Faith and Science

Faith and Science Presentation
To the Marian Congress in Phoenix, Arizona.

August 2009

I had been praying that I would meet this gentle man since 1997- and now, 12 years later in my time-but definitely the right time in God's years, I have come to know Fr. Chávez. How blessed we are to have this messenger of Our Lady help us to understand her message! I would like to thank Fr. Chávez for his invitation to be with you all here today.
 
Faith and Science:  In today's culture it would seem these 2 concepts are at odds with each other and, in some cases, totally opposed to each other. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal written by Lawrence Krauss, was titled "God and Science Don't Mix". The whole premise of his article was that to be a good scientist you cannot act as if you believed in God, because believing in God would introduce a bias to one's accomplishments in science.

He states: "So, while scientific rationality does not require atheism, it is by no means irrational to use it as the basis for arguing against the existence of God, and thus, to conclude that the claimed 'miracles', like the virgin birth, are incompatible with our scientific understanding of nature."  I think this poor author is so lost.

First, he is putting limits on nature: second, he is stating that if we don't have a scientific explanation for something, then it cannot be: and thirdly, he is implying that at this point all science is known.  Please keep this man in your prayers.
 
Let's start with an understanding of Faith and Science.

What is Faith? 

Faith is a Gift of God - a belief in the absolute Truth.  It is unlimited in essence and only partially understood. Faith is "certain" and seeks understanding ( this is where science comes in).
 
What is Science?

Science is man's use of the gift of reason.  It is his experience and thought applied to pursue a fuller understanding of the absolute Truth - GOD, the Will of God. This "reasoned approach" applies not only to our scientific studies in physics, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, and astronomy, but also in anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology, etc.
 
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church "there should never be any real discrepancy between Faith and Reason (science).”  The human heart is drawn to understand the things he has put his faith in. For this purpose we have the gift of reason- and the application of reason, in the light of the truth.  That is our definition of science.
 
But yet, in our culture today, it seems there is a huge discrepancy.....evolution vs. creationism, viability vs. conception, natural order vs. randomness, traditional medicine vs. holistic medicine, etc.
 
This is really not a new problem for mankind.  Take the Greeks for example-   they loved their mathematics - whole numbers, rational number were everything. Their whole system was built on rational numbers - but then Pythagoras came along and with his equation for finding the hypotenuse of a right triangle (remember - the sum of the square of the sides is equal to the square of the hypotenuse) and the measurement of the hypotenuse is the square root of the sums - the only problems was if the sides are, for example, one, then the hypotenuse is the square root of 2 which is an irrational number!

Pythagoras was imprisoned for years because of this equation.  Archimedes came along 250 years later and used this same equation and expanded it to find the area of a circle, pi r squared and used this to build the first catapult and stream-line ship building which positioned Greece as a military power over the known world! They wanted to make Archimedes a god but he asked: “why? The man who developed this principle you imprisoned 250 years ago!”

Thomas Aquinas is a great Saint- but even he had some of his science mixed up.  He believed that male infants were uniquely human 60 days after conception and female infants were uniquely human 90 days after conception.  Things are a little different now.

Lets zoom ahead to the early 1930's through 50's to Einstein and his equation E= mc2. This equation has helped launch our space program, given us new understandings of space, matter, and light. Yet because he broke with the "New Physics" of randomness his equation was renamed "a theory of relativity". Einstein believed this is an ordered, created, universe and that there was nothing relative in this idea. Our universe is created.  Our laws adhere to a natural order. We just can't comprehend all of that order.
 
Good science at the wrong time will go unnoticed, unappreciated, unapplied and even feared.  Bad science, at any time, casts doubt in the concept of the absoluteness of truth, and usually does not stand the test of time.  Good science, based in the truth, has a way of intensifying one's understanding of the Truth, giving the gift of faith a fullness that brings us ever closer to God.
 
Faith and science support each other when both are fully open to the truth.
 
Our gathering this week in the First Marion Congress dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe is a phenomenal example of the gift of faith merged with the accurate application of man's reason.

My faith infuses in me the belief that Our Lord, through His mother who asked her little son, Juan Diego, to help her bring the message of Christ to the people of the Americas through the Church.  The science of the tilma, the study of every aspect of this great gift, it's presence today, it's survival of the blast of the 1920's, the codex of her dress, the position of the stars in her mantle, the objects of her gaze only serve to intensify and make Our Lady's message clearer.  These facts also intensify my own faith and desire to understand and share her message!
 
Through our application of faith and science- in a setting where both are open to the full expression of the Truth - there are no discrepancies - only the continuing revelation of how small we really are in this great creation, and that through our gift of Faith and our gift of reason, we are offered a share in the Infinite Mystery of God.
 
We can only come to the Father through the Son and it is through Mary that we are able to meet Christ.
 
I call on you, as men and women of Christ, to deepen your faith through prayer and intensify your understanding through study based in truth, so that, with the guidance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we can help to bring about the Kingdom of God.