In his new book, Science at the Doorstep to God, Fr. Robert Spitzer shows that new discoveries in the physical sciences point toward the existence of God. This revolutionary new evidence for God’s existence makes atheism seem sillier than ever. Already effectively disproved through the rational arguments of philosophy and the evidence of history, atheism is now being debunked by the physical sciences.
Although these new discoveries in science might surprise the atheists, they should be no surprise to Catholics. The Church has always insisted on the inexorable union and indissoluble marriage of faith and reason. This is why G.K. Chesterton reminds us that the Catholic Church is the “one continuous intelligent institution that has been thinking about thinking for two thousand years.”
It is also the reason that the Catholic Church has produced some of the greatest scientists who have ever lived. These scientists might not be known to Catholics, or else, if they are known as scientists, they might not be known as Catholic scientists. This being so, let’s look at a dynamic duo of great scientists who should be known—and whose Catholicism should be known.
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Niels Steensen (1638-1686) was a Danish scientist, better known as Nicolas Steno, the Latinized form of his name. A veritable genius and pioneer in various branches of science, he made fundamental contributions to the study of anatomy, paleontology, geology, and crystallography. Raised as a Lutheran, his study of theology, especially the writings of the early Church Fathers, led to his conversion to the Catholic Faith. He would be ordained as a priest and, in 1667, was appointed as a bishop by Pope Innocent XI.
His contribution to new discoveries in science is so important that he is considered effectively to be the pioneering founder of the science of geology and particularly of the branch of geology known as stratigraphy. Such is his foundational place in the history of science that half of the twenty papers in a recently published book, The Revolution in Geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, focus on Steno’s preeminent place as the “founder of modern geologic thought.”
Niels Steensen (1638-1686) was a Danish scientist, better known as Nicolas Steno, the Latinized form of his name. A veritable genius and pioneer in various branches of science, he made fundamental contributions to the study of anatomy, paleontology, geology, and crystallography. Raised as a Lutheran, his study of theology, especially the writings of the early Church Fathers, led to his conversion to the Catholic Faith. He would be ordained as a priest and, in 1667, was appointed as a bishop by Pope Innocent XI.
Science, Reason, and F...
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His contribution to new discoveries in science is so important that he is considered effectively to be the pioneering founder of the science of geology and particularly of the branch of geology known as stratigraphy. Such is his foundational place in the history of science that half of the twenty papers in a recently published book, The Revolution in Geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, focus on Steno’s preeminent place as the “founder of modern geologic thought.”
Apart from his scientific work, Steno lived a good and holy life. As a bishop, he worked tirelessly to counter the harmful impact of the Reformation in northern Europe. He lived a rigorously ascetic life of prayer and fasting, selling his personal possessions to give to the poor. He was beatified by St. John Paul II in 1988.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was a mathematician and therefore not, strictly speaking, a scientist (pure mathematics being more akin to the philosophy of metaphysics than to the purely physical sciences). Nonetheless, she fits very comfortably in the company of the Catholic scientists we should know.
