned away from near-eastern mythical narratives of the origin of the world and of human beings, towards abstract speculative theories. Out of this developed the rudiments of scientific theory including versions of atomism and evolutionism. Meanwhile, on the southern side of the Mediterranean, Second Temple Judaism was becoming more sophisticated, and in due course there emerged Christianity which would spread steadily across the world transforming its thought and culture. This led to a kind of peaceful coexistence with science being appreciated for its usefulness but not being considered a source of wisdom about the most fundamental issues regarding life and its meaning. With the development in the 16th and 17th centuries of astronomical and physiological theories which offered compelling explanations that rivalled religious ones, and with the addition in the 18th and 19th of geological and biological theories that challenged scripture and doctrine, there developed what we are familiar with today as the ‘conflict’ between science and religion. One response to this is to favour one side over another; but a second is to see them as complementary: science investigates the matter of the world, religion explores its meaning.