Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Scientific thinking and religion? Compatible?

Scientific thinking and religion? Compatible?

Last updated on: June 5, 2022 at 8:34 am by Dan Peterson

Scientific thinking and religion? Compatible? 2022-06-05T08:34:20-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Stanley Jaki (Jáki Szaniszló László), OSB, in 2007
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo

***

My blog enjoys the attention and ministrations of a resident devotee of scientistic atheism. (I’m not sure exactly what to call him in that regard. He’s definitely not a scientist, as he himself will freely admit — well, not freely, actually; the sequences of neurochemical brain processes that result in that “admission” or emission were set in motion approximately 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang, and, even allowing for quantum indeterminacy, were perhaps inevitable even then — but it seems that the term scientologist is already taken. So I typically stay with dogmatic ideologue as the most appropriate descriptor.

Anyhow, one of the sequences of phonemes that frequently result from the involuntary neurochemical events that occur within his skull typically runs approximately as follows: “Your belief in God makes a mockery of the methods and accomplishments of the science that built the world you’re living in.”

I believe that this emission is an example of what naïve sentimentalists, with their tendency to anthropomorphize random products of biochemical evolution, call “thought.”

It’s not a very good one, though.

Along with others, I’ve regularly asked this particular meat-unit — “meat-unit” is a term that he has sometimes applied to his fellow humans and, given his worldview, it seems quite appropriate (and rather appropriate to apply to him — exactly which element of the scientific method theists are obliged to mock or reject. I’ve routinely sought to know precisely which accomplishment of science this particular carbon-based life form imagines that I’m compelled to disdain or to disavow.

But it never answers.

Because there are plenty of theists who are fully and seriously involved in the sciences — much more so than this specific cell colony itself is involved. And there is, to the best of my knowledge, nobody who comments on my blog who hates, despises, rejects, fears, mocks, or laments science. Certainly I don’t.

***

John was silent for a few minutes.

Then he began again: “But how do you know there is no Landlord?”

“Christopher Columbus, Galileo, the earth is round, invention of printing, gunpowder!” exclaimed Mr. Enlightenment in such a loud voice that the pony shied.

“I beg your pardon,” said John.

“Eh?” said Mr. Enlightenment.

“I didn’t quite understand,” said John.

“Why, it’s as plain as a pikestaff,” said the other. “Your people in Puritania believe in the Landlord because they have not had the benefits of a scientific training. For example, I dare say it would be news to you to hear that the earth was round — round as an orange, my lad!”

“Well, I don’t know that it would,” said John, feeling a little disappointed. “My father always said it was round.”

“No, no, my dear boy,” said Mr. Enlightenment, “you must have misunderstood him. It is well known that everyone in Puritania thinks the earth flat. It is not likely that I should be mistaken on such a point. Indeed, it is out of the question.”

C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason, and Romanticism [1933] (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 20-21.

***

I’ve long had it in my mind to read the works of the eminent Hungarian-American historian and philosopher of science Stanley Jaki (1924-2009), a priest who held doctorates in both physics and theology. What little I’ve read from him has been very good. So I looked for a bibliography of his writings, and this — merely a partial list, apparently — is what I found. I am, to put it mildly, just a bit intimidated:

(1966) The Relevance of Physics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)

(1969) Brain, Mind and Computers (New York: Herder and Herder)

(1969) The Paradox of Olbers’ Paradox: A Case History of Scientific Thought (New York: Herder and Herder)

(1972) The Milky Way: An Elusive Road for Science (New York: Science History Publications; Newton Abbott, England: David & Charles)

(1974) Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1978) Planets and Planetarians: A History of Theories of the Origin of Planetary Systems (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1978) The Road of Science and the Ways to God: The Gifford Lectures 1975 and 1976 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1978) The Origin of Science and the Science of its Origin (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1980) Cosmos and Creator (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1983) Angels, Apes and Men (La Salle, IL: Sherwood Sugden and Company)

(1984) Uneasy Genius: The Life and Work of Pierre Duhem (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff)

(1986) Lord Gifford and His Lectures: A Centenary Retrospect (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1986) Chesterton: A Seer of Science (Urbana: University of Illinois Press)

(1986) Chance or Reality and Other Essays (Lanham, MD and London: University Press of America; Bryn Mawr: PA: The Intercollegiate Studies Institute.)

(1988) The Savior of Science (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway)

(1988) The Absolute Beneath the Relative and Other Essays (Lanham, MD and London: University Press of America; Bryn Mawr: PA: The Intercollegiate Studies Institute)

(1988) The Physicist As Artist: The Landscapes of Pierre Duhem (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1989) God and the Cosmologists (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway; Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1990) The Purpose of It All (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway; Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1990) The Only Chaos and Other Essays (Lanham, MD and London: University Press of America; Bryn Mawr: PA: The Intercollegiate Studies Institute)

(1991) Pierre Duhem: Scientist and Catholic (Front Royal, VA: Christendom Press)

(1992) Reluctant Heroine: The Life and Work of Hélène Duhem (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press)

(1992) Genesis 1 through the Ages (London: Thomas More Press)

(1992) Universe and Creed (Milwaukee: WI: Marquette University Press)

(1993) Is There a Universe? (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press; New York: Wethersfield Institute)

(1994) Patterns and Principles and Other Essays (Bryn Mawr, PA: The Intercollegiate Studies, Inc.)

(1996) Bible and Science (Front Royal, VA: Christendom Press)

(1998) The Virgin Birth and the Birth of Science (Fraser, MI: Real View Books)

(1999) Means to Message: A Treatise on Truth (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans)

(2000) The Limits of a Limitless Science and Other Essays (Bryn Mawr, PA: The Intercollegiate Studies Institute)

(2000) Christ and Science (Royal Oak, MI: Real View Books)

(2000) Giordano Bruno: A Martyr of Science? (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2000) Maybe Alone in the Universe, after All (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2000) Advent and Science (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2001) Galileo Lessons (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2001) Jesus, Islam, Science (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2002) A Mind’s Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans)

(2003) Numbers Decide and Other Essays (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2004) Questions on Science and Religion (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2005) The Drama of Quantities (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2006) A Late Awakening and Other Essays (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

(2008) Impassable Divide (Pinckney, MI: Real View Books)

Posted from New York City

Previous Post

May 19, 2022

Entitled Cogitations

Next Post

May 21, 2022 "Under the Banner of Heaven," Episode 5: "One Mighty and Strong"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who led the Israelites into the Promised Land?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Aaron Joshua Moses Caleb