The Challenges and Opportunities of Faith and Science Issues in University Pastoral Care

1. The Challenges and Opportunities of Faith and Science Issues in University Pastoral Care Rev. Dr Andrew Pinsent Research DirectorIan Ramsey Centre, Faculty of Theology and Religion University of Oxford

2. Faith and science issues • THE CHALLENGE: New atheism and the conflict metaphor • ANSWERING THE CHALLENGE: • DISTINCTIONS: God, philosophy, religion and faith • COMPATIBILITY: Can one be a person of faith and of science? • VALUE: What does faith ‘do’ to help us understand the world? • ACTIONS: How can we help faith ‘do’ what it is meant to do? Contents

3. THE CHALLENGE: NEW ATHEISM AND THE CONFLICT METAPHOR The challenge: new atheism and the conflict metaphor

4. The challenge at university (and in school) • From age 12 onwards, long before they can try to explain what ‘faith’ or ‘science’ mean, many students are absorbing the narrative that they are incompatible or even hostile. • This narrative is one of the key weapons of the (new) atheists, who generally argue, and want to believe, that theists are primitive, irrational and evil. The fact that sophisticated, specialist responses exist is almost irrelevant, since this narrative is communicated to intelligent non-specialists. • This problem is compounded by a general decline of philosophical thinking, even among intellectual leaders in other fields (as I discovered during a recent meeting of philosophers, theologians and leading scientists at CERN). The challenge: new atheism and the conflict metaphor

5. Some of the New Atheists … “What the New Atheists share is a belief that religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises.” Hooper, Simon. "The rise of the New Atheists". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/08/atheism.feature/index.html “Militant atheists tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate atheists do not. The first is that religion is demonstrably false or nonsense, and the second is that it is usually or always harmful.” Julian Baggini. Atheism. 2003. Page 150.

6. … and some of the Old Atheists A membership card of the “Society of the Godless” or “League of the Militant Godless” (left) and its magazine, Bezbozhnik (“The Godless”), published 1922 – 1941 (centre). This issue from 1929 shows Jesus being dumped from a wheelbarrow by an industrial worker. On the right is the dynamiting in 1931 of the largest Orthodox church ever built, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. The re-built cathedral was consecrated 19 August 2000. “The State recognises no religion, and supports and carries out atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people.” Article 37, The Constitution of People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, Approved 28 December 1976

7. Examples of books answering the ‘New Atheists’

8. An example of the effects on social policy Brian Iddon, the MP for Bolton South East, made the following contribution to a debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill: “… Throughout time, there has been a conflict between religion and science. We should remember Galileo, for example. It seems almost impossible to believe today, but Harvey's description of the circulation of the blood and the heart's role in it met large objections in his day.” … We hope that by taking the nuclei out of a skin cell or other cell of sufferers of these diseases and creating admixed human embryos, which the bill deals with, scientists will be able to find out how those diseases develop, with the ultimate goal of stopping them developing at all in every individual who might otherwise have acquired them.” The Palace of Westminster, where the Embryology Bill was debated 12th May. The building was designed by Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin. Pugin was a Catholic convert whose Gothic style was inspired by medieval Catholic architecture. The very building where legislation now contravenes natural law is a building inspired by Catholic civilization. Manchester Evening News BlogsPosted by David Ottewell on May 13, 2008 11:50 AM

9. Answering the challenge: basic facts, philosophy and theology • In the remainder of this talk, I want to present examples of the kinds of arguments that I give to students during their last four years of school and at university level at Oxford and elsewhere. • In my experience, even hostile students enjoy these talks and arguing through these issues with me. Students who have (or who are open to) faith gain greatly in confidence, not only from acquiring basic facts and training, but from seeing that faith continues to be intellectually respectable today. • More ambitiously, I do not just argue that faith is compatible with science. I propose that much of what we most value about our civilisation, including science, are direct or indirect fruits of faith. Such fruits may ultimately die in the absence of faith. The challenge: new atheism and the conflict metaphor

10. DISTINCTIONS: GOD, PHILOSOPHY, FAITH AND SCIENCE Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

11. Basic theism (natural knowledge of God) in contemporary secular society • Belief that there is a God is not unique to those who are ‘religious,’ cf. philosophical arguments of Plato, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Aristotle, Newton, Descartes, Kant etc. • This fact is obscured in contemporary culture. Classical, medieval and early modern natural philosophy often culminated in inferences to a first cause or God. By contrast, so-called ‘naturalism’ today excludes God a priori. • So it is helpful to teach or remind students of those inferences that begin from a philosophical examination of the natural world and end in the conclusion of a first cause or God. Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

