Time Stamps:

• 00:00 Introduction and Opening Prayer
• 03:10 Genesis of Science within a Christian context
• 06:00 Stillbirths of Science in other cultures
• 10:15 Christian Dogma’s role in enabling Modern Science
• 13:50 Faith in the practice of science
• 15:45 Analogy between Scientific methodology and the Arts
• 20:15 The Interplay between disciplines – physics, structural biology and computer science
• 27:30 the Role of Assumptions, Methodology and Conceptualization in Scientific practice
• 30:10 ’Natural Science is Epistemologically first’
• 35:20 Order & Openness in Nature
• 42:00 Mechanism & Function – is everything one big machine?
• 50:30 Methodological limits and the need for Metascience
• 54:30 Wholeness, Formal and Final Causality – how to think about them in science and philosophy?
• 1:04:00 Relating Science to our Social, Civic and Political lives
• 1:12:00 Recapping the Beauty of Creation Series

The recording is now available HERE.

Links to past webinars in the Beauty of Creation series

1. Series overview available HERE
2. Human Uniqueness with Professor Christopher Baglow available HERE
3. Ecological Conversion with Sister Damien Marie Savino available HERE.
4. Green Thomism with Professor Christopher Thompson available HERE.
5. Bearing the Image of God with Professor Sonsoles de Lacalle available HERE.
6. Caring for the Whole Person with Fr Peter Turrone & Dr Natasha Fernandes available HERE
7. God’s Revelation through Nature with Rev Dr Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti available HERE

Further References:

• William A. Wallace – the Modelling of Nature
• Benedict Ashley, OP – The Way towards Wisdom
• Benedict Ashley & John Deeley – How Science enriches Theology
• Mariano Artigas
  • ‘Philosophy of Nature’
  • ‘Knowing things for Sure’
  • ‘The Mind of the Universe’ – understanding science and religion
• Stacy Trasancos – Particles of Faith
• Stacy Trasancos – Science was Born of Christianity
• Christopher Baglow – A Catholic History of the Fake conflict between Religion and Science
• Rodney Stark – Bearing False Witness
• Ronald L. Numbers (ed.) – Galileo goes to Jail: And other Myths about Science and Religion
• Paul Haeffner – Creation & Scientific Creativity: A study in the Thought of Stanley Jaki
• Robert Rosen – Life Itself
• Tom McLeish – the Poetry and Beauty of Science
• Anthony Rizzi – Institute for Advanced Physics

Catholic Conscience presents

In Partnership with:

How important is it that scientific theories are beautiful, simple and elegant? How important is the way in which scientists do their work, to the discoveries they make and the theories they formulate? I sat down in conversation with Geoffrey Woollard, a structural biologist, computer scientist in-training and co-host of our Beauty of Creation series. Together, we discussed the role of beauty, simplicity, elegance, and seeing God in the practice of doing science, as well as recap the ground we’ve covered in the series as a whole, looking ahead to new syntheses. This was the final webinar in the Beauty of Creation series.

SERIES OVERVIEW

Contemporary civilization is characterized by a technological paradigm, in which our increasing control over nature challenges our interpretations of the essence of what is natural, what is good, and what is properly human. This has major implications for civic life, in areas such as bioethics, medicine and the dignity of the human person, the state of the environment, and our relationship with the rest of creation. In this speaker series, we engage with leading scientists, philosophers, and theologians whose work is nourished by a Catholic Christian understanding of the world. By listening to and dialoguing with them, and going deeper into the body of work they are engaging, we can wisely engage and critique the technocratic paradigm and the transhumanist attitude. Through their work, as well as an engagement with Catholic Social teaching and the latest work in the Magisterium of the Church, we come to a greater appreciation of the integrity and beauty of creation that is a hallmark of Catholicism.

GEOFFREY WOOLLARD

Geoffrey Woollard was trained as a biophysicist and structural biologist. His scientific passion is energy, information, causality, and life at the microscopic scale. Geoff is now working on his PhD at the University of British Columbia where he seeks to apply perspectives from computer science, statistical learning theory, optimization, and high fidelity physics simulations to describe the 3D shapes of molecular life. He is the President of the Vancouver chapter of the Society of Catholic Scientists.