Science&Faith

Introduction Do you have any idea how much the civilization that is simply called “ the West ” owes to the catholic church? Based on the results of renowned historians [ NB such as fr Stanley Jaki (physicist and historian) as presented by Stacey Trasancos (PhD chemist & graduated theologian), Thomas E. Woods Jr (American history professor) and James Hannam (British history professor); see also Vishal Mangalwadi (Indian philosopher)] this discussion starts with why previous civilizations (based on natural religions) fell short, then follows with how the catholic middle ages constructed the foundations of our civilization from the radical newness of the christian faith, and ends with thoughts on inevitable consequences of a general loss of faith. This amply illustrated post mentions all important aspects of 'the West': the Universities and Science , the Monks in Agriculture and Education , Morality , Caritas , ( International ) Law , Modern Economy and final...

                                  Shroud of Turin Religious man can be compared to a detective who searches for God all his life. Just as fingerprints are a clear sign to the investigator of one's presence, so too can one see signs of God's action in attributes of creation, certain events, specific objects, and certain persons. This post contains a list of various examples of where the 'hand of God' can be seen. A number of 'fingerprints' have already been worked out in separate posts; and I would like to refer you to the existing literature for a more extensive description of the other traces of God. • Nature (living and inanimate) exhibits an intrinsic order that on the one hand has great complexity, but is nevertheless understandable. This complex order has long been studied extensively by many scientists; humankind also tries to reproduce this order. The production of nature can therefor...

In the last forty years, it has become increasingly clear to scientists that the laws of nature (such as gravity) and the properties of our earth are particularly well suited to the existence of life. This has obvious philosophical implications for the origin of our extraordinary universe. Besides discussing these, this post gives an overview of the main examples of fine-tuning and some quotes from famous scientists to illustrate its impact. Introduction   In 1961, the American physicist Robert H. Dicke gave the anthropic principle its name when he noted that the laws of nature describing how matter behaves (such as Maxwell's laws for electromagnetism) must be such as to enable our existence in the universe. English astronomer John D. Barrow and American physicist Frank J. Tipler elaborated on this idea in their 1986 book The Anthropic Cosmological Principle by figuring out all the limitations that result from this. Laws of nature are expressed in mathematical formulas...

After the Marian apparition of 1531 in Mexico City, her miraculous image was left on the Tilma (cloak) of Juan Diego. This blog post briefly describes the most important historical, scientific & symbolic aspects of this image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is seen as complementary to the famous Shroud of Turin. Enjoy! History • The Aztecs had no experimental science, wheel or arch in architecture, but did have a capital with 300 thousand inhabitants. Already several centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards they expected that a 'white god' from the east would come. In the 15th century they also had a tower, without idol, built for an unknown, omnipresent and life-giving God; at the same time all their other gods looked extremely sad (even that of joy?!) and sometimes as many as 20,000 warriors were sacrificed for them. In 1509 the emperor's sister had a dream that ships with crosses on the sails would bring the true God, and after Halley's comet...

               Blaise Pascal: (a lot of) science leads (back) to God?! Introduction   This blog contains various topics that are interesting in one way or another from both the perspective of (natural) science and that of catholicism (and/or christianity/religion in general). In this post we're going to tackle the fundamental question: why do we care whether such themes exist or not? Why are they important? What does such a thematic overlap offer science and religion that they themselves do not have, in other words, what do they have to offer each other? Otherwise, we might as well leave science to the scientists (and those interested in science) and religion to the believers (and theologians), and that would be the end of the story. Separated worlds?  Many people see it this way: (natural) science and religion have nothing to offer each other (at least nothing that matters), they have N on- O verlapping MA gisteria (as the b...

Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945) was an author and intellectual, born in Londen on September 20th 1886, went to st Albans school and the University College in Londen. In 1908, Oxford University Press hired him as a literary adviser. Until his death on May 15th 1945 in Oxford (of which a later poetry professor said: “ This was a general disaster, like an air raid ... The war with Germany was over. Charles Williams was dead. And suddenly Oxford was not the same again .”) he remained employed there and increasingly became a valued and beloved member of staff. In 1917 he married Florence (‘ Michal ’) and they got a son Michael. Williams was, as an anglo-catholic, a dedicated member of the anglican church with a refreshing tolerance for the scepticism of others as well as the most original lay theologian of the 20th century. Important themes to him were romantic love (how it can help to understand our relationship with God, ‘Theology of the body’ avant la lettre ) and the ‘co...

Scientific investigations During the many years the apparitions are going on, a great many scientists have tested the visionaries in all possible ways and with all possible equipment.  First, various psychological investigations were done into the mental health of the visionaries to rule out that they were just imagining things. Jokingly the six say that they are one of only few people to have in writing that they are completely normal. Additionally, Marija (the most intelligent and mature of the visionaries according to the psychiatrist) gave the same description of the apparitions under hypnosis as awake, thus ruling out that it is just a scam. This is also ruled out by the exact synchronisation of the visionaries dropping to their knees, focusing on the exact same spot, becoming inaudible and later audible again and raising their heads when the Virgin leaves.  Next, over the years a multitude of physiological investigations were done on the physical functioning ...