Science and Religion—Two Contrasting Views

On Saturday I opened by New York Times to find articles illustrating two very different approaches that religion can take toward science. The first was a dismaying short AP story in which Pope Benedict XVI was quoted as saying that the creation of the universe is part of an "intelligent project."

The second was a rather heartening op/ed entitled "Our Faith In Science," from Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, who wrote, "If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change."

Pope Benedict XVI quoted Saint Basil as saying some people, "fooled by the atheism that they carry inside of them, imagine a universe free of direction and order, as if at the mercy of chance."

The record of the Roman Catholic Church in its encounters with modern science suggests that Pope Benedict XVI might do well to heed the wisdom of Saint Augustine who warned, "If we come to read anything in Holy Scripture that is in keeping with the faith in which we are steeped, capable of several meanings, we must not by obstinately rushing in, so commit ourselves to any one of them that, when perhaps the truth is more thoroughly investigated, it rightly falls to the ground and we with it."