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CURRENTLY IN CULTURE
The faith of a scientist

James Toews

“Good science is a very religious act,” writes Brother Guy Consolmagno in his book Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist (McGraw-Hill, 2000). It is a controversial and easily misunderstood statement. A prevailing assumption today is that religion and science are, by definition, in irreconcilable conflict.

It was not always so. In fact, as Consolmagno points out, for many of the scientists who laid the foundations of modern science, science and theology were branches of the same discipline. Somewhere along the way, a divorce took place – and it has been messy. Like a royal divorce, the battle is being fought in the full view of the world, which, for the most part, looks on in bewilderment – with many people feeling they are called to choose but unwilling to disavow either party.

Consolmagno is an unusual person. A professional astronomer specializing in the study of asteroids, a devout Christian, a Catholic and a Jesuit, he is currently the astronomer and curator of one of the world’s largest collections of meteorites, at the Vatican Observatory. Such credentials may effectively destroy Consolmagno’s credibility in many circles, but those who take the time to read his book will be challenged and inspired.

There are several stages to Consolmagno’s argument. First, he tells his own story of religious faith and science. While having the intelligence to earn a Ph.D. in planetary science and then teach at MIT, Consolmagno also comes across as a person wrestling with questions of life and relationships that are clearly religious. Here, in a single person reside two great passions – one for the study of the universe and the other for adoration of the Creator of that universe as revealed in the Bible. That there is the need to defend the claim that these two passions can co-exist in an apparently sane and rational human being is a telling commentary on the state of the conflict – but Consolmagno tells his story deftly and without defensiveness.

Within the story of his twin passions, Consolmagno addresses the conflict itself. The most visible issue is the matter of the age of the earth. It was Bishop Ussher, a 16th-century churchman, who determined that the earth was created in 4004 BC. This is probably the easiest of the issues to resolve. There are sincere Christians who believe this (and Consolmagno counts some such people among his friends), but this is not a tenet of historic Christian doctrine.

A far deeper issue in the rift between Christianity and science is the infamous 1633 trial of Galileo. According to conventional wisdom, it was with this trial that the separation began. Catholicism does not represent all of Christianity, and those Christians who are not Catholics can quickly distance themselves from the Pope’s condemnation of Galileo’s views. As a Roman Catholic, Consolmagno does not have this luxury. This forces him to challenge a long-standing popular myth – that the trial of Galileo was a conflict between Christianity and science. Consolmagno does not need to bring obscure resources to this debate but rather simply retells what historians have always known. The battle at that trial was between those theologians and scientists who had incorporated the Greek earth-centred cosmology of Ptolemy (an Alexandrian scientist of the 2nd century) and those theologians and scientists who were intrigued by the cosmology of Copernicus (a 16-century Christian). The battle was carried out in the universities, back rooms and courtrooms of the day. It was tainted with intrigue, alliances and malice, and was intertwined with the politics of the Reformation. The casualties were honest inquiry and truth. This is a story that Protestants do not feel compelled to tell, but Consolmagno does. In doing so, he does us all a great service. Like an unresolved charge of adultery, the myth of Galileo’s trial has developed a life of its own, and for nearly 400 years Christians have been unable to move from beneath its shadow. For those who care to listen, the myth can be dismissed.

Like any bitter divorce, however, reconciliation involves far more than a well developed argument or even a few civilized conversations. In the past 400 years, there have been many angry confrontations and bitter assaults by both sides. The painful memory of those attacks is still very much alive today. This book does not claim to have moved science and theology back into the same house, but Brother Astronomer goes a long way to showing that the bitter tension does not have to go on. In his book, Consolmagno shows passionate Christianity and a deep love of science living side by side in a deep and unifying harmony. This is a very good book.

James Toews is senior pastor of Neighbourhood Church in Nanaimo, B.C.

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Last modified December 3, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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