The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Nearly two years ago, I blogged about a Visit to Chis 'n Sid , the popular nickname for our local non-denominational school, Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar. For non-UK readers, I should explain that a "grammar school" in the UK is a school where pupils are selected by academic ability. Today, I was at the school again, at the invitation of one of the senior pupils who is a parishioner at Blackfen. The subject was the same: "Science and Religion", and I received a warm welcome at the voluntary lunchtime "Christian Union" meeting. The turnout was very impressive - and included at least half a dozen members of staff, mostly from the science department. The school includes pupils of all religions and none, so I had no idea what the makeup of the audience would be. My young parishioner made the wise decision of advertising the talk without specifying that it was organised by the Christian Union, so that people did not have to wonder whether they had to be C...

Stratford Caldecott has excelled himself in his latest book " Beauty for Truth's Sake. On the Re-enchantment of Education. " (Brazos Press, Michigan) It is quite concise at 156 pages but ambitious in attempting to sketch out a manifesto for overcoming the fragmentary and fractured nature of modern education, split up into disciplines or subjects from which people choose - according to their enthusiasm, or a passing whim very often. Caldecott invites us to return to the wisdom of the ancients but takes us further than the customary terminus a quo , pointing out that "before Socrates there was Pythagoras." Since the fragmentation of education is a denial of ultimate meaning, we need to be "re-enchanted" by having our eyes opened to the meaning and beauty of the cosmos. We have gained great power over created things but we have lost our confidence in the ability of the human mind to know the truth and to understand what it is that we control. The chapter ...

The launch of "Test of Faith" gave me an opportunity to visit the Royal Society for the first time. This is a learned scientific society, founded in 1660, during the Restoration of Charles II, and considered to be the oldest in the world. Past Presidents of the Society include such as Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Humphrey Davy, Thomas Huxley, Lord Kelvin and Joseph Lister. This was a treat for me because I have had a keen interest in the natural sciences since before I was ten years old and persuaded my parents to get me a chemistry set. At school, my interest was fostered by enthusiastic and engaging teachers so that in the sixth form (age 16-18) I studied A-levels in Physics, Chemistry and Biology: originally intending to follow my sister's footsteps into medicine; but the good Lord had other ideas. Fr Roger Nesbitt, who studied Chemistry at Imperial College and has an MSc in Nuclear Chemistry inspired me and many other young men to see science and religion as complementary, ...

Fr Stanley Jaki OSB died earlier today - please remember him in your prayers. Fr Jaki was a prolific writer, especially on science and religion (he had doctorates in both theology and physics) and lectured at the universities of Oxford, Yale and Edinburgh (among many others) as well as being a professor at Seton Hall University, New Jersey. In 1987, he was awarded the distinguished Templeton Prize, for furthering understanding of science and religion (an award derided repeatedly by Richard Dawkins in "The God Delusion".) Fr Jaki was expecially eloquent on the Christian origins of the modern natural sciences, explaining that the Christian philosophy of creation, seeing the universe as both contingent and rational, together with the acceptance that God could work through secondary causes, without thereby being diminished in His omnipotence, provided the unique environment for the natural sciences to flourish. In his work on this subject, he particularly emphasised the monumenta...

"In fact, scientists calculate that Obama has four years in which to save the world." From a short piece in which Newsnight's Science Editor Susan Watts talks about "the environmental challenges President Barack Obama faces." (The Watts What blog has much of the piece transcribed with other comments.) This piece is a true classic from the BBC. Obama is going to save the world from destruction unlike that nasty President Bush who ignored scientists and listened to religion instead, leading him to oppose stem-cell research and thereby encouraging people not to accept science but to believe in the bible instead of evolution. But the scientists are now free again. Huzzah! Some helpful points: President Bush did not have a distaste for stem-cell research. He opposed embryonic stem-cell research which involves the destruction of human embryos. You do not have to be a religious person to oppose embryonic stem-cell research, simply a person who does not agree with th...

