science and religion are not mortal enemies

1. Science and Faith
What’s the problem?
Mr. Matthew S. MacLennan,
BSc Honours, BEd, PhD Candidate
St. Thomas Aquinas School
February 16-17, 2015

2. Outline
• About me
• Science and faith – problems?
• What can we do about it?
• The fullness of truth

3. About me

4. I LOVE Science!
• Discovery of cures and medicines; the
structure of the human body
• Discovery of new particles of matter (quarks,
the Higgs boson) and the age of planets and
the universe
• Discovery of bacteria and viruses
• Evolution, ecology and the environment
• Faster and better technologies, the internet

6. The “New” Atheists
• Richard Dawkins
• Christopher Hitchens
• Daniel Dennett
• …and some others.

8. Famous Scientists who Believe in God
• Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton
• Father Gregor Mendel – Founder of genetics
• Father Georges LeMaitres – Originator of the Big
Bang Theory
• Dalton, Volta, Joule, Pasteur
• Thousands of others…
• Overall, Christians have won a total of 78.3% of
all the Nobel Prizes in Peace, 72.5% in Chemistry,
65.3% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, 54%
in Economicsand 49.5% of all Literature awards.

10. Reasons for disbelief
• Fear
• Hatred
• Misunderstanding

11. Insulting language
• “Religion is capable of driving people to such
dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify
as a kind of mental illness.” – R.D.
• “To 'choose' dogma and faith over doubt and
experience is to throw out the ripening vintage
and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.” – C.H.
• “Go ahead and believe in God, if you like, but
don't imagine that you have been given any
grounds for such a belief by science.” – D.D.

12. Misunderstanding of God
• “Believing in God is like believing in the tooth
fairy or the flying spaghetti monster.” –
Dawkins (not direct quote)
• “God is the ground of all existence.”
• “God is the sheer act of being itself.”
• “God is the ultimate transcendent truth”
• “I am”
• “The one God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit”

13. Misunderstanding of faith
• “Faith is a weak cop out; faith is a mental illness;
faith is blind, but science is for intelligent, real
people…”
• “Faith is not irrational; it is superrational.” St. T.A.
• “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the
human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth;
and God has placed in the human heart a desire
to know the truth.” St. Pope JP2
• What has faith been for you? Is it time to take it
to the next level?

14. Misunderstanding of science
• Science asks questions about physical reality
and obtains answers by measuring and
detecting.
• Science cannot answer questions about God
because God cannot be measured.
• “How tall is God?” “What is God’s shoe size?”
• Is there reality that is not physical? Are there
truths we know outside of “science”?

15. What can we do?
• Pray and grow in REAL faith in the REAL God!
• Never believe that insults are good arguments
• Know the difference between “scientific
evidence” and “philosophical arguments”
• Follow philosophies that are life-giving,
positive, community-building, full of purpose,
and line up with reality.
• Learn to love science and learn to love culture
and religion – All methods of finding truth

16. SUMMARY
• If you understand REAL faith, understand who
the true God is, understand what religion
involves, understand the goals of science…
• THEN science and religion—faith and reason—
are not mortal enemies. In fact, they work
together to know the full truth about God and
the full truth about ourselves.

17. Exercises
• Modern materialism strips people of the need
to feel responsible and often enough, so does
religion. But I think if you take quantum
mechanics seriously enough it puts the
responsibility squarely in your lap. And it
doesn't give answers that are clear-cut and
comforting.