There, someone finally went and said it

If you heard Jimmy Carter speaking this past fall during his book tour for Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, he said (at least on his NPR interview) that he is both a Christian person who believes in God, and a nuclear physicist who believes in science. And that ne'er the 'twain should meet. Carter's thrust was that matters of faith are just that, and trying to mix one's faith and one's secular science (this was during the debate over Intelligent Design vs. creationism) was an untenable position and that rational people would not try to be literate about their beliefs in the face of scientific evidence.

This is a very reasonable approach, coming from a man of science and an ex-President. And, now, this same view (in much stronger language) is being espoused by the Vatican's own astronomer:

Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was a supernatural one, a belief that had led the clergy in the past to become involved in science to seek natural reasons for phenomena such as thunder and lightning, which had been previously attributed to vengeful gods. "Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That's why science and religion need to talk to each other," he said.

"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do."

This is more in tune with what I believe. That it's being stated so forcefully by Brother Consolmagno is a sign to me that either the new Pope is rethinking the hard-line stances he took when he was the Hierarchy's "enforcer", or that Brother Consolmangno is in deep trouble. It's hard to tell which is the case.

On the one hand, Pope Benedict is talking about taking some quite forward-thinking stances previously rejected outright by the Vatican. At the same time, he seems to also be not willing to cede any of his powers to outsiders, even in instances where doing so might have been the politic thing to do.

Perhaps one telling aspect of Brother Consolmagno's statements is that he also comments on the idea of Papal infallibility:

Brother Consolmagno, who was due to give a speech at the Glasgow Science Centre last night, entitled "Why the Pope has an Astronomer", said the idea of papal infallibility had been a "PR disaster". What it actually meant was that, on matters of faith, followers should accept "somebody has got to be the boss, the final authority".

"It's not like he has a magic power, that God whispers the truth in his ear," he said.

Kind of like making a strong statement about the company you work for, then turning around and saying: "Oh yeah, by the way, my boss doesn't know everything either..."

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

In either case, this particular Jesuit priest should be more of a role model for kids everywhere. Let me close with something I found that he said to some high school students that made me get teary-eyed in finding a kindred spirit:

"Scientists start with an observation, then they think of it in terms of a bigger picture," he explained. "The hypothesis comes out of insight and inspiration. Their goal is to make a more beautiful picture. Elegance and insight are at the core of science."

In his modest opinion, Brother Consolmagno said science makes for a lousy religion.

"It's always changing, making new ideas which equals good art," he said. "The Bible is not a science textbook. Science textbooks are out of date every three years. The Big Bang Theory will be out of date some day. The Bible is not a book about science, it's a book about God. The church says evidence of evolution is overwhelming. That is not a hypothesis. Recognize that creation is an act of God, an act of love."

Another student asked what he hoped to gain from his work?

"I do science because, for me, it is fun," he answered. "Not superficially fun or every now and then. I get it. It is beautiful and harmonious. I feel that in some way I am shaking hands with God. Science is knowledge, truth and being close to the source of knowledge and truth."

Amen, Brother.