We present here a selection of Messages and Speeches delivered to men and women of culture and thought, especially valuable to understand John Paul II's view on the relationship between Christian Revelation and Scientific Culture.
We present a few Speeches and Messages of special interest addressed to the Academy on occasion of its Plenary Sessions or other Study Meetings of its members.
In these audiences, before dealing with the faith article “Believe in God Almighty,” John Paul II presents three speeches dedicated to the notion of God in the context of contemporary thought. The speeches touch on topics of “honesty of intelligence,” the traditional “ways” on the existence of God, and the attitude of scientists towards God.
IAU members vote a resolution to recommend renaming the Hubble Law as the Hubble-Lemaître law. More information.
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Thus there are two Books from whence I collect my Divinity; besides that written one of God, another of His servant Nature, that universal and publick Manuscript, that lies expaned unto the Eyes of all: those that never saw Him in the one, have discovered Him in the other.
T. Browne, Religio Medici, Part I, ch. 15.
The very existence of science demands the value judgment and essential ethic that knowledge is good. The additional and still more fundamental ethic of responsibility makes scientists individually responsible for evaluating the knowledge that they acquire, for transmitting it as may be right, and for its ultimate utilization for good.
G.G. Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution. A Study of Life and Its Significance (New Haven: Yale University Press,1967), p. 313.
Well, to me, science is terribly exciting. I am not saying that the satisfaction comes from just having solved a problem; the satisfaction really comes —as far as I am concerned— in the achievement of understanding.
B. Eudison, Scientists. Their Psychological World (New York: Basic Books,1962), p. 100.
All scientist, when they are sincere, recognize that the search for truth is the real reason that justifies the efforts of pure science and constitutes its nobility.
L. De Broglie, Physics and Microphysics (New York: Grosset and Dunlap,1966), p. 208.
Cristianity is, among the great religions, most explicitly history-conscious, and in this sense evolutionistic. It affirms that the history of mankind and of the world is not merely an illusion or an irremediable evil. History is the vehicle of creation. The world had a beginning, and will have an end.
T. Dobzhanky, The Biology of Ultimate Concern (New York: New American Library,1967), p. 37.