{"id":25893,"date":"2010-10-28T10:55:11","date_gmt":"2010-10-28T14:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/10\/the-task-of-science-was-and-re\/"},"modified":"2010-10-28T10:55:11","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T14:55:11","slug":"the-task-of-science-was-and-re","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/10\/the-task-of-science-was-and-re\/","title":{"rendered":"The task of science was AND remains a patient, passionate search for truth about the cosmos, nature, the constitution of the human being, Pope tells us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pontifical<\/a><\/p>\n

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For those who think that the Catholic Church, orthodox Catholic theology, the Pope, or any right-thinking Catholic person in the 21st century is against science: think again. Take your head out of the sand; do some reading. Today, His Holiness address the distinguished members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences<\/a> meeting for their plenary assembly. The theme they’ve chosen to explore is “The Scientific Legacy of the Twentieth Century<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Two papal hopes for future scientists: “the need for an interdisciplinary approach tied with philosophical reflection” and that the work of science “always be informed by the imperatives of fraternity and peace, helping to solve the great problems of humanity, and directing everyone’s efforts towards the true good of man and the integral development of the peoples of the world.”<\/p>\n

Benedict addressed the following text to 80 scientists:<\/p>\n

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The history of science in the twentieth century is one of
\nundoubted achievement and major advances. Unfortunately, the popular image of
\ntwentieth-century science is sometimes characterized otherwise, in two extreme
\nways. On the one hand, science is posited by some as a panacea, proven by its
\nnotable achievements in the last century. Its innumerable advances were in fact
\nso encompassing and so rapid that they seemed to confirm the point of view that
\nscience might answer all the questions of man’s existence, and even of his
\nhighest aspirations. On the other hand, there are those who fear science and
\nwho distance themselves from it, because of sobering developments such as the
\nconstruction and terrifying use of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Science, of course, is not
\ndefined by either of these extremes. Its task was and remains a patient yet
\npassionate search for the truth about the cosmos, about nature and about the
\nconstitution of the human being.<\/u> In this search, there have been many successes
\nand failures, triumphs and setbacks. The developments of science have been both
\nuplifting, as when the complexity of nature and its phenomena were discovered,
\nexceeding our expectations, and humbling, as when some of the theories we
\nthought might have explained those phenomena once and for all proved only
\npartial<\/b>. Nonetheless, even provisional results constitute a real contribution
\nto unveiling the correspondence between the intellect and natural realities, on
\nwhich later generations may build further.<\/p>\n

The progress made in scientific
\nknowledge in the twentieth century, in all its various disciplines, has led to
\na greatly improved awareness of the place that man and this planet occupy in
\nthe universe. In all sciences, the common denominator continues to be the notion
\nof experimentation as an organized method for observing nature. In the last
\ncentury, man certainly made more progress – if not always in his knowledge of
\nhimself and of God, then certainly in his knowledge of the macro- and
\nmicrocosms – than in the entire previous history of humanity. Our meeting here
\ntoday, dear friends, is a proof of the Church’s esteem for ongoing scientific
\nresearch and of her gratitude for scientific endeavour, which she both
\nencourages and benefits from<\/b>. In our own day, scientists themselves appreciate
\nmore and more the need to be open to philosophy if they are to discover the
\nlogical and epistemological foundation for their methodology and their
\nconclusions. For her part, the Church is convinced that scientific activity
\nultimately benefits from the recognition of man’s spiritual dimension and his
\nquest for ultimate answers that allow for the acknowledgement of a world
\nexisting independently from us, which we do not fully understand and which we
\ncan only comprehend in so far as we grasp its inherent logic<\/b>. Scientists do not
\ncreate the world; they learn about it and attempt to imitate it, following the
\nlaws and intelligibility that nature manifests to us. The scientist’s
\nexperience as a human being is therefore that of perceiving a constant, a law,
\na logos that he has not created but that he has instead observed<\/u>: in fact, it
\nleads us to admit the existence of an all-powerful Reason, which is other than
\nthat of man, and which sustains the world. This is the meeting point between the
\nnatural sciences and religion. As a result, science becomes a place of
\ndialogue, a meeting between man and nature and, potentially, even between man
\nand his Creator.<\/p>\n

As we look to the twenty-first century, I would like to
\npropose two thoughts for further reflection. First<\/u><\/b>, as increasing
\naccomplishments of the sciences deepen our wonder of the complexity of nature,
\nthe need for an interdisciplinary approach tied with philosophical reflection
\nleading to a synthesis is more and more perceived. Secondly<\/b><\/u>, scientific
\nachievement in this new century should always be informed by the imperatives of
\nfraternity and peace, helping to solve the great problems of humanity, and
\ndirecting everyone’s efforts towards the true good of man and the integral
\ndevelopment of the peoples of the world. The positive outcome of twenty-first
\ncentury science will surely depend in large measure on the scientist’s ability
\nto search for truth and apply discoveries in a way that goes hand in hand with
\nthe search for what is just and good.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those who think that the Catholic Church, orthodox Catholic theology, the Pope, or any right-thinking Catholic person in the 21st century is against science: think again. Take your head out of the sand; do some reading. Today, His Holiness address the distinguished members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences meeting for their plenary assembly. The … Continue reading The task of science was AND remains a patient, passionate search for truth about the cosmos, nature, the constitution of the human being, Pope tells us<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1749,1750],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}