While many may have placed science and religion on two extreme polarities, as a Catholic scientist, or a scientific Catholic, I have always seen them as complementary rather than contradicting. As one who has brought up by a pair of loving parents with the education of reasons and rationales, the grace of the Lord has trained me to a PhD chemist/scientist. So, whenever I have heard people putting science and religion on both polarities, I’d always respond with a smile. I’m not an expert in theology, nor an expert in all aspects of science, but I would like to draw from my own experience on why science and Christianity (as I am a Catholic) are not of the opposite ends but rather, hand-in-hand in the process of our truth-seeking process.
One of the biggest similarities between science and Christianity, is that both strive to seek the truth.[1] In other words, instead of trying to disprove one another, both have a common goal. As Albert Einstein has put it, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”. They are complementary to help us to find and understand what truth is. Science builds understanding based on the observations in the physical world, while Christianity deepens through the experience of the human race with the divine love. Both of them do not come out of nothing nor from pure imagination. Both of them are built upon a basis and interpolate/extrapolate using our current intellect. Both are not a rigid doctrine: advancement in technology and scientific understanding may overflow old theories and hypothesis – it is like quantum physics contrasts classical mechanics; and the relationship between the human race and God deepens as the human experience with the divine love intensifies.
Another similarity is that there are still huge perplexities in the understanding in both science and Christianity. Where do we come from? What is out there before the Big Bang? Is string theory true? There are always so many questions when we trace back to the very beginning. Scientists would set up postulates, where a proposed theory has not been rebuked yet by proofs or evidence and accepted. This could be a faith in science. It is not a blind faith, it is based on proofs and evidence to develop into them. On the other hand, there are always unanswered questions regarding God, and the divine world. The analogy of scientists in the church is perhaps the religious fathers, who have studied and researched from history, spirituality, observations and a bunch of solid studies to develop Christian doctrines.
The acceptance of this unrevealed reality draws both scientists and Christians to the common ground - humility. It is to accept that we are limited so that we can learn and grow. And in both science and Christianity, we are seeking in our growth in the truth.
Perhaps one might argue, that science does not prove that God exists while in Christianity, we believe the existence of God. However, this God is not the God that perhaps now being commonly illustrated by people in the world. God is not the existence of a supreme being who is an item in the world or above the world. God is also not a distant object, who has wound things up and went to retirement.[2] So, what is the God in Christianity? In Exodus, God told Moses, “I am who I am.” One might say, this does not illustrate anything! But God’s nature is to be, according to Thomas Aquinas.[3] He is not the one being among many, nor the one contingent among many. He is the being. This is perhaps why we can already experience God even when we are still. (Psalm 46:10). We need not earn to experience Him, nor need to do anything to get a taste of God. By definition, God is the sheer act of being itself.
The Bible is not a scientific book that is composed of factual history but consists of inspirational insights. In Genesis, God creates the world from nothing. He does not impose his will on some rival power nor to His creation. But rather, through a sheerly generous, non-violent act of love, God gives rise to all things. And creatures, as the bible described, are a relationship to God.2
The worm transitions to butterfly, tiny seeds grow into giant trees, little babies become mature adults. The world is evolving, and we are growing in God’s nourishment. As Thomas Aquinas described, God is still in continual creation. God is still at work and He is still creating. Our deepest centre is created by God and therefore we are all interconnected by our bonding with God. God is provident and not distant.
It is through divine love and grace who has opened my eyes to appreciate the beauty of the nature. And it is through the beauty of nature that has immersed me into deep divine love.
- written on Apr-12, 2020
[1] Polkinghorne, J. C. (2007) Quantum Physics and Theology: An Unexpected Kinship. (2007) Yale University Press.
[2] Bishop Barron, R. Word on Fire. Accessed by: https://www.wordonfire.org/study-programs/catholicism/
[3] Humphries, T. L. (2019) The Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology. Ed. Ayres, L. Volpe, M. A. Oxford University Press.
