"The reason of natural science can enter into a discussion with faith. Faith, as Pascal said, has its reasons that reason doesn't know. God is not a category for science, but there is room for faith in divine creation. Let us Not Preach to the Scientists. A theologian should not cast doubt on a scientific consensus, but should see how he can deal with it." Hans Küng.
Evolution vs intelligent design:
Conservative voices have dominated the theologian's defense of God's active role in evolution and/or creation of the species, in debates over evolution versus intelligent design. Last year, the eminent Hans Küng, one of the Roman Catholics leading theologian has published a study that tolerates evolution, as scientists would describe it, while still maintaining a role for God, describing God's activity not on the side of intelligent design supporters, as the designer of complex forms of life, but as the founder of the laws of nature by which life evolved, (e.g. beyond Samuel Alexander's 'Space, Time and Deity). Küng has little patience either for scientists who are myopic beyond the limits of their disciplines, or for theologians who try to tell the scientists how things must have come to be, in elaborating the adventure of creation. He masterfully concludes, "I understand the views of the agnostics and atheists. But I also see the questions that agnosticism can't and doesn't want to answer. I can fully understand those who want to have a basis in faith but think that a fundamentalism that takes the Bible literally does justice neither to the Bible nor to today's people. We can reach what I would call a reasonable middle position. ... These court cases over evolution are counterproductive. They damage religion and don't help at all."
Has God intervened in Crevolution?
An intervention is usually something violent or aggressive, 'though' religion can interpret evolution as creation" What Kung attempted to reject is the concept of Divine intervention against the laws of nature, whom he has perfected. "I would even go further and say that for science, God is not a category because God by definition is a reality beyond time and space, and therefore does not belong in the world of our scientific experience. But there are questions that science cannot answer. The fundamental question of philosophy, according to Leibnitz, is "why is there anything at all and not simply nothing?" Science can't answer that," articulates Hans Kung in a recent telephone interview.
Eminent Cardinal Schönborn has entered the evolution debate to counter what the Pope regards as the growing influence of materialist thinking. Kung agrees that materialism is a primitive world view, even if it is presented in a scientific way. But, even though, it's not viable to try to prove religious doctrines to scientists. "It is a gigantic achievement of humanity that, at the end of a process of 13.7 billion years, there are small beings who are the first, as far as we know, who try to understand all this. If I am a believer, science can explain the process of creation in a completely different and magnificent way than the Genesis interpretation that it all happened in six days.
What is man?
That is the big question of the anthropic principle. The latest research shows, as far as we can see, there is no life elsewhere in the universe. We are probably alone. How curious that we are on a completely secondary star of a Milky Way that is one of hundred thousand galaxies! A religious person can say that creation obviously has a goal. But that is a religious statement. We shouldn't talk of intelligent design. That we have emerged is a product of necessity and chance. Creation is a concept that explains the beginning of things but is also the continuing process of life. So we can interpret evolution as creation, but I do that as a believer, not as a scientist. Religion classes in European schools are much more sophisticated. Biology classes are also better here. Another thing we don't have in Europe is, as in America, teachers who are afraid to teach these biological facts because some parents could make a big fuss. And yet the scientist can get a different picture of reality when he admits, "There is more between heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy," as Shakespeare put it. You can't reduce music just to physics and mathematics, says Kung."
The personal image of God:
Kung does not want to get away from it, but rephrasing the question scientifically, he can't ask about God the Father. "In scientific terms, that is absurd. The symbol of the father certainly has a function and when I read the Bible, I have no problems with that. The fundamental cause of the world is God. But I can also say Our Father. So when he was asked, Why do you say in your book that man is not the crown of creation? He explained," 'Crown' sounds too much like self-coronation, as if we were the final product.... It's enough to say we are the preliminary final product."
Kung prefers to speak about the constants in nature, "Take the speed of light. Why has it been there from the start? You have to ask: where did it come from? How did matter develop and not just stay as gas? Astrophysicists can only go back to just after the Big Bang. I have to go beyond time and space, and there we can say, "I don't know." We should not speak too quickly of God in an anthropomorphic sense. Matter needs constants in the beginning, confirms Kung, it needs some mass and an initial energy! "Where does it get that from? This initial energy works according to certain cosmic natural constants and they are givens. They were not newly invented or introduced at any time. No biologist would say there is a need of an intervention or organizer so that life emerges from non-life. But what holds it all together and makes it work? Where does it all come from? Why doesn't it all fall apart? Those are the big questions that a scientist can't answer. As soon as one tries to intellectually force scientists to recognize God, one is on the wrong track.
Hans Kung:
A prolific author, and bold thinker who fell out of favor of the Vatican curia in 1979. The Swiss-born Roman Catholic theologian, license to teach Catholic theology was revoked in 1979 having challenged the doctrine of papal infallibility. But when Joseph Ratzinger, Küng's former colleague from the Tübingen University theology faculty in Germany, was elected Pope Benedict XVI last April, the mood changed. Even though the pope is unmistakably conservative, he invited his rebellious old colleague to a friendly dinner. Among the topics they discussed was Küng's new book on evolution, "The Beginning of All Things".
In the memory of my father (and his alma mater) who early on tried to explain to me and my younger brothers "what is man?"
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Top reviews from other countries
- BuzzReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2013
Science and Religion are compatible
-
P. MattiroloReviewed in Italy on April 14, 2013
Un libro molto convincente sui rapporti scienza-fede
- K greenReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2013
I found it a little boring at times