12. Proofs for God’s existence • Cosmological (first efficient cause/ mover) • Teleological (design/goals in nature) • From degree (proof of ‘maximal being’) • Ontological (‘being greater than which cannot be conceived’) • Anthropic (unlikelihood of our existence) • Moral (existence of objective morality) • Transcendental (non-sense without God) Contrary to popular belief, many of these arguments are still ‘in play’ in contemporary philosophy, that is, they have new formulations and influential advocates. Attempts to invalidate these arguments usually try to show that God is not the only solution, not that God is not a solution. Furthermore, any objections to any proof of God existence can, at best, show that the proof is not valid rather than that God does not exist. Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

13. Sometimes the structures found in nature witness to an supra-human order that simply evokes belief in a divine mind and handiwork without any formal proof. This is the view of St Augustine when he wrote, “All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful’. Their beauty is a confession.” St Augustine, Sermon 241 (ccc. 32) The Infinitely Complex Mandelbrot Set, revealed from 1978 by means of computers

14. Why ‘God’ is practically unavoidable in the search for wisdom: the ‘cause funnel’ Number of known compounds: Very large:> 30 million Number of elements: c. 118 Number of elementary particles12 (+ force carriers; Higgs) Many particular things which are easy to know about A small number of universal causes that are hard to discover Towards knowledge of ‘first’ causes. The more remote andand powerful causes tend to be smaller in number, not links in an endless chain Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

15. Why ‘God’ is practically unavoidable in the search for wisdom: the ‘cause funnel’ Particular human actions (waking up, washing, eating, lunch with friends, going to college etc.) Flourishing of body, society and mind Happiness Many particular things which are easy to know about A small number of universal causes that are hard to discover Towards knowledge of ‘first’ causes. The more remote andand powerful causes tend to be smaller in number, not links in an endless chain Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

16. Why ‘God’ is practically unavoidable in the search for wisdom: the ‘first cause’ Cosmological proofs infer a ‘First Cause,’ an ‘Uncaused Cause’ that causes everything else in the cosmos: this conclusion is hard to avoid without denying our ability to trust causes remote from experience (cf. Hume), which also undermines science. The real challenge is to know what God is, not whether God is. Atheism usually offers substitutes, i.e. an alternative ‘god’ in all but name Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

17. Some opponents of the cosmological proof claim that the causal chain could be circular, avoiding the need to begin with a First Cause ... ... but closed systems of causes tend to decay, like a clock running down, and a circle of causes is not itself self-causing, so a further causal agent is still required.

18. Why ‘God’ is practically unavoidable in the search for wisdom: the ‘first cause’ A chain of causes, no matter how long, needs a first cause, even if this foundation is remote from what is directly perceptible.

19. Why ‘God’ is practically unavoidable in the search for wisdom: the ‘first cause’ A chain of causes, no matter how long, needs a first cause, even if this foundation is remote from what is directly perceptible.

20. The North Korean national anthem Millions of flowers on the earth tell us his love. Blue waves of the ocean sing of his work. He is the creator of happiness to grow the garden of Ju-che. Long live, long live, General Kim Jong-Il ! An English translation of the second verse of the (former) national anthem of North Korea The Juche (‘joo-cheh’) Idea is the official state ideology of North Korea and its political system. The core principle of the Juche ideology since the 1970s has been that 'man is the master of everything and decides everything'.

21. Importance of basic philosophical training • Showing inferences to God’s existence through philosophy is important in itself. Philosophy more generally helps to neutralise many other perceived faith and science conflicts. • For example, a brief examination of what is meant by modern ‘science’ shows that it deals, for the most part, with laws of regular quantitative phenomena and can say little, by itself, even about essences of natural things. Even “Is Pluto a planet?” cannot be answered by experiments alone. So science, though valuable, is also inherently limited. • A brief examination of what is meant by ‘cause’ also shows that things usually have more than one type of cause, e.g. material and formal. Such clarifications for students help open the door to understanding the notion of immaterial causation, e.g. the soul being the ‘form’ of the body, cf. Aquinas, ST I, q.76 a.1. Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

