Talking Science and God With the Pope's New Chief Astronomer

sciencehabit writes: On 18 September, Pope Francis appointed Jesuit brother Guy Consolmagno as the new director of the Vatican Observatory, which employs a dozen astronomers to study asteroids, meteorites, extrasolar planets, stellar evolution, and cosmology. The observatory is based at the pope's summer residence south of Rome and operates a 1.8-meter telescope in Arizona, where the skies are clearer. Science Magazine chatted with Consolmagno about a variety of topics, including whether God gets in the way of doing good astronomy. Consolmagno said, "First of all, I want to provide space for other astronomers to do their work. And I also want to show the world that religion supports astronomy. It is often religious people who most need to see that; they need to know that astronomy is wonderful and that they shouldn't be afraid of it. I often quote John Paul II, when he said [of evolution] that "truth cannot contradict truth." If you think you already know everything about the world, you are not a good scientist, and if you think you know all there is to know about God, then your religious faith is at fault."

Comments

Brother Guy rocks:

[Hartree]

In addition to now being the director of the Vatican Observatory, he's a scifi fan and a regular speaker at scifi cons on astronomy. Very enjoyable and very informative.

He's a serious scientist who also is a Jesuit Brother. That's not a conflict for him.

Here's more info at Wikipedia: Guy_Consolmagno

The Vatican Observatory also runs the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mount Graham near Tuscon. Vatican_Advanced_Technology_Telescope

It's optimized for photometry so it's a good fit with Brother Guy's research on asteroids and other small objects in the solar system.

Re: Enlightenment

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Catholic theology has always been tolerant and accepting of science. Largely because of the Greek philosophical methods it adopted, which allows for postulating and expressing alternative views, and has a sophisticated view of epistemology. The church, however, has persecuted scientists many times, and surpressed scientific inquiry.

Just ask the Jesuits. Nobody could ever seriously question their faith. But their penchant for intense study and examination of the world has caused many to doubt their faith, leading the church to attempt to extinguish the order many times. Most recent example I read about was Buddhism, where in the late 1600s a handful of Jesuits had studied Buddhism in Asia for decades. Some other orders thought the knowledge they brought back (despite no Jesuit converting or otherwise waivering) was too threatening, and arrnaged for the pope to recall all the Jesuits in the far east. Some scholars have posited that some of the ideas the Jesuits brought back re Buddhism helped kindle the Enlightenment.

Only recentely

[aepervius]

"Well, the Abrahamic God (of Judaism, Christianity and Islam) is a hands-off kind of God,"

Do you mean the same good which people believe flooded the world, killing untold number of human ? Which smote Sodom and Gomorrah under the pretense there was absolutely nobody, not even a child, which was innocent ? Which ordered various Israeli tribe to kill all adult , including children, but keep nubile women for themselves ? Killing children by mauling them with bear ? The one which ordered a father to kill its kids as a test of faith ? Or as a result of a bet ruined the life of another ?

The god of the new testament is somewhat kinder if only by its absence. But the god of the old testament is as far as "hand off" as you can be.