“Science is a wonderful way to experience an intimate sentiment with Creation and, by it, to become intimate with the Creator,” said the Director of the Vatican Observatory, Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno.
In the pages of the Italian daily La Repubblica, he revealed that he venerates “the God of joy” through science.
The American astronomer spoke about the possibility of “another life than our own in the universe”: other places, including in our solar system, have all the ingredients to make life possible as we know it on Earth … we know that they are places where it is worthwhile to send spatial missions . . . It’s worthwhile to make an effort to find the proofs. All science begins by this form of ‘faith.’”
As for the possibility to enter into contact with extra-terrestrial intelligences, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to communicate with them.
All things considered, we sometimes find it very difficult to communicate, including with members of our family.
Would you baptize an alien? “Only if it asks me,’ answered Brother Consolmagno.
He mentioned the present mistrust vis-s-vis science. “There is great fear of the truth in our days, even the truth of love.
“As children, we learn that all there is to be known we can read in books, but when we mature, we realize that everything that we learn leads to new questions. The more we know, the more we understand that we don’t know.”
“The error is to think that our objective is to find ’answers.’ The real objective is to always have more confidence with these questions. If you think that your wife is ‘a problem to solve,’ your marriage is probably in a grave crisis.
“We should think of science and religion as ways of learning to know truths without one ever arriving at an end,” he said.
“Science is a wonderful way to experience a sentiment of intimacy with Creation and by it, to become intimate with the Creator,” he affirmed again. Continue reading
Sources
- Zenit article by Anne Kurian
- Image: National Catholic Reporter