Skip to content
Vatican Observatory
  • About
    • Overview
    • Team
    • FAQ
  • Telescopes
    • Overview
    • Telescope Images
  • Latest
    • Overview
    • Resources
    • Press
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Research
    • Authors
      • FAQs
    • Newsletter
    • Tucson Meteor Cameras
  • Podcast
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Resource Center
    • Image Gallery
    • Summer School
    • Books
    • Software
    • Additional Resources
    • ACME
    • Ambassadors
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Overview
    • Donate Now
    • Smart Ways to Give
    • Sacred Space Astronomy
      • View Content
    • Fr. Coyne Fundraiser
    • Bequests / Trusts
    • The Foundation
      • Newsletters
      • Annual Reports
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
    • Contact
  • About
    • Overview
    • Team
    • FAQ
  • Telescopes
    • Overview
    • Telescope Images
  • Latest
    • Overview
    • Resources
    • Press
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Research
    • Authors
      • FAQs
    • Newsletter
    • Tucson Meteor Cameras
  • Podcast
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Resource Center
    • Image Gallery
    • Summer School
    • Books
    • Software
    • Additional Resources
    • ACME
    • Ambassadors
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Overview
    • Donate Now
    • Smart Ways to Give
    • Sacred Space Astronomy
      • View Content
    • Fr. Coyne Fundraiser
    • Bequests / Trusts
    • The Foundation
      • Newsletters
      • Annual Reports
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
    • Contact

Bah! Humbug. Science.

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  19 Dec 2020

Share:
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email

This post comes from a “Science in the Bluegrass” column I wrote for The Record, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky.


“Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”—E. Scrooge, A Christmas Carol “Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”—E. Scrooge, A Christmas Carol

John Adams, the second president of the United States, surely was no fan of Advent. Writing to Thomas Jefferson in January of 1825, he complained of people who “believe that great Principle which has produced this boundless universe… came down to this little ball [Earth].” He added that, “until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.”

Some people today feel the same way, but rejecting not just the Incarnation, but God as well. These modern Scrooges have been sold the idea that science says we humans are nothing more than a finite number of atoms in motion, with no soul, and that the world is merely an uncreated result of random happenstance. They reject belief in anything that can’t be measured and verified through experiment. And so, there is no God, no Advent, no Christmas. Bah! Humbug.

Let us think rationally, like a scientist, about this Scrooge-iness.

Science works through reproducibility—the same experiment repeated the same way yielding the same result. But getting the same, verifiable result from the same repeated experiment requires that the world have an order, a structure. Otherwise experiments would generate only disordered, useless results.

Moreover, some things in science cannot be experimentally verified. Consider ‘pi,’ a circle’s circumference divided by its diameter. Call up pi on your scientific calculator app and you will see 3.1415926535897932384626433832795…. Only the first few of those digits of pi are testable by measurement; the later digits cannot be verified by any conceivable measurement. Yet pi has been calculated to “bazillions” of digits. Indeed, mathematicians have shown it to have infinite digits. Thus, somewhere in the infinity of pi is every winning lottery ticket number ever (and losing ones, too). Shakespeare’s plays are in there (with the alphabet encoded into numbers). So are the lyrics to all your favorite songs. We can study the infinity that is pi, learn more and more, and yet what we know will always be nothing compared to what is there.

Now consider: What is the source of the order that allows science to work? How could people who are mere finite collections of atoms in motion ever conceive of, and then explore, an infinity like pi? A rational answer to these questions is that there is something beyond the material universe—a Creator, an unlimited Being that shares of itself with us.

And consider scientists like Blaise Pascal. His ideas are studied in science classes everywhere. He was no Scrooge. God either exists or not, Pascal said, and we either believe in God or not. If we believe, and God does in fact exist, then we gain infinitely, because we gain a relationship with the Infinite. If we believe, and God does not exist, then we lose nothing—because if there is no God and we are just atoms in motion, then we are nothing and what we do matters not. And so, he said, because we stand to gain everything by belief in God, yet risk nothing of value, reason demands belief.

If you know Scrooges who think that science opposes the idea that there is a God who came down to Earth for us, ignore their “Bah! Humbug” attitudes. Wish them a Happy Holidays, share some Christmas cheer with them, and pray that they may learn better how to think rationally regarding these things.

 

 

Share:
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email

Sacred Space Astronomy

The Vatican Observatory’s official digital community and online magazine.

Become a Member

Recent Posts

Ask an AI about the History of Astronomy

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  25 Mar 2023

Skyward by David Levy – March 2023

By David Levy  |  24 Mar 2023

Conjunction of the Moon and the Pleiades – March 25

By Robert Trembley  |  23 Mar 2023  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

The Northern Mountains

By Richard Hill  |  22 Mar 2023  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

Archives

      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • August
      • June
      • March
      • January
      • November
      • October
      • December
      • November
      • April
      • May
      • January
      • December
      • September
      • May
      • March
      • December
      • November
      • February

More Posts by
Christopher M. Graney

Ask an AI about the History of Astronomy

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  25 Mar 2023

Putting the Bouchet Telescope Back in Service

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  18 Mar 2023

Embryology and the Moon; Hippocrates and Monty Python

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  11 Mar 2023

Bacteria and the “Star Wars” Cantina—Oh, How Science Changes

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  4 Mar 2023

Cheap Jupiter

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  25 Feb 2023

The Day Mars is Fat

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  18 Feb 2023

View More

Newsletter

Upcoming astronomical events, scientific breakthroughs, philosophical reflections… just a few reasons to subscribe to our newsletter!

Vatican Observatory
  • About
  • Telescopes
  • Latest
  • Podcast
  • Education
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
Privacy Policy  |   Cookie Policy  |   Disclosure Statement

Podcast:

  • Apple Podcasts Listen onApple Podcasts
  • Spotify Listen onSpotify
  • Google Podcasts Listen onGoogle Podcasts
  • Stitcher Listen onStitcher
  • Amazon Alexa Listen onAmazon Alexa
  • TuneIn Listen onTuneIn
Made by Longbeard