Of Faith and Facts

In introducing this blog to Blessed Sacrament parishioners, I thought it most appropriate to make the theme of the first entry an exploration of origin.

The Bible tells us: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

About one third of the world's 6.7 billion people call themselves Christians.

At least another 20 percent of humanity identify with one kind of monotheistic religion or another that also state, as an article of faith, that our universe originated from an ultimate causal event.

So I'd argue that the majority of us believe there is one God who at some point created this world. In other words, much of humanity believes we are here by the Divine grace of our Creator, rather than being children of a random cosmic accident.

I'd also argue that our Creator bestowed us with intelligence and curiosity for us to use, and that those gifts have, among other things, given rise to scientific investigation.

Christians at times have been at odds with scientists over whether the Bible should be read literally, feeding debates such as creationism versus evolution or whether the Earth or the Sun are the focal point of our immediate neighbourhood in space.

Regrettably, at times these debates have polarized people and made science and religion appear to be incompatible, dividing people and requiring a lot of time to reach reconciliation.

For example, the Inquisition condemned Galileo in the 17th century for stating the Earth revolved around the Sun and it was just 16 years ago that the Vatican rehabilitated him.

At other times, scientific theories have been upheld by religious authorities as confirmation or proof of theological doctrine.

The "Big Bang" theory is a prime example of this.

According to this theory, scientists argue that about 14 billion years ago space and time exploded into existence in an ever-expanding trajectory from an infinitely hot and dense point they call singularity.

In 1951, Pope Pius VII embraced this scientific theory as testimony that the cosmos was created from nothing. Seven centuries earlier the Roman Catholic Church had made it an article of faith that our universe had a beginning and Thomas Aquinas argued this demonstrated God's existence as the "uncaused first cause".

But the Big Bang is a theory, rather than a scientifically proven fact like the Earth orbits the Sun (rather than vice versa), so the origin of existence is still shrouded in mystery.

On Oct. 1 British mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose was at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., to propose that there have been a succession of universes prior to our own, or a series of Big Bangs.

Sir Penrose presented a recent analysis of cosmic microwave background radiation that he said shows lingering traces of the cosmos that existed prior to the one in which we currently live.

On the face of it, this interpretation of the data contradicts the widely held view that our universe originated from an ultimate causal event because it is being argued that it is proof of a never-ending loop in creation-destruction-creation.

Looking up the coverage of Penrose's speech, I found an article by Science News on Oct. 3 that cited another theory, attributed to Sir Penrose, that there are Big Bang causing "singularities" at the centre of black holes.

Black holes are theoretical regions of space where the gravitational fields are so powerful that not even light can escape its pull after having passed through its "event horizon".

A good friend of mine is a quantum physicist and she has explained to me a theory of multiverses (multiple universes), so I've wondered about the consequences of these theories for our understanding of creation and Genesis.

Pretty mind-boggling stuff, isn't it?

In a world full of uncertainties, we seem to be constantly searching for proof or at least theories that help make sense of it all.

I somehow doubt science is on the verge of the fabled Grand Unified Theory (or Theory of Everything) that wraps it all up in a neat little package where everyone will say "Ah! Now I get it!", so we're just going to have to go on trusting God – which is what I understand faith to be.

In my research for this blog, I came upon an even more unusual theory from what I considered a highly unlikely source – one of the Pope's scientific advisor.

Earlier this year, the Vatican's chief astronomer said that there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of extraterrestrial "brothers" who may be more evolved than humans.

"In my opinion this possibility exists," Rev. José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict XVI, told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

"How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere," he added. "Certainly, in a universe this big you can't exclude this hypothesis."

Rev. Funes argued that it is possible that the human race might actually be the "lost sheep" of the universe and that there could be other beings "who remained in full friendship" with God.

"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can't put limits on God's creative freedom," he said.

I've read this last comment by Rev. Funes several times on faith and God's infinite creative freedom and I find it as comforting as I find it awe-inspiring, even though I am no closer to knowing exactly where, when and how we were created.

Gilbert LeGras