Print friendly
Seven years have passed since the death, on April 7, 2009, of Fr Stanley Jaki OSB, a great fighter for Catholic truth and a world-ranking authority on science and religion.
I had the privilege of working with him for five years. He was the author of more than 50 books and over 400 articles.
He was the recipient of many honours, most notably as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and as a winner (in the company of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) of the Templeton Prize, given for outstanding progress in religion.
Never was the witness of Fr Jaki more needed than now. The present time seems to be open season for scientists to attack Christianity. The media devote much time to promoting programmes featuring Dawkins, Hawking, Dennett, Harris and Atkins, to name only the usual suspects.
What is needed is a rebuttal of their errors on the relationship between science and religion, something all the more necessary for good and faithful Catholics. This is something that Fr Jaki’s works are perfectly set up to do.
Yet he has been sadly neglected when what is needed in the battle against the so-called New Atheists is a series of simple and direct responses for which he was so renowned.
I recall a perfect example of this when Fr Jaki and a philosopher, a Fellow of one of the Oxford colleges, were having a conversation. The philosopher announced that he didn’t believe in free will and was a determinist.
Fr Jaki immediately asked of him: “Did you say that freely?” Result: a series of stutters and the response: “I’ll have to get back to you on that!”
So here is a short attempt to cover a number of basic principles, all taken from Fr Jaki’s writings, that are crucial to arguing our corner in the debate on science and religion. It begins with an appreciation of the nature of science, by which Fr Jaki means, of course, exact science, notably physics, astronomy and chemistry. Continue reading
Source and Image:
- Catholic Herald UK, from an article by John Beaumont, a freelance writer and legal consultant.
Related Posts:
News category: Features.
