“It bugs me that it’s so widespread in the culture. We need to get out there with a counter message, and this page is meant to help that” Robert Barron, the web savvy auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, has one big pet peeve: the myth that religion and science are opposed to each other. He explains that the myth is a “distinctively modern” creation and it’s driving people — especially youth — away from religion. To bust that myth he’s launched a website dedicated to exploring how faith and science go together.
A 2016 survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre found that people who left religion often cited “science” as their reason. One respondent told the Pew Centre “I’m a scientist now, I don’t believe in miracles.”
“If God is Truth, whatever is true is of God,” Bishop Barron replies, explaining how what is true in science cannot then be contradicted by faith.
“There can’t be a contradiction” between religion and science, he says simply in a video announcing the launch of the new website.
He points out how the Church Fathers knew that faith and scientific knowledge were not opposed to each other.
The new website, created by Barron’s Word on Fire Ministries, features a series of articles and videos that explore ways that films, books and high profile personalities have pushed the idea that faith and science are opposed.
A gallery offers biographies of important scientists who were Catholic. Among them: Fr. Gregor Mendel, the Augustinian Friar considered the founder of modern genetics, Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller, a pioneer of computer science, and Fr. Georges Lemaitre, the formulator of the “big bang” theory.
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“We need to get out there with a counter message, and this page is meant to help that,” said Bishop Barron.
Parishes and schools can also order posters featuring these scientists for free (only the cost of shipping is charged). Bishop Barron said he hoped to see the posters up in the foyers of parishes and in religion classrooms across the country. “Let the young people see these posters of great Catholics scientists,” he said.
“I want to tell the counter story and this website is part of that,” said Barron. He said he hoped people would take advantage of the new website and “get that message into the culture.”
Check out the site here.
