I have always been fortunate to know scientists who don’t confuse the domain of science with their own philosophical presuppositions. It is, after all, one of the most common—and probably the most absurd—of all contemporary secular claims that the physical sciences somehow disprove the existence of God.
This claim is nothing but a huge category mistake, for science (in the modern sense of rigorous study of the phenomena we can observe pertaining to material things) has nothing to say about the most fundamental philosophical and/or theological question of all: Why is there something rather than nothing? So strong is the modern secular desire to latch onto science as an excuse for ignoring philosophical, theological, religious and spiritual questions that it is not uncommon for highly-praised scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, to believe that the “Big Bang” theory of the universe somehow needs no philosophical or theological or spiritual explanation. Such popular scientific figures tend to argue that the “Big Bang” shows that everything came into being spontaneously and suddenly as an initial explosion, proving that no Creator was needed. To the contrary, of course, it is a fantasy of circular reasoning to assume, in effect, that “nothing” just happened to “explode” into “something”—that what “was not” simply exploded without a cause into “what is”. This is third grade stuff, of course, rooted in the pride of men and women over the past several hundred years who simply cannot abide the thought that they owe their existence to something or someone greater than themselves, something or someone they ought to think deeply about and perhaps obey. Nonetheless, in today’s scientific community, scientists who also possess Faith in God are often regarded as threats to scientific research, since their “infantile” assumptions about God will surely cause them to twist the results of scientific research.
Spitzer, Verschuuren, Fowler
Among the keen minds who have written wisely and well on the intersection of science, philosophy and the God question, are Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Gerard Verschuuren, and a personal friend, Thomas B. Fowler, whose latest book I am still reading (and will eventually advertise on our website). I list some previous commentaries on their works at the end of this one. The latest book of many by the geneticist Verschuuren, How Science Points to God from Sophia Institute Press, does an excellent job of establishing how nearly everything in scientific study points to God once we set aside our determination to confuse or avoid the God question, including:
Scientific assumptions
Laws of nature
Physical constants
The quest for a Grand Unified Theory
The Big Bang
Evolution
Neuroscience
Behavioral science
Logic and math; and
Gödel’s Theorem
Fr. Spitzer delved deeply into both physics and philosophy in his 2010 book, New Proofs for the Existence of God. Tom Fowler, whose background is in physics, systems analysis and philosophy, has not only detailed The Evolution Controversy, closely examining what the various theories can and cannot explain, but has just completed a book entitled Science, Faith, and Scientists which not only outlines the history of science, but sheds a great deal of light on the suitability and capability of Catholic scientists. (Again, I am still awaiting purchasing information for this new volume.)
This suitability and capability is verified by what any historian of science already knows—that some of the greatest discoveries in modern science have been made by serious Catholics. That is not my central point today, but it is telling. While anyone can mix personal and even philosophical commitments with scientific study in destructive ways, as a general rule Catholicism inculcates an awareness of the totality of reality and a humility about human assumptions which actually prepares the ground well for any kind of serious research and study.
The point is whatever it is that started the world, whether it is a big bank or any other thing, has their own beginning. The big bank wasn’t just found. We have to know who placed it there.
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