Scientists struggle with the concept of miracles, an atheist emeritus professor said, claiming that the idea of a god intervening or manipulating events “undermines the very fabric of science”.
This was one of the topics discussed at a forum entitled “Dialogue: Is Science Compatible with Faith?” hosted by the group Evangelion at the University of Auckland’s Maclaurin Chapel on October 2.
American host of Catholic Answers Live Cy Kellett and Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre Emeritus Professor William Wilson were the guest speakers who, instead of engaging in a debate, decided to turn the event into a friendly discussion.
Professor Wilson said that the “idea that God can temporarily suspend the laws of the universe in order to influence the course of history or outcomes for some individual supplicant . . . is quite offensive to most scientists”.
Mr Kellett, on the other hand said, he does not see how the idea of miracles can put science and faith at odds.
“If the universe is God’s creation, and it is held at any moment by the existence of his divine will, which is what we believe about the universe, then it doesn’t violate the law of the universe that God may intervene in his own creation,” he said.
Catholic Answers host Cy Kellett (left) and Emeritus Professor William Wilson
Mr Kellet said that faith is very much like science.
“As a matter of fact, the Catholic Church uses the word ‘science’ to describe what theology is. St Paul said, ‘test everything. Keep what is good’. So, the only way forward is to test everything. If an angel appears to me, and gives me a revelation, I’m required to test that experience against reality,” he said.
Professor Wilson expressed scepticism over the possibility of miracles.
“To a scientist, if it’s an observation that seems to be miraculous, [then] a hypothesis seems to be falsified. That’s the time to go back and start to look and understand the laws of the universe. That’s the scientific response rather than to make the assumption that God has pulled strings,” he said.
He added that, when he was younger, his father told him that Adam died when he was 50 years old, not at 70, because God created Adam as a 20 year-old man.
“[I told him] . . . your God is a trickster and I’m not signing up for that,” Professor Wilson said.
Mr Kellett said that Catholics do not believe that God is “a trickster or is fooling us”.
“The Christian person believes that, in creating the universe for us to occupy, God has revealed himself in creation, but has also concealed himself in creation. And we don’t believe that concealment is accidental or for our disadvantage,” he explained.
“We do say that God has created a place where we get to cooperate in our own creation. And the only way we can cooperate in our own creation is by making choices for ourselves. And if we could see him, we wouldn’t choose anything else. Because he is the end of all good. So, it’s not that he’s a trickster, but he has made a space for us to participate in our own creation, and the creation of each other.”
Professor Wilson also asked what Mr Kellett’s views were on “the possibility that faith, religion, religiosity is being selected by evolution”.
“Natural selection requires, in evolution of human populations, a religiosity which is something that has value in community and society, but it comes out of our genetics, not out of something planted by God,” he said, paraphrasing American philosopher Daniel Dennett.
Mr Kellett said that God created a world that is “in a state of journey”.
“It’s almost anti-Darwinian to say what I’m saying: it’s not just chance, that there is something embedded in the universe that tends towards life. {And that something] just doesn’t tend towards life, but tends towards making higher and higher forms of life,” he said.
“Well, if God wanted to create a universe in a state of journeying, that’s exactly the universe that he would create and that, in our genes, there will be a tendency to seek the divine. That would be part of the divine plan.”
Professor Wilson accepted Mr Kellett’s explanations, but said in the end that he still wasn’t converted.
“I have learned quite a lot about the Catholic worldview,” said the professor, who grew up as a Baptist. “You haven’t won me over, but I respect the work that you do. And I know that, in some respects, we’re on the same side in looking for a better world.”
How often do miracles get spoken about at the pulpit? How often are they discussed in colleges/ schools? When are books on miraculous events – like books onresurrection miracles (about 400 in Fr Herbert SM)-
get into circulation?
Whose responsibility is it that miraculous events get out into circulation? Small wonder scientists get fed the wrong message.