Bryce Coster: Reading Connections #2

In today's modernized world, it is impossible to rule out science as a means of explaining why things happen the way they do. However for some topics, science just can't offer the insight necessary to make for a solid understanding of said topic. Prominent evolutionary theorist and Pontifical Academy of Science member Richard Dawkins touched on this dilemma when he stated "Science cannot tell you what is right and wrong. When it comes to really interesting questions like 'Where did the laws of physics come from?' or 'How did the universe arrive in the first place?' I genuinely don't know whether science will answer those deep and at present mysterious questions."(Mason). To explain the unexplainable, people turn to religion to give them answers. This is the standard way of cognitive thinking in the modern world. Recently, the church has been making sincere efforts to try and collaborate with scientists to better their doctrines based on scientific discovery.

Science and Religion weren't always so buddy-buddy. In fact, the church at one point was down-right vicious when it came to new scientific ideas. When Giordano Bruno proposed his scientific theories on the structure of the cosmos, the church's inquisition decided that he should die for his ideas, and not by quiet, gentle means either. An article exploring the reasoning behind Bruno's execution described the event: "Bruno was escorted at dawn on February 17, 1600, to the execution ground at Campo de’ Fiori, stripped naked, and tied to a stake. Most people condemned to burn were quietly garroted before mounting their pyres, but Bruno was burned alive." (Rowland). The Church decided they didn't like what results this scientist's explorations were digging up, so they decided to brutally kill him. Who's to say that if the Pontifical Academy of Science were to make some enormous discovery that could change religion as we know it, the church won't take some similar action. Is it irrational to consider the fact that perhaps the church wants to be involved in the major scientific discoveries of the future so that they can moderate what becomes public knowledge? At one point in time, they were resolute enough in their attempts to stymie scientific exploration that they opted to burn a man at the stake while he was still living. Let me demonstrate what I mean by this. Let’s say 100 years from now, the Pontifical Academy of Science actually disproves the existence of god. Would the church, now a major factor in the upper-echelons of scientific exploration, simply allow this to unfold? Absolutely not. They would reinstate the inquisition and begin killing scientists before that were ever released to the public.

If we allow the church to assimilate science into itself somehow, we need to remain aware and be sure that no information or discovery is sequestered from the public based on the ruling of the church. Based on past examples like Galileo and Bruno, it is reasonable to say that the Church will go to great lengths to maintain its post of authority in the world.

Works Cited

Mason, Michael. "How to Teach Science to the Pope." DISCOVER Magazine 18 Aug. 2008.

Rowland, Ingrid D. "What Giordano Bruno Left Behind Rome, 1600." Common Knowledge 14 (2008): 420-245. Project MUSE. Keyword: Giordano Bruno Inquisition.