Research Report

By Maria G.

May 2, 2016

Junior Year, 11th Grade

     Many people believe that the Catholic Church and Science are at odds with each other. They think that you must either be one of two things: a person who stands on tradition and faith alone, or a person who believes only what science can prove. Faith or reason. But everything is not so black and white as it may seem. There is a definite area of grey where the Catholic Church and Science agree, even if most people would wish not to see it.

Even if you can find that happy medium, there are still some things that the human mind cannot grasp. Nicholas Copernicus said, “I am aware that a philosopher’s ideas are not subject to the judgement of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.” His words can be easily and truthfully applied to science as well.       Science is not subject to the judgement of ordinary persons. It should be an endeavor to seek truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God. Once one can see that where science has no answer, God does, many of the mysteries of the Universe, and the beginning of time and life, are revealed in stunning simplicity.

Concerning the beginning of the Universe, science states that everything began with an enormous explosion of energy, which is now called the “Big Bang.” It has taken science many years to come up with the Big Bang Theory. Many other theories were tested as well. Some scientists thought that one universe ended, and ours began, like a bounce instead of a bang. Some even entertained the idea that the universe created itself because it had to. But if the universe was not created, how could it know it had to create itself? This idea is still tested today, but it is not very believable. One thing science knows for certain is that something “outside of time, outside of space, and outside of matter” caused the universe to exist.
Something (or Someone) who was outside of time, space, and matter caused the universe, time, and life to exist. But how could that happen? Scientists are now very certain that it was a Big Bang that created the entire universe, and filled it with energy. They are certain of this because in 1929 the astronomer Edwin Hubble observed that nearby galaxies and astronomical objects were moving away from each other and not slowing down, but accelerating. They were accelerating, not from another explosion, or other outside force, but were all moving away from a certain point in time: one big, original explosion.
Steven Weinberg, an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics stated that “At about one-hundredth of a second, the earliest time about which we can speak with any confidence, the temperature of the universe was about a hundred thousand million degrees centigrade. This is much hotter than the center of even the hottest star, so hot, in fact, that none of the components of ordinary matter, molecules, or atoms, or even the nuclei of atoms could have held together.” And he goes on to say, “The universe was filled with light.”
Even with all their studies and theories that may be true, scientists have not been able to find the source of all this creation. They cannot find the One Thing that put our great big universe into motion. The same goes for their ideas about the beginning of life on earth.
Scientists believed that the earliest evidence for life of Earth comes from fossilized algal colonies called stromatolites, which they believe to be at least 3.5 billion years old. The Earth itself they believe to be 4.5 billion years old. They believe that water was most dominant on the Earth at one point, then more and more complex beings came into existence. Bacteria, algae, and other microscopic organisms, sea organisms, plants, land organisms, including dinosaurs, and finally, somewhere along that line, humans came around.  But scientists don’t know exactly when or how.

Some scientists believed Charles Darwin’s idea that humans evolved from apes. If this were true, it would surely take away from the wonder and dignity of humanity. Darwin’s theory also leaves more questions than answers. If we were evolving from apes, why are apes no longer evolving into humans? Why aren’t we still evolving into something more than a human? What started the evolutionary process? What stops it? These are all questions that are still unanswered by science. Such a lack of answers surly disproves the theory.
In an article posted in 2013, it was announced that scientists have started to believe that the human race “may have had our origins in clay.” Their theory comes from the most basic form of clay, which, as they put it, is simply “a combination of minerals in the ground.” They believe that the earth acts as a breeding ground for tiny molecules and chemicals, and that the process takes many billions of years as the chemicals react and form “proteins, DNA, and, eventually, living cells.” The article states that “Biological Engineers from Cornell University’s department of Nanoscale Science in New York state believe clay ‘might have been the birthplace of life on Earth’.” They have already admitted that such a theory is billions and billions of years old, as passed down in many religions and traditions, especially Catholic, Hebrew, and Greek. This theory has been made unbelievably clear to all mankind for many, many years, especially in the Catholic Church. Every Ash Wednesday, we are reminded of the words spoken to Adam and Eve by God, found in Genesis 3:19, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”
The story of Creation, found in the book of Genesis in the Bible, along with many Catholic traditions throw light on the missing puzzle pieces that science needs. All the questions of “how” and “why” are clearly and easily answered.

In the first chapter of Genesis, we are told of the six days of creation. Many people have heard the Creation story of Genesis many times. It may be thought of as a children’s story, when in all truthfulness, it is the way we can fit the scientific puzzle, and the religious puzzle together. It all starts in the beginning… “God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

We clearly see that with one Word, God created all the light in the universe. And science agrees with this, whether it admits it or not. As Steven Weinberg said, “…at one-hundredth of a second…the universe was filled with light.” All the energy and “dark matter” that came into existence at the beginning of time, happened without wasting a second, for, since His creation was good, God could not be disobeyed by it, and it had to happen immediately. It happened at one-hundredth of a second. And God was the One Who was “outside of time, outside of space, and outside of matter,” for time, space, and matter were only there once He said the Word.