22. Theism and faith • Belief in God’s existence and religion overlap but are not identical. Besides facts or inferences about the world, religion typically involves worship, traditions, ritual and other elements. • The conception of ‘God’ and the relationship with God vary considerably, e.g. Islam (mainly third-personal); Christianity and ‘narrative Judaism’ (mainly second-personal) and Buddhism (‘no-personal,’ i.e. no personal God or relation). • The remainder of this talk focuses on ‘faith,’ the root virtue of a second-person relation to God by grace (divine adoption). “Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved you! ...You were with me and I was not with you ... You called and cried to me and broke open my deafness: and you sent forth your beams and shone upon me and chased away my blindness: you breathed fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and do now pant for you: I tasted you, and now hunger and thirst for you: you touched me, and I have burned for your peace.” Augustine, Confessions 10.27.38. Translation from The Divine Office: The Liturgy of the Hours According to the Roman Rite (London: Collins, 1974), 225* Distinctions: God, philosophy, religion and faith

23. FAITH AND SCIENCE:ARE THEY COMPATIBLE? Faith and science:are they compatible?

27. Mgr Georges Lemaître, Father of the Big Bang Mgr Georges Lemaître (d. 1966), a Belgian Catholic priest, proposed what became known as the ‘Big Bang’ theory of the origin of the Universe, deriving what became known as ‘Hubble's Law’ in a paper in 1927, two years before Edwin Hubble confirmed the expansion of the universe. He also proposed the way in which the theory might be tested by searching for radiation from the Big Bang. He died on shortly after having learned of the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation, proof of his intuitions about the birth of the Universe. Faith and science:are they compatible?

28. Fr Lemaître was honoured by the Church: he was made president of the Pontifical Academy of Science in 1936 and a Monsignor in 1960. By contrast, as late as 1948, astronomers in the Soviet Union, a state constituted officially on the basis of an atheist Marxist system, were urged to oppose the Big Bang theory as ‘promoting clericalism’ (cf. Kragh, Cosmology and Controversy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 262).

29. Mgr Gregor Mendel, Father of Modern Genetics Gregor Mendel (d. 1884) was an Austrian Augustinian priest and scientist often called the ‘father of genetics’ for his study of the inheritance of traits in peas (between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested c. 29,000 pea plants). Mendel showed that the inheritance of traits follows particular laws, later named after him. Mendel's paper was published in 1866 in Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brünn, but largely ignored for nearly half a century. The rediscovery of Mendel’s work prompted the foundation of genetics. Faith and science:are they compatible?

30. Fr Angelo Secchi, Father of Astrophysics Fr. Angelo Secchi (d. 1878), S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, made the first spectroscopic survey of the heavens, classifying stars by four spectral types. He also studied sunspots, solar prominences, photographed solar corona during the eclipse of 1860, invented the heliospectroscope, star spectroscope, telespectroscope and meteorograph. He also studied double stars, weather forecasting and terrestrial magnetism. He is considered to be the father of the ‘spectral classification of stars,’ leading to an understanding of their physics and evolution. Faith and science:are they compatible?

31. Fr Nicholas Steno, Father of Stratigraphy Nicolas Steno (d. 1686) was the founder of stratigraphy, the interpretation of rock strata. He is credited with the law of superposition, the principle of original horizontality, and the principle of lateral continuity, which are the building blocks for the interpretation of the natural history of rocks and the development of geology. Note that a Catholic layman, Georg Pawer (d. 1555) earned the title ‘father of mineralogy’ for his great work On the Nature of Metals. Faith and science:are they compatible?

32. Fr Boscovich S.J., Father of Field Theory Fr. Boscovich’s Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis (1758) developed a theory of matter as consisting of many dimensionless points, with the mutual attraction of any pair of points being some general function of the distance between them, represented by an oscillatory curve. Field theory are now fundamental to modern physics. Einstein’s efforts in 1919 to create a unified theory of physics was based upon extending Newtonian theory along the lines of Boscovich, who was also an early advocate of atomic theory. Yet few textbooks mention him today. Faith and science:are they compatible?