Ronald Knox once used the metaphor of a wall to describe the barrier that we put between ourselves and God by our pride and disobedience. He spoke of the Sacred Host as a window in that wall. St Paul said that blood of Christ broke down the "dividing wall" (Eph 2.14) just as the veil of the Temple was torn in two at the crucifixion. Knox reflected that the "glittering disc of whiteness", the Blessed Sacrament, is "penetrated witha light of its own, a light not of this world, shining throughit from behind, as if through a window, outdazzling gold and candle-flame with a more intense radiance." When pondering the feast of Christ the King which is celebrated today in the new calendar, I thought about the affirmation that Christ, the Eternal Word made flesh, is the "master-key" to the meaning of the universe, the eternal wisdom through which the whole universe is framed. "He is before all things and in Him all things hold together." (Col 1....

A new church has been built at the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Cf. Church at space centre ). This is a phenomenon following the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the consequent resurgence of Christianity. See the interview with cosmonaut Valeriy Korzun at this page from the Orthodox Encyclopaedia site . Around the world, everyone has heard the apocryphal declaration from Yuri Gagarin "I went up to the outer space and didn't find any God there". Korzun comments: I know another phrase, also said by Gagarin: "If you haven't met God on Earth you won't meet Him in outer space". This phrase is much closer to my heart. A lot has changed: every crew gets a priest's blessing before the launch now. Nowadays, the Russian cosmonauts receive a blessing from their priest before travelling.

Thanks to Cathy in the combox for the link to this moving account, by Thomas D Jones, of his first trip into space: Reaching the Heavens: An Astronaut's Spiritual Journey . Here is an extract: I rolled away from my crewmates, unable to stem the tears evoked by that singular sunrise. My gaze turned to the overhead windows and the Pacific Ocean, the dawn lighting its surface in a rich, limitless blue. I called out to Kevin and Sid, “Look at that ocean—what an incredible color!” They both turned and drank in hues unmatched by the palette of any human artist. After a moment, Kevin said simply, “It’s the blue of the Virgin’s veil, Tom.” He was right. There were no other words for that vision out the window. Growing up through the sixties and seventies, I always looked with awe on the idea of space travel and envied those who were able to travel into space. Nowadays it seems that we are more cynical about this and space travel is one of those "page 14" stories unless there is a...

I have a personal interest in this large hadron colliding business since my brother-in-law has been working for many years on ALICE  (A Large Ion Collider Experiment). I have occasionally posted on this experiment and published the necessary retractationes when I got the physics wrong (cf.  ALICE , ALICE in jeopardy , and More about ALICE .) Here is a light-hearted introduction: H/T Catholic Commentary

My source at ALICE has sent me the above photo, taken at the end of 2006 when the magnet had a bit more in it. Two Birmingham students (Hannah Snow and Daniel Tapia Takaki) help to show the scale. The photo is the copyright of the STFC but free for non-commercial use. He also points out that the ALICE experiment will run irrespective of the problems in the UK, albeit with considerable difficulty initially if the UK participation is withdrawn since our scientists are responsible for a crucial element. Thus the STFC mishandling is a local tragedy - but a major one for those who have spent fifteen years of work and investment in the project. They may only be able to find out about what ALICE has achieved by reading about it second-hand. However, the problems with funding for ALICE are part of a bigger picture where there is a series of cutbacks in basic (i.e. not "applied") physics projects, covering the "big science" areas of particle physics, nuclear physics and as...

Photo: Peter Ginter. Fotografie. www.peterginter.de Last week, The Times reported on problems with the Science and Technology Facilities Council and calls for Professor Keith Mason to resign. Today, there are two related letters to the editor . The first defends Professor Mason, criticising the "deeply unfair" process of the Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee. The second letter is of particular interest since it draws attention to the threat hanging over two of our four Large Hadron Collider experiments. Zoe Matthews, a particle physics PhD student at Birmingham, quotes the 1950 Nobel prizewinner Cecil Powell who remarked on discoveries at the beginning of this field, “it was as if we had broken into a walled orchard, where protected trees had flourished and all kinds of exotic fruits had ripened in great profusion” She continues: Even more rich and unimaginable beauty is waiting to be seen, far beyond the boundary of our current energy scale. And...

