Fake News about the Conflict between Faith and Science—I probably was in the Fifth Grade when in science class we studied a unit on genetics. In it we were taught about Gregor Mendel an Augustinian monk who is considered the Father of Genetics. Mendel is famous for experiments that led to his formulation of the Laws of Mendelian Inheritance that explain how genes are passed on from parents to child. I thought it was interesting that a Catholic priest was famous for such discoveries.
It is laughable now but I remember talking to my father and asking him if he knew about Mendel and that he was a priest. My father had a science background and of course he was very much aware of Mendel and his work. He also told me about Fr. Georges Lemaitre and Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier who were physicists at the beginning of the 20th Century. Fr. Lemaitre is credited with formulating the Big Bang Theory. He told me that many scientific discoveries throughout the centuries have been made by faithful Catholic clergy and laity throughout the centuries. One of my father’s favorites was the 17th Century mathematician and physicist Blasé Pascal. He was also a Christian philosopher and searched for a proof of God. He formulated Pascal’s Wager as that proof.
Last week I wrote about an article in Our Sunday Visitor. The article cited two studies conducted by CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate). They found that much of the decline of faith among Millennials is because they feel there is a conflict between science and faith. The study attributed this conflict to Millennials’ lack of education in the Catholic faith. The studies contend that while Catholic school students can be taught religion in one class and science in the next one, many Millennials have never had that opportunity to study both subjects side by side. In fact 38% of Millennials lack any Catholic education either in a Catholic School or a parish Religious Education Program, the CARA studies found.
The truth is the Catholic Church has few disagreements with modern science. It has never banned the study of evolution or other important scientific topic. Actually, there is much about Catholicism that is consistent with scientific evidence. Much of the belief that there is a conflict between Catholicism and science comes from centuries of “fake news” dating all the way back to the Enlightenment.
The problem is that the Catholic Church is misunderstood by many in the media and thrown into the religion vs. science war alongside fundamentalist evangelical denominations. These groups believe in Biblical inerrancy and hold to a word for word literal interpretation of the Bible. Catholics do not interpret the Bible that way. While Catholics believe in Biblical literalism, we do not believe in a strict word for word interpretation. For example, while we believe that God created the world, we do not hold to the idea that it was created in seven 24-hour days corresponding to our week. For Catholics a “day” of creation could very likely be a million or even a billion of our calendar years.