Faith and Science

The Biblical definition of "faith" is analyzed, where it is found that there is quite surprising confusion among both Christians and atheists as to what faith is, in Biblical terms. It will be claimed that Biblical faith is a sort of constant communion with Christ (in direct awareness). With this definition it is further found that faith "information" is not scientific, logical, or mathematical information, but rather is only a sort of supernatural "information", or intimacy, directly implanted into a human mind and heart by God: faith is a third type of information available to a human, and different from the other two types of information that humans usually entertained (reason and sense information). Since atheists (and Christians) typically describe Christianity in terms of reason or empirical information, they therefore misrepresent what Christianity actually is: transcendent of reason and empirical information.
This article later became a chapter in my recent book, God-Faith: Discovering the Pure Logic Built into the Fabric of Reality.

How can the Christian in the pew read the Genesis 1 creation account and comprehend the 6 days of creation?  This essay explores how an engagement with Genesis 1 on its own terms suggests that a figurative interpretation of the creation account is favored over a literal view of six 24-hour days, and that such a reading is theologically enriching for readers.

Tesis Teológica, Facultad de Teología de la UCA, Buenos Aires, 2007

La moderna cosmología pronostica una disolución final de la armonía física universal, y la ulteriorior imposibilidad de generación de vida.  En contraste, la esperanza cristiana proclama, antes bien, una plenitud final de todo el cosmos, incluyendo la propia historia del hómbre.

Esta aparente contradicción es recogida y analizada por el autor en la presente obra (su tesis doctoral en teología dogmática, revisada y corregida).

The popular version of Galileo’s final trial goes something like this: Galileo, the free- thinking scientist who confirmed Earth’s motion around the Sun, was forced by the authorities of the Catholic Church to abandon his scientific views because they conflicted with the established (but erroneous) religious dogma of the day. Subsequently, “The Affair” was commonly viewed as a conflict between science and faith. However, numerous historians have come to the conclusion that Galileo's trial is grossly misunderstood. What was really at stake in the Galileo Affair? What were the real reasons that he was silenced in 1633 by the Catholic Church? This paper will argue that acceptance of the Copernican system was undermined by three factors which ultimately brought about Galileo’s condemnation: a conservative scientific academy, a politically defensive Church, and Galileo's own imprudent personality.

Publicado en la Revista Quaerentibus Año I | n.° 1
Julio – Diciembre 2013. http://quaerentibus.org/

Una de las preguntas más profundas que puede formular tanto la cosmología como la escatología versa sobre destino último de la creación: ¿Hacia dónde se encamina el universo? ¿Cuál será su final definitivo? ¿Qué cabe esperar de la supervivencia de los remotos descendientes de la humanidad?

La moderna cosmología pronostica para el lejano futuro una gradual e inexorable extinción de estrellas y galaxias, y, al cabo, un estéril escenario último donde toda forma de vida habrá perecido. En contraposición, la fe cristiana nos anuncia un universo que padece “dolores de parto”, y que alumbrará “tierra y cielos nuevos” en una gozosa consumación de la entera creación.

Este artículo se propone recoger el desafío de esta aparente paradoja: Comienza sintetizando el actual estado de la cuestión de la cosmología científica, para luego reseñar algunos de los principales intentos de respuesta desde la ciencia y la teología. Se concluye presentando algunas ideas para armonizar el pronóstico científico de muerte irreversible y la esperanza cristiana de plenitud imperecedera para este cosmos en que habitamos.

There is a moment familiar to all Bible readers: the discovery of a scripture that, on the face of it, seems contrary to modern sensibilities. Theologians have often sought to resolve such discrepancies in the Scripture by an informal doctrine of accommodation. John Calvin argued it was necessary for God to speak to his people by using language that accommodated the imperfect viewpoints they could understand. In fact, many scriptural difficulties can be resolved in this way: ancient views of nature, ethical inconsistencies, anthropomorphisms, irregular histories, genealogies and numerical problems. However, some contemporary theologians take issue with the idea that God would speak in “errant” language—making his Word less than completely truthful. This paper will argue that the doctrine of accommodation is fully consonant with the doctrine of inerrancy, when (a) accommodation is understood as an essential guide for biblical interpretation, and (b) inerrancy is understood in light of its motivating principle.

What should be considered "science"? What is the relationship between reason and faith? What role play (or should) the Bible in the research process? This article seeks to make some reflections that encourage changes in the way of seeing these issues in the context of higher Adventist institutions, particularly in South America. To this end, elements of the historical background of this discussion are raised to make some definitions as to the way in which we should understand science, reason and faith in the framework of Adventist research.

The paper reviews these main works about duty by Cicero and the catholic bishop Ambrosius who wanted to educate the former his son and the latter his priests, so they could live and do what is right. There are many concepts and ideas that reappear in Ambroius' work. The paper analyses these "pagan" ideas that were received by the Christian tradition through Ambrosius book. But it analyses also the pagan ideas that couldn't be admitted by any Christian. The paper considers the differences and similarities between these two great authors of Roman Literature tradition.

This Paper, as the title indicates, is meant to look at the topic of ‘Design/non-design’ as well as the question of, “If a Designer designed the Universe, is there a point to science?” To treat this topic with due diligence we introduce to the reader Islamic Epistemology, different terms and methods of logical argumentation, the definition of science and its four major ‘types’ as well as the definitions used throughout. It is the objective of this paper to communicate to the reader, based on the research and findings of several great scientific minds, that we can safely and confidently infer through inductive reasoning that the world and everything in it is by Design rather than non-design. What is more, it is only through the inference of Design that man is capable of doing science; that is, without such constants, patterns and relationships, without organization, structure, function and natural laws, man would be unable to do science at all. In conclusion, rather than inferring Design over non-design hindering scientific progress, it serves as a motivation that drives science forward.

● James D. Capehart: Gilson’s Notion of Theologism in The Unity of Philosophical Experience and Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages ● Michał Chaberek: Classical Metaphysics and Theistic Evolution: Why Are They Incompatible? ● Edward Macierowski: Philosophical Considerations for Fruitful Dialogue between Christians and Muslims ● Claudio Marenghi: El oscurecimiento del ser y su sustitución por la existencia ● Catherine Peters: Hylomorphic Teleology in Aristotle’s Physics II ● Faustinus I. Ugwuanyi: Krąpiec on the Specificity of Man ● Jude P. Dougherty: Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic by Stanley Corngold ● Jason Morgan: The Realist Guide to Religion and Science by Paul Robinson ● Brian Welter: The Realist Guide to Religion and Science by Paul Robinson

The purpose of this study is to discover what influences are the most helpful for a
typically conservative Christian university student in reconciling his/her faith with issues in the modern sciences. Many such students come from church or family backgrounds which stress a recent creation of the earth (“young-earth”) and reject the conclusions of the scientific establishment—for example, the long age of the universe, the geological history of earth, and the evolutionary origins of life. When introduced to the secular university environment for the first time, these students can face a significant personal struggle. Some feel antagonized by their professors, some are fearful of losing their faith in the classroom, and others compartmentalize their religious and academic thought worlds. The goal of my research is to provide a useful baseline for developing a curriculum which can be given to Christian students in their first year at university. My aim is pastoral: to help students move from fear to engagement. I want to identify the experiences and resources which enable a typically conservative Christian to engage in a truly open dialogue with the natural sciences.

Resumen: La presente reflexión tiene como objeto aproximarse al diálogo entre religión y ciencia sobre la base de algunas semejanzas de naturaleza filosófica existentes entre la espiritualidad oriental (principalmente el budismo) y los hallazgos de la física teórica contemporánea. El fin que se propone esta reflexión es mostrar que el diálogo entre ciencia y religión es posible y fructífero, lo cual debe motivar mayores esfuerzos para explorar otras aproximaciones desde religiones y espiritualidades occidentales.
Palabras clave: ciencia, religión, diálogo, filosofía de la religión, espiritualidad oriental, física moderna

Abstract: The present reflection aims to approach the dialogue between religion and science on the basis of some philosophical similarities existing between Eastern spirituality (mainly Buddhism) and the findings of contemporary theoretical physics. The purpose of this paper is to show that the dialogue between science and religion is possible and fruitful, which should motivate greater efforts to explore other approaches from Western religions and spiritualities.
Keywords: science, religion, dialogue, philosophy of religion, spirituality, modern physics

Publicado en la Revista Digital Tendencias de las Religiones, julio de 2010, (ganó el 2º Premio en el “1er Concurso de Artículos Divulgativos sobre el Diálogo entre las Ciencia y las Religiones para Autores Latinoamericanos”, organizado por Sophia-Iberia y la Universidad de Comillas). http://www.tendencias21.net

Aunque el universo está abocado a la muerte térmica, avanzaría hacia la perfección Los pronósticos científicos recientes acerca del destino del universo, más allá de diversos matices y versiones, exhiben un mayoritario consenso respecto de aguardar una muerte térmica de escala cósmica, esto es: una disolución final de la armonía física universal, y la ulterior permanencia de una materia carente de estructuras capaces de generar vida.

La cosmología plantea aquí un genuino desafío a la escatología, ya que ésta proclama, antes bien, una plenitud de alcance universal, cuando acontezca la resurrección escatológica de los muertos. En efecto, el Magisterio de la Iglesia presenta a la Segunda Venida como un acontecimiento que, aunque es meta-histórico, tendrá lugar a la vez en la historia tanto de la humanidad como del universo material en su conjunto.

Así pues, en esta situación, no resultarían indiferentes los posibles escenarios cósmicos en los que tal consumación habrá de tener lugar. He aquí una verdadera superposición de ámbitos que plantea un estimulante debate. El Papa Juan Pablo II es, probablemente, el primer Pontífice que percibió esta aparente paradoja, refiriéndose al tema en una famosa carta al Director del Observatorio Vaticano en 1988. Por Claudio Bollini. La esperanza es posible ante un universo finito

Science The best version of metaphysics, a realist conception of the world and God, does not exclude the deep mysteries of our factual encounter with that reality, and the curiosity it piques in us as embedded inhabitants of that same reality. The inextricable entanglements between material, rational, and spiritual elements of native humanity forbid any unencumbered transparent access to objective descriptions, though the persistent encounter with reality over time from many witnesses grants a voluble correspondence that pragmatically grants access to the secrets of our universe and ourselves. The formal encapsulation of this project is known as science, and the key to knowing its efficacy is the technology that manipulates what in history has been inaccessible, the material secrets of its operation. Any contemporary account of a Pentecostal view of the relation between faith and science must not rely on an artifact like the realist/antirealist distinction of twentieth-century philosophy. That distinction is based on a Cartesian dualism, that once denied shouldn't result as it does in the above stated distinction, as a competition between monism and dualism. The relation between faith and science must come freely and wholeheartedly from an acknowledgement of the existence of the real world and the real God. That is, the question about

El editor de la revista Fe y Libertad invita a profesores e investigadores de habla hispana a enviar artículos o reseñas sobre el tema " CIENCIA, RAZÓN Y FE " , para su posible publicación en el segundo número de la revista (julio-diciembre 2018). La revista Fe y Libertad es una publicación semestral del instituto del mismo nombre, con sede en la ciudad de Guatemala. La misión del Instituto Fe y Libertad es impulsar el florecimiento humano promoviendo la libertad individual y los valores judeocristianos. Se espera que las colaboraciones aborden específicamente la problemática de las relaciones entre ciencia, razón y fe desde cualquiera de sus ángulos; no es condición abordar el tema desde una perspectiva de fe religiosa.

(Introducción al libro:) A día de hoy no cabe rechazar las conquistas de las ciencias o desconfiar de ellas por sistema. Es innegable que su avance, ligado al de la tecnología, ha mejorado sustantivamente las condiciones de vida y ha extendido un bienestar que antes era privativo de una minoría. Oponerse a las ciencias es un mal para la fe, antes que para la propia ciencia. Sin embargo, también es verdad que, como decía Max Planck, la ciencia nos lleva a un punto más allá del cual no puede guiarnos. Las páginas de este libro rehúsan el cientificismo, que considera el método de la ciencia como el único válido para resolver todos los problemas de la existencia, pero también cualquier forma de oscurantismo ideológico, incapaz de reconocer los progresos de la racionalidad moderna. Sobre estas bases este volumen entabla un diálogo fecundo entre la ciencia y la fe, merecedor del calificativo de verdaderamente filosófico.

(Introducción al libro:) A día de hoy no cabe rechazar las conquistas de las ciencias o desconfiar de ellas por sistema. Es innegable que su avance, ligado al de la tecnología, ha mejorado sustantivamente las condiciones de vida y ha extendido un bienestar que antes era privativo de una minoría. Oponerse a las ciencias es un mal para la fe, antes que para la propia ciencia.

Sin embargo, también es verdad que, como decía Max Planck, la ciencia nos lleva a un punto más allá del cual no puede guiarnos.

Las páginas de este libro rehúsan el cientificismo, que considera el método de la ciencia como el único válido para resolver todos los problemas de la existencia, pero también cualquier forma de oscurantismo ideológico, incapaz de reconocer los progresos de la racionalidad moderna. Sobre estas bases este volumen entabla un diálogo fecundo entre la ciencia y la fe, merecedor del calificativo de verdaderamente filosófico.

In a scientific context such as ours, a true understanding of faith needs a correct approach to its relationship with science. Defending religious belief in the modern age dominated by scientific learning is the main preoccupation expressed by Pope Benedict XVI in some of his own speeches. Tackling this task means changing the nature of our ideas on both science and faith. The belief in God is compatible with science, only if we demarcate the limits of the scientific discourse. The idea that science is the framework for all kinds of cultural inquiry proves incorrect and represents a considerable risk for humanity. Moreover, a naturalist approach cannot respond to the exigency of finding a more profound meaning in natural reality.