It happened on OCTOBER 18

1859

In 1859, Henry Bergson was born in Paris. He was a French philosopher who was an exponent of spiritualism and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927. He developed a philosophy that interpreted the evolutionary development of the universe in terms of a spiritualistic point of view open toward transcendence.

1871

In 1871, Charles Babbage died in London. He was an English mathematician, physician, engineer, and inventor. In particular, he worked on probabilistic calculations, laying the foundation for the eventual construction of calculating machines. In 1824, he was offered the chance to manage a life insurance company; however, noting that, based on probabilistic calculations, the profitability of the undertaking would favor the clients, he turned it down. He then published his findings regarding his calculations as applied to the insurance industry. He also wrote an apologetic work and studied the miracles in the Bible.

1902

Pascual Jordan was born in Hannover. He was a German theoretical physicist who collaborated with Werner Heisenberg, and he also worked on biophysics. He wrote works on the relationship between religion and science, among them Der Naturwissenschaftler vor der religiösen Frage (1963).

INTERS.org

Readings on Freedom of Research

Introduction to readings, by Stefano Oliva

John Henry Newman, Christianity and Scientific Investigation. A Lecture Written for the School of Science (1855)

Michael Polanyi, The foundations of academic freedom (1947)

John Paul II, Address to Scientists and Students in the Cologne Cathedral (1980)

A. Einstein, On Freedom, in Out of my Later Years (1950)

Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti,The Autonomy of the Sciences and Freedom of Research (2002)

Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science

The Encyclopedia, published by the Centro di Documentazione Interdisciplinare di Scienza e Fede operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, provides new, scholarly articles in the rapidly growing international field of Religion and Science (ISSN: 2037-2329). INTERS is a free online encyclopedia.

Anthology and Documents

To emphasize and spread relevant documents within the scientific community, this section provides key materials concerning the dialogue among science, philosophy and theology.

Special Issues

We offer here a selection of comments and documents on special issues in Religion and Science, collected for anniversaries and/or for the relevance of the topics.