33. Fr René Hauy, Father of Crystallography René Haüy (d. 1822) was ordained a priest and had a strong amateur interest in science. Examining the fragments of a calcareous spar, he was led to make experiments which resulted in the statement of the geometrical law of crystallization associated with his name. Haüy is also known for the observations he made in pyroelectricity. His brother was Valentin Haüy, the founder of the first school for the blind, its most famous student being Louis Braille. Faith and science:are they compatible?

34. Fr Nicholas Callan, Pioneer in Electronics The induction coil was invented by priest and scientist Fr. Nicholas Callan in 1836 at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, inspired by the work of Michael Faraday. Fr Callan. An induction coil produces an intermittent high-voltage alternating current from a low-voltage direct current supply. It is one of the foundations of modern electronic technology. Induction coils were used to provide high voltage for early gas discharge and Crookes tubes and for X-ray research. Fr. Callan also invented the ‘Maynooth Battery' in 1854, using inexpensive cast-iron instead of platinum or carbon. He built the world’s largest battery at that time, and discovered an early form of galvanisation to protect iron from rusting. Faith and science:are they compatible?

35. Women as Early Scientists in Catholic Italy La versiera di Agnesi, which means ‘the curve of Agnesi’, read by Cambridge professor John Colson as ‘l'avversiera di Agnesi’, where ‘avversiera’ means ‘witch’. The mistranslation stuck. Maria Gaetana Agnesi (d. 1799) was one of a number of remarkable women scientists associated with the University of Bologna in the 18th century. Others include Laura Bassi (d. 1778), Anna Morandi Manzolina (d. 1774), and Maria Dalle Donne (d. 1842). Agnesi is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus. In 1750, Maria Agnesi was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Bologna. After the death of her father in 1752 she gave herself to the study of theology, the care of the poor, homeless, and sick. She eventually joined a religious order in Milan. To put this achievement in perspective, Winifred Merrill was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in mathematics in the United States – in 1886. Faith and science:are they compatible?

36. World exploration and the first scientific maps Geographical Exploration Marco Polo: c. 1254 –1324, 24 year exploration of Asia covering 15,000 miles Prince Henry the Navigator, 1394 – 1460: Azores, West Coast of Africa. Bartolomeu Dias, 1488: southern tip of Africa. Christopher Columbus, 1492: America Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522: first crossing of Pacific; first global circumnavigation. ____________________________ Catholic Explorers also founded and named vast numbers of countries and cities, such as San Francisco (St Francis) and São Paulo (St Paul) The First Scientific Maps:Diogo Ribeiro’s version of the Padrón real (1529) Fr Matteo Ricci, SJ, 1552 – 1610

37. The Gregorian Calendar from 1582 Detail of the tomb of Pope Gregory XIII celebrating the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar, on 24 February 1582. The Gregorian Calendar with its leap years is now used almost all countries worldwide. Much of the work was done by Aloysius Lilius and Fr Christopher Clavius SJ, drawing from measurements using meridian lines in Italian basilicas. Faith and science:are they compatible?

38. Is atheism genuinely the friend of science? Examples of the persecution of intellectuals in the atheist regimes of the twentieth century, especially in the USSR and Communist China: Nikolai Vavilov, who was murdered; Andrei Sakharov, who endured internal exile; and the Chinese 'Cultural Revolution,' during which intellectuals of all kinds were denigrated and persecuted as enemies of the people. Faith and science:are they compatible?

39. Faith and science: are they compatible? • Most of the time, modern science deals with matters that are not directly connected with faith at all, often involving measurements, laws and quantities. • What should be clear from these examples is that there are no grounds for supposing a naïve hostility to exist between faith and science, or that being a person of faith precludes fruitfulness in science and intellectual life at the highest levels. • But is there a stronger causal connection between faith and fruitfulness in science? Is the weak conclusion the best that we can offer: that faith and science are not incompatible .... ? Faith and science:are they compatible?

40. VALUE: WHAT DOES FAITH ‘DO’ FOR SCIENCE? What does faith ‘do’ for science?

41. What does faith ‘do’ for science? • Faith does not oppose science, but why should the practitioner of science care about faith at all? • Faith does not teach us about mathematical laws and teaches us very few facts about the world that we cannot find out by other means. Except rarely, faith does not produce falsifiable predictions. So what does faith ‘do’? What is its value? • I propose that faith adds value in at least two ways: first, by shaping the cultural setting within which science is carried out (sitz im leben); second, by shaping of our contextual or gestalt perception of the world, an influence revealed especially in art. What does faith ‘do’ for science?

