LET US NOT FORGET: RELIGION AND SCIENCE BOTH REQUIRE FAITH

The Vatican has invited the world's leading scientists and cosmologists to try and understand the theory of the Big Bang.

Astrophysicists and other experts will attend the Vatican Observatory to discuss black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities.

The conference is part of an increasing openness on the part of the Church to accept scientific theories as not necessarily in contradiction with Biblical or theological doctrine.

Such overtures by the Church are welcome for they provide the Church with a remarkable opportunity to highlight the fact that much, if not all, of human science is based on faith just as much as religion is.

The fact is, no matter how the secular world tries to spin it, every pursuit of truth (religious or scientific) begins with the acceptance of an unprovable axiom -- an a priori belief upon which all subsequent deducted truths are based.  This starting point , whatever it may be, can only be accepted by faith.   If not, then both religion and science are impossible, for there must be some unprovable, presupposed foundation for reasoning.  Otherwise, we are reduced to an infinite regression of unanswerable questions.

Religion presupposes acceptance of belief in god, in an uncaused cause, a prime mover, an omnipotent creator who is the source of all life and the order which can be perceived in creation.

But science begins with its own presupposition, equally unprovable, which requires an assent of faith, namely, that the physical universe obeys a set of rules, rules which can be deduced by observation and reduced to a series of mathematical formulae.  The assumption here is that everything in the universe is observable and subject to quantification.

Within the realm of religion, we call those realities which cannot be understood or reasonably deduced mysteries, realities beyond the scope and limit of human comprehension.  Within science, mysteries exist as well, realities which reach far beyond the narrow limits of man’s ability to observe and explain.  Science, however, doesn't admit to mysteries, explaining that questions remain because certain data remains to be collected and collated.

Religion doesn’t have all the answers, but neither does science.  Both never will.

The head of the Vatican Observatory, Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, says that you can believe in God and the big-bang theory.

That is correct.  Both Genesis and the Big-bang theory require faith, both require belief.  To suggest otherwise is pure arrogance and deception no matter who is espousing the lie.