5 - Faith and Science

Summary

Why do faith and science often seem to be in conflict? Is such conflict necessary? Past confrontations such as those involving Galileo are now acknowledged as unnecessary. Will current confrontations also seem unnecessary 350 years from now?

This essay is based on a talk given in 1983 on the occasion of the discourse of His Holiness Pope John Paul II for the Inauguration of the Symposium organized for the 350th Anniversary of the publication of the book by Galileo Galilei entitled Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo.

It is gratifying to hear the courageous and thoughtful discourse of His Holiness for the inauguration of this symposium organized on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the publication of the book by Galileo Galilei entitled Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo.

To address ourselves to those issues producing unnecessary confrontation between science and faith in the spirit so movingly expressed by John Paul, to follow the wish of Saint Robert Bellarmine “that useless tensions and harmful rigidities between faith and science be avoided,” we must turn our attention to current propositions that produce controversy. Today these are often biological: such questions as the origin of intellect, the nature of consciousness, the meaning of soul, the construction from ordinary materials of the special entity that is ourselves and the definition of life itself.