42. Faith forms culture: philosophy Principles adopted, introduced or transfigured by Catholic intellectual life: THE PERSON SUBSTANCE AND ACCIDENT FREE WILL AND INTELLECT VIRTUE ETHICS UNIFIED BY CARITAS (LOVE) SECONDARY CAUSATION THE FOUR CAUSES CRITICAL REALISM MATTER AS GOOD, NOT EVIL OBJECTIVE AND NATURAL LAW IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL NATURE AND SUPERNATURAL GRACE SECOND-PERSON RELATEDNESS TO GOD PRINCIPLE OF NON-CONTRADICTION St Thomas Aquinas O.P.1225-1274 What does faith ‘do’ for science?

43. Faith forms culture: time, history, records, progressive ‘evolution’ The standard worldwide system for counting the days of the year, the Gregorian Calendar, 1582, named after Pope Gregory XIII. St Bede the Venerable (623/4 – 725). Father of English History Escarpement: used in cathedral clocks, monasteries and town halls by c. 1200. CHRIST Giovanni De Dondi's astronomical clock, the Astrarium, built 1364, Padua, Italy BC AD 0 400 600 400 200 200 600 History as progression centered on Christ rather than an endless repetition What does faith ‘do’ for science?

44. Faith forming culture: education Monasteries, where manuscripts were copied, developed and preserved for centuries, helped save civilisation after the barbarian invasions of the fifth century. These orders taught Europe to read again. Lindisfarne Priory (f. 635), famous for Lindisfarne Gospels. Like other monasteries in England, Lindisfarne was destroyed by Henry VIII. There were over 50 universities in Catholic Europe by the time of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. These universities included Bologna (1088); Paris (c. 1150); Oxford (1167); Salerno (1173); Vicenza (1204); Cambridge (1209); Salamanca (1218-1219); Padua (1222) and Naples (1224). King’s School Canterbury, possibly founded by St Augustine in 597, the world’s oldest extent school Roughly 10% of children in England today are educated in Catholic schools, and these schools tend to be oversubscribed. Across the world, Church schools educate nearly 50 million students worldwide and provide much of the education in many developing countries. What does faith ‘do’ for science?

45. Faith forming culture: morality NOT divine puppetry NOT simply following divine instructions (although these are important) God G O A person with the Gifts of the Spirit Object P Freely loving with God what God loves, informed by good teaching, culminating in divine friendship: this second-person relationship underpins the humility, trust, truthfulness and modes of teaching upon which much intellectual progress depends. What does faith ‘do’ for science?

46. Faith forming culture: law From the 12th century, Catholic scholars such as Gratian drew together the terms of Revelation, Roman Law (esp. the Christian emperor Justinian), together with Visigothic, Saxon, and Celtic legal elements, with Greek philosophical dialectic. The result effectively created the ‘science of law,’ jurisprudence, and a wide range of concepts we still use today, such as: AGENCY OR REPRESENTATION ‘SOCIETAS’ (‘PARTNERSHIP’) AND ‘UNIVERSITAS’ NATURAL AND POSITIVE LAW THEORY OF CONTRACTS LAW AS A UNIFIED SYSTEM FIDUCIARY TRUST LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP AS A PROFESSION OBJECTIVE LAW, WHICH EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL RULERS CANNOT CONTRAVENE What does faith ‘do’ for science?

47. Faith forming culture: society Catholic social teaching envisages society as a garden rather than a machine, in contrast to much modern political philosophy (e.g. Rousseau) St Ambrose confronting Theodosius, c. 390. The distinct powers of the state and Church defend society, teaching and sacraments, but the fruitfulness of the ‘garden’ arises from divine inspiration and personal initiative at a local level. A healthy Catholic society has many diverse institutions: for example, families, parishes, religious orders, guilds, distinct national identities, and is culturally diverse, e.g. Italian city states, Spain. Modern principles derived from Catholic Social Teaching include: subsidiarity (Fr Oswald von Nell-Breuning; Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum), developed by Belloc and others into distributivism. What does faith ‘do’ for science?

48. 1432 Faith forms gestalt perception Van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece or The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, completed in 1432

49. 1524 Joachim Patinir, The Penitence of St Jerome, completed in 1524

50. 1569 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, completed in 1569