No. Quite to the contrary, the Catholic Church virtually invented the scientific method! The Church has sponsored and blessed scientific research, and the Church embraces many scientific theories. Many Catholic priests actually have college degrees in science! In fact, the modern “big bang” theory of astro-physics, on the origin of the universe, was invented by a Catholic priest (Father Georges Lemaître, 1894 – 1966), who was in good standing with the Church. However, the Catholic Church doesn’t teach science as if it were religious doctrine. Rather it insists that science, like all human disciplines, must be subject to a moral code.1 Catholics are free to believe in evolution as well, if they so choose, so long as they understand that it was God who created man in his image, and that human beings, and the universe we live in, are not a product of random chance. The idea being that whatever scientific processes God used to create the universe and man are open for debate. What is not open for debate is the religious truth that God created all things and that man was created in God’s image.
Read More on this topic:
Science and Faith
I Don’t Believe in Aliens Visting Earth.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2293
Was this short article helpful? If so, consider getting the book: Catholic by Choice by Shane Schaetzel. This short article is an excerpt from the book Catholic by Choice which has been used by clergy and catechists throughout North America in OCIA (RCIA) and other Catholic education programs. You can get the whole thing, in one short book, by clicking here.
