What does it mean to be anti-science? Fundamentally, being anti-science means maintaining false beliefs in the face of repeated evidence to the contrary, simply out of blind faith.
Media outlets like the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC seem to think that this description fits the Catholic Church. I think it is a far better fit for the elite media itself, at least when it comes to their attitudes toward Catholicism.
In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences earlier this week, Pope Francis exhorted the scientists present to approach their vocation with a renewed sense of mission. By way of emphasising that researchers need not hold back in their quest for truth out of fear of discovering a truth contrary to Christian dogma, the Pope explained that God created nature’s laws just as surely as he created nature itself.
‘The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it,’ he said.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection was likewise welcomed as a way of revealing the order inherent in God’s universe. ‘Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.’
There was no reason for news outlets to write up this story at all, since nothing about it is news. Pope Francis’s comments signalled no change in the teachings of the church, nor even any rhetorical shift from his predecessor Benedict XVI.
Nevertheless, the ABC News homepage on Wednesday morning carried the headline: ‘Big bang theory OK: Pope.’ The Sydney Morning Herald cited the comments as a further example of this pope’s ‘habit of making provocative, seemingly progressive statements.’ In the United States, their National Public Radio speculated that the remarks ‘could be aimed at healing a rift between science and religion.’
This supposed ‘rift’ would certainly come as news to the Yves Coppens, a field palaeontologist and fossil collector, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, a quantum physicist, or Mario Molina, an expert in ozone depletion and Nobel Laureate in chemistry—all members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
As for ‘provocative’ and ‘progressive,’ there is not much of either quality in simply reiterating the position on evolution of Pope Benedict, who called anti-evolutionism ‘absurd,’ or Pope Pius XII, who deemed the theory compatible with Christianity in 1950.
Surprise at the Pope’s mention of the Big Bang Theory is especially galling since the man who first developed the theory, George Lemaître, was a Belgian priest. (It is hardly unusual for men of God to make scientific advances. The founder of modern genetics, Gregor Mendel, was a monk.)
In his remarks to the PAS, Pope Francis denigrated the simplistic idea that God the Creator ‘was a magician, with a magic wand.’ It seems that this caricature, long abandoned by the Catholic faithful, lives on in the prejudices of the enlightened left, who marvel that any representative of the Roman Catholic Church might be scientifically literate.
The Catholic Church is older than the English language, and its teachings are embraced by millions of Australians, including the prime minister. The Australian media should give it a little respect and not assume that Catholicism must be intellectually primitive.
If it were simply a matter of being ignorant of the church’s teachings on science, that would be one thing. There is not really anything wrong with failing to keep up with the doctrines of a faith to which one does not belong. A non-Catholic might say, with justification, that Catholic teachings are no concern of his.
But those who trumpeted Pope Francis’s comments as newsworthy were not just ignorant but proudly so. They refused to let the facts get in the way of an opportunity to feel intellectually superior. They should take a lesson from the Enlightenment, that intellectual moment so beloved of science boosters, and reject the outdated appeal of tribalism. Truly enlightened people do not define themselves by the irrational disdain they feel for people outside their in-group.
Helen Andrews is a Policy Analyst in the Social Foundations Program at the Centre for Independent Studies.
Home > Commentary > Opinion > No surprise that Pope endorses science
No surprise that Pope endorses science
Media outlets like the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC seem to think that this description fits the Catholic Church. I think it is a far better fit for the elite media itself, at least when it comes to their attitudes toward Catholicism.
In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences earlier this week, Pope Francis exhorted the scientists present to approach their vocation with a renewed sense of mission. By way of emphasising that researchers need not hold back in their quest for truth out of fear of discovering a truth contrary to Christian dogma, the Pope explained that God created nature’s laws just as surely as he created nature itself.
‘The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it,’ he said.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection was likewise welcomed as a way of revealing the order inherent in God’s universe. ‘Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.’
There was no reason for news outlets to write up this story at all, since nothing about it is news. Pope Francis’s comments signalled no change in the teachings of the church, nor even any rhetorical shift from his predecessor Benedict XVI.
Nevertheless, the ABC News homepage on Wednesday morning carried the headline: ‘Big bang theory OK: Pope.’ The Sydney Morning Herald cited the comments as a further example of this pope’s ‘habit of making provocative, seemingly progressive statements.’ In the United States, their National Public Radio speculated that the remarks ‘could be aimed at healing a rift between science and religion.’
This supposed ‘rift’ would certainly come as news to the Yves Coppens, a field palaeontologist and fossil collector, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, a quantum physicist, or Mario Molina, an expert in ozone depletion and Nobel Laureate in chemistry—all members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
As for ‘provocative’ and ‘progressive,’ there is not much of either quality in simply reiterating the position on evolution of Pope Benedict, who called anti-evolutionism ‘absurd,’ or Pope Pius XII, who deemed the theory compatible with Christianity in 1950.
Surprise at the Pope’s mention of the Big Bang Theory is especially galling since the man who first developed the theory, George Lemaître, was a Belgian priest. (It is hardly unusual for men of God to make scientific advances. The founder of modern genetics, Gregor Mendel, was a monk.)
In his remarks to the PAS, Pope Francis denigrated the simplistic idea that God the Creator ‘was a magician, with a magic wand.’ It seems that this caricature, long abandoned by the Catholic faithful, lives on in the prejudices of the enlightened left, who marvel that any representative of the Roman Catholic Church might be scientifically literate.
The Catholic Church is older than the English language, and its teachings are embraced by millions of Australians, including the prime minister. The Australian media should give it a little respect and not assume that Catholicism must be intellectually primitive.
If it were simply a matter of being ignorant of the church’s teachings on science, that would be one thing. There is not really anything wrong with failing to keep up with the doctrines of a faith to which one does not belong. A non-Catholic might say, with justification, that Catholic teachings are no concern of his.
But those who trumpeted Pope Francis’s comments as newsworthy were not just ignorant but proudly so. They refused to let the facts get in the way of an opportunity to feel intellectually superior. They should take a lesson from the Enlightenment, that intellectual moment so beloved of science boosters, and reject the outdated appeal of tribalism. Truly enlightened people do not define themselves by the irrational disdain they feel for people outside their in-group.
Helen Andrews is a Policy Analyst in the Social Foundations Program at the Centre for Independent Studies.
• Subscribe
Subscribe now and stay in the loop with our giving appeals, event alerts, newsletters and research updates.
We are always pleased to hear from you. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us here: