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yes I saw Ron Howard's latest movie
angels and demons just last night and at
the end of the movie toward the end of
the movie I was very tempted to shout
out to the screen know you've got it
precisely backward now let me explain
what I mean first by looking at the plot
a little bit were a secret society
dedicated to scientific truth the
Catholic Church ordered a brutal
massacre assignments them forever
they've come for their revenge what
they've done is they've kidnapped for a
Cardinals who were preparing to enter
into Conclave to elect the new pope they
planted this horrible explosive device
somewhere on the Vatican grounds they're
gonna kill off the Cardinals one by one
leading up to midnight and then they're
gonna destroy the Vatican so it looks
like this great battle between science
and Catholicism well to the rescue comes
Robert Langdon is played by Tom Hanks he
was in The Da Vinci Code of course in
the same role Robert Langdon is a kind
of cool agnostic professor from Harvard
and he's called him by the Vatican to
solve his problem because his expertise
in symbols and all the stuff so with the
help of the Vatican archives he's
allowed in after being prevented for
many years from the Galileo archive he
goes in there and finds out certain
secret things and that allows them to
unravel the mystery so if the plots
unfolding you're thinking okay you know
it's science versus Catholicism but at
least the good guy seemed to be the
religious people they're the victims and
the bad guys seem to be the scientists
now here I have to put in the spoiler
alert for those that want to see in the
movie but no no it's not as simple as
that because now we find out the whole
thing has been concocted by this
ultimate Vatican insider the Carmel Ango
who's the man in charge of the Vatican
during the interregnum it's a young guy
played by you and McGregor and actually
he's engineered all this he's invented
this idea of the Illuminati coming back
he's arranged for all these murders he's
placed the device under the Vatican and
the whole idea is he
trying to stir up this scapegoat of
modern science so he can emerge as the
hero that fights against it and then be
elected Pope now I know it's kind of a
confused plot going on there but that's
when I was tempted to say no you're
getting it backward because you have the
scenario of the church inventing a
scapegoat of aggressive modern science
is out to get the church because my take
is this the church is not inventing the
scapegoat of the aggressive scientist
but I think modernity is constantly
inventing the scapegoat of the
aggressive backward looking dangerous
Church an exhibit a Exhibit A is Ron
Howard's movie Exhibit A is this book
angels and demons
once again the Catholic Church is
trotted out as the great enemy of
science the great enemy of progress all
of its officials lurking in shadowy
places in the Vatican trying to
undermine progress as here's what gets
me the Catholic Church today is
extremely positive toward the sciences
think of the statements of john paul ii
in recent years but the fact that the
vatican supports a number of
observatories around the world the
vatican supports in its Pontifical
universities in Rome a society which
advocates dialogue with the sciences at
the highest possible level and this is
not anomalous not some recent change go
all the way back to st. Thomas Aquinas
st. Albert the Great in the 13th century
they were the great advocates of
Aristotelian science which is the
leading science of the time go for a
little bit you find Copernicus right
who's the great advocate of the
heliocentric view of the solar system
Copernicus is a priest operating out of
the heart of the church another example
of course is Gregor Mendel who is the
father of modern genetics and therefore
an important for runner of Darwin Chris
Mendel was a monk and then one of the
most to me intriguing examples is the
formulator of the big bang theory of
cosmic origins and almost everyone holds
to today often often encounter
distinction they claim to religious
views well the the formulator that was
the priest George lamento who was a
professor at at levain devoutly
religious people they don't see some
terrible conflict between science and
religion look at the general fact that
the sciences emerged and flourished
precisely in the context of the great
Christian universities of the West and
this is not accidental when you have a
theological system like Catholicism that
emphasizes the non divinity of the world
and the intelligibility of the world you
have the preconditions for science why
because if the world is is divine if
it's being worshipped as as sacred
you're not gonna experiment on it but
but Christians who hold to creation know
the world is not God and therefore can
become the object of scientific
investigation and experimentation
secondly if it's created then it's it's
endowed with intelligibility it's been
thought or spoken into being and
therefore scientists can go out
confidently to meet the world that they
expect to find an intelligible world for
all these reasons it is a myth to say
that the Catholic Church is opposed to
science or is the great enemy of science
now what's the great counter example
that everyone brings up including Dan
Brown including Ron Howard in this movie
is always the case of Callaway oh look
the Galileo case was a tragedy for all
kinds of reasons and it was not handled
well and there's all kinds of
complexities to it but that is not the
tone setter for this question I would
much I look at this whole sweep of a
church's history in relation to science
which is largely a story of great
friendship of great compatibility see
the basic principle is this all truth
comes from God God is one and therefore
there can't be a contradiction finally
between the truths discoverable through
reason and the truths discoverable
through faith properly articulated and
so the unity of God the unity of
creation gives rise to this ultimate
compatibility between faith and science
there might be problems in a more
fundamentalist respect
but from a Catholic perspective science
and religion are compatible you know I
think what happens is this many a
secularists they feel the need to
rehearse this primal myth that science
emerged out of a terrible struggle with
Catholicism over and against the
Catholic Church the sciences emerged
it's as though than that myth which is a
myth indeed as I've been saying that
myth has to be told over and over and
over again to justify the sort of
secularist ideology that's why I was
tempted to say to the screen no no
you're getting it backward it's not the
Catholic Church that needs to keep
reviving this story of the battle of
religion and science I think it's much
of secularism he's to keep telling this
false story this myth to justify its own
point of view so I would say with regard
to the movie if you like a thriller it's
kind of a fast paced thriller it's much
better than da Vinci Code that way it's
much more I think exciting to watch or
if you like computer-generated images of
the Vatican I'd go seek my angels and
demons but please don't be drawn in to
its underlying ideology
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