The Bible continues its scientific and religious explanation of the beginning of all by describing the second day. “And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome and the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.” We are told that God separated waters from waters. This would match the scientific theory that the earth was primarily water in the beginning. And God made the sky, which was described as waters, for back in the time of Moses, space travel and discovery were not as yet accomplished, and “waters” was the only way to describe the deep blue of the sky above. Furthermore, this could be why being high up in the sky and being in outer space is a lot like swimming, for it was like water. Perhaps even with space exploration, we have come to the same conclusion, since astronauts must practice space maneuvers under water.

Again, God set to work for the third time. “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so…. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.” And so came forth land and plants. Microscopic life on land must surely have appeared at this time. It did not evolve, but was created out of nothing; out of the earth created by God.

For the fourth time, God set to work. “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights – the greater light to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night – and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”

As we see, God created all the stars, the sun, and the moon. They were made for the express purpose of telling time, setting dates, and for creating days and years. We are only humans, and cannot use them for anything but for what God intended them. If we stuck to the limited knowledge of science, we would never know why the starts aligned so perfectly as to be able to allow some of the earliest civilizations to create their accurate calendars and maps, and to be able to tell time for harvests and holidays. But in the words of the Bible, it is clearly explained that the “lights in the dome of the sky” are made for that express purpose.

For the fifth time, God wished to add to His creation. “And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every winged bird of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.” At this time, all the birds, and all the creature of the sea, microscopic or otherwise, were created. They were told to populate the territories given to them, which they have done faithfully to serve their God.

Another time, God spoke to create. “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living things and wild animals of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so…. And God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”

In this passage we must be especially careful to remember and carefully consider the words “of the earth.” God created all the animals “of the earth.” And he created humans “of the earth.” The article of 2013 shows that Science has finally caught up to this. “Of the earth” means that we are belonging to, or from the earth itself. God made us out of the earth, the clay of the earth, to which we shall return one day, as is seen after death. Furthermore, God made us in His image and likeness. This means that we are all above animals. We have the dignity no other creature on earth could possibly possess. The Bible did not say, “And God said, let certain apes turn into humans.” We are made in God’s image, and should respect each other with the utmost attention and love.

Then God blessed man. “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” What has not happened, that God has instructed us to do? We have multiplied and fill the whole earth. Now, there are roughly 7,404,976,783 (seven billion, four hundred and four million, nine hundred and seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and eighty-three) of us, and more coming! And we have definitely subdued the earth, for there is hardly a place left on it that we haven’t built upon or explored. And the animals are all at our disposal, to use as we wish.
With the first chapter of Genesis ended in the sixth day, the second chapter is thus begun: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that He had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.”

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” After all this, we can go back to science. Science says it took billions of years for all life to develop, and it would be correct. The six days are merely described as days, when in all probability, it was six periods of millions of years. The beginning words of the second chapter of Genesis can confirm that there were generations in all that time, not just days. There were parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., of animals, plants, stars, and molecules of every sort in that time. And we are now still in the seventh period of billions of years, when God is resting, and watching over His creation. Like a parent stands back and watches his adult children, but is never far away if trouble comes to him, so is God watching over us, and all of His creation.

All words written in the Bible and spoken by God are true. Science is generally on the right track when it comes to discovering the origin of everything. It may take the Biblical sense of “generations” for us to figure it all out, or maybe some of it is beyond our reach until the end of days when God wishes us to be with Him, and when all the mysteries of the universe will be revealed. God does not catch up to science; Science catches up to God. And they both coincide perfectly together, if we only have the faith and reason to see it.

Bibliography
(2004). In T. T. Arny, Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy – Third Edition, Updated. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
DID GOD CREATE THE UNIVERSE? (2007). Retrieved from Every Student: http://www.everystudent.com/wires/universe.html
Genesis. (2009). In Youth Bible, Catholic Edition (p. 4). Loveland, Colorado: Group Publishing.
Reporter, D. M. (2013, November 6). Was the Bible RIGHT about the origins of life? Scientists believe that we may have had our beginnings in CLAY. Retrieved from Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2488467/Scientists-believe-beginnings-CLAY.html
Than, K. (2007, August 22). Greatest Mysteries: How Did Life Arise on Earth? Retrieved from Live Science: http://www.livescience.com/1804-greatest-mysteries-life-arise-earth.html
Top 10 Scientists who were also Religious. (n.d.). Retrieved from Topez.net: www.topez.net/top-10-scientists-who-were-also-religious.php

Picture

The Cat’s Eye Nebula taken by the Hubble Telescope