Commenting on my recent post about the Statue of Galileo , Edmund posted a couple of links. Although the story is from last December, the spin is so breathtaking that it is worth posting even now. First, the story from Catholic World News: Vatican astronomers to move to bigger, more modern facilities . Basically, the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo is a beautiful historic building but a bit cold in winter and the facilities for people staying are not up to scratch. At the same time, more room is needed at the Apostolic Palace for visiting dignitaries. So there is going to be a brand spanking new facility built in the gardens - and everyone is happy. The Vatican astronomers' new facilities will cover two stories with residences on one floor and, on the bottom floor, brand new offices, laboratories, a museum, a library, a large classroom for their summer school program and additional space for the summer students' use. So how could we spin this? How about " Science bo...

CNA has reported that a statue of Galileo is to be erected in the Vatican gardens. It is good to see that the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has commented that it is appropriate for such a statue to be erected in the Vatican because Galileo was one of the founders of the Lincean Academy. This body has had a rather chequered history but it is not unreasonable for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to claim a link with it. I rather like this idea: it fits in well with Pope Benedict's approach to the secularists. Of course, people will still bash on ignorantly about the Galileo affair but now they will have a new and inconvenient obstacle to the perpetuation of this portion of the black legend. Dramatic documentaries will have to include a new clip with the soundtrack probably something along the lines of " Surprisingly , in the Vatican Gardens, there is actually a statue of the man who was [ tortured, persecuted ... fill in the blanks ] by the Catholic Church."...

My brother-in-law, Orlando, husband of Jane, of the now famous "Jane's Notes" over at Catholic Mom of 10 , is working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He is one of 2000 physicists from all over the world who are working on this project. When it is built, they will send protons through the proton synchrotron booster, then into the proton synchrotron itself and finally into the super proton synchrotron before being whipped into the main accelerator for their sixteen and a half mile journey (which will take them about 90 microseconds.) At the end of this, they smash into each other with a great deal of force. The experiment is A Large Ion Collider Experiment or ALICE for short. There is some souvenir merchandise - I got the calendar last year and an engraved bookmark this year. The hope is that when these particles collide, the result will give evidence of the Higgs boson, and possibly other novel particles such as strangelets, micro black holes, magnetic monopoles and...

Damien Thompson has an interesting post on the lecture scheduled today as part of "Islamic Awareness Week" which supposedly recounts "The collapse of the evolutionary theory". The very muted reaction to this reflects a "kid gloves" approach to Islam that would certainly not be afforded a Christian group expressing the same views. I agree with Damien's take on this and his impatience with pseudoscience. His website Counterknowledge is well worth a look. As Catholics, we should remember that the natural sciences are a profoundly Catholic project, beginning in the High Middle Ages as a result of a Christian view of the world and prospering because of the Christian concern for truth, objectivity and the goodness of the natural world. As Fr Jaki and other explained, the natural sciences had a promising start in Islam but foundered because of a rejection of the importance of secondary causes. Secularist relativism is also fatal for the natural sciences as ...

No this is not a duo rivalling Chas 'n Dave but the nickname of the Grammar School in Blackfen: Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar. In England, a Grammar school is one which selects pupils on the basis of ability, measured by a selection test taken in the top year of Junior School (age 10/11). Most of these schools became comprehensive (mixed ability) schools some decades ago, including most of the Catholic Grammar schools such as the John Fisher School which I attended. In my parish, parents are faced with a dilemma. If their child is academically gifted, they have the chance of attending a school where the curriculum is slanted in this direction (for example Latin is part of the curriculum at Chis 'n Sid). The Catholic secondary schools strongly maintain that their provision for academically able children is just as good and that the exam results reflect this. In the end, parents have to make the decision that they feel is best. Quite a number of my young parishioners therefore a...

Richard Dawkins , in his recent book The God Delusion ultimately relies on the concept of a multiverse as the answer to the argument for the existence of God which is drawn from the fact that the universe is structured according to fundamental laws which apply across the whole universe. The Templeton Foundation ( incidentally , a pet hate of Richard Dawkins ) sponsors research and discussion on the relationship of science and religion. Each month, the Foundation hosts and online exchange on some important question related to its mission. This month, the question is "Do we live in a multiverse ". The dedicated page for the question has an interview with Paul Davies and links to several related articles.