The Vatican’s Astronomer Speaks at McCormick (via live video)

McCormick Theological Seminary The Vatican’s Astronomer, Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ, Director of the Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation for the next lecture in our Science for Seminaries Series.

“Science is an exploration of the natural world based on logic and reason,” stated Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ, “and yet, logic and reason must always start with assumptions…accepted on faith. Our core beliefs not only determine how we expect the universe to work; they also, and just as importantly, supply the motivation for the science we do, and determine what counts as ‘success.’ They also affect why we as individuals choose to be scientists.” On Thursday, Feb. 13, Dr. Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, will speak at McCormick on “Faith, Science and the Common Good.”

“For religious leaders today, the capacity for thoughtful interaction with the sciences is not optional, but essential,” said Dr. Anna Case-Winters, Professor of Theology, who along with Dr. Reggie Williams, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, is heading up McCormick’s participation in the Science for Seminaries Program project organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion Program. “Our church pews include scientists and science teachers and science students who are trying to integrate what they are learning from science with their life of faith. It is critical that we look for ways to help people of faith with that integration by offering courses that incorporate science into our core curricula and by giving our community access to speakers like Brother Consolmagno who demonstrate how faith and science are not in competition but are complementary fields of inquiry."

A native of Detroit, Brother Consolmagno earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from MIT, and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and MIT, served the U.S. Peace Corps in Kenya, and taught physics at Lafayette College. The recipient of the Carl Sagan Medal for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist, Dr. Consolmagno co-authored Would You Baptize an Extraterrestial? and Turn Left at Orion. 

For the Br. Consolmagno's slides, download a PDF of the PowerPoint.