“There
are very good reasons to believe,” the eminent Jesuit physicist, Fr
Robert Spitzer, has said and some of these reasons come from physics and
some come from philosophy.
He made his comments in an address at a conference at University
College Dublin on ‘Reason, Science and Faith’ in which he discussed the
evidence for creation and the possibility of supernatural design in
contemporary physics.
“I think theists have nothing to fear, in fact I think they have
everything to gain as we allow the evidence to unveil itself both in
physics and philosophy,” he said.
The President of the Magis Centre for Faith and Reason recommended
that those who have an interest in physics look at the 2003
Borde-Vilenkin-Guth Theorem (the BVG Theorem) as well as the 1994
Borde-Vilenkin Proof and the modelling of inflationary universes by Alan
Guth.
Borde-Vilenkin-Guth have space-time geometry proofs for the beginning
not only of our universe but even of a hypothetical multiverse and so
we can actually come very close to getting to a beginning of physical
reality he said.
Elsewhere in his address, Fr Spitzer appealed to Catholics not to try to make the Bible into a scientific document.
Referring to Pope Pius XII’s 1943 encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu
in which the Pontiff said ‘let science be science and let the bible be
the bible’, the Jesuit highlighted that Pius XII “didn’t try to force
the Bible to be a scientific document.”
“Pope Pius XII was right on the marker and he gave Catholics a great
deal of freedom to be both scientists and biblical believers,” Fr
Spitzer told CatholicIreland.net.
Speaking as a scientist and a believer he warned, “The bible is not
giving us science; it was never meant to give us science. To try and
make the bible do that really gets you into absurd positions – either
you have to change science to make it look like the bible or you got to
change the bible to make it look like science. Either way it winds up
being pretty strange,” he commented.
He appealed to younger Catholics who were drawn to a creationist view
of the origins of the universe not to accede to such theories. Belief
that the earth is 6,000 years old would bring the Church’s credibility
“down to zero”, he warned.
The writer, who has been a regular contributor to EWTN and debated
proofs for the existence of God with Stephen Hawking on the Larry King
Show in the US, added, “We as Catholics don’t believe in what is called
the dictation theory of inspiration. Some Christians do but that is not
our view. We don’t want to extract science out of the bible that wasn’t
the intention of God in the first place.”
On the wider issue of what science can say on the evidence for
creation and the existence of God, he responded, “Yes, there are very
good reasons to believe – some of them come from physics, some of them
come from philosophy.”
The Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown, was the
principle celebrant at a Mass to conclude the first day of the
conference in UCD.
In his homily, the Nuncio noted that those attending the Mass had
been studying about creation and cosmology. “There is an interesting
connection between the creation of the world – cosmology – and the event
that is indicated in the Gospel today – the incarnation.”
He said that connection was noted by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his
book the ‘Spirit of Liturgy’ where he highlighted how the Fathers of
the Church saw a correlation between the cosmological creation and the
moment of the annunciation. It was the faith of Mary which allowed the
incarnation to take place he said.
“You are studying the theories of cosmology and creation which is
incredibly important because it helps nourish your mind,” he told the
conference delegates. “The mind helps the heart and the heart through
prayer helps the mind to enter into these truths. You see that
correlation of heart and mind in Mary – that is why she is such an icon
of faith,” he said.
Fr Robert Spitzer is a past president of Gonzaga University in the
US. During his tenure (1998 to 2009) he significantly increased the
programmes and curricula in faith, ethics, service. He also spearhead
the building of 20 new facilities and increased the student population
by 75 percent.
For more information: http://www.magisreasonfaith.org/