Climate Of Change: The Catholic Church's Dance With Science

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer, San Antonio Express-News: World
Wed, 05/27/2015 - 8:03am

Entire aspects of astronomy, including the genesis of the Big Bang theory, began with members of the Catholic clergy. The Catholic Church "has got an uneven and not always congenial relationship with science," said science historian John Heilbron, who wrote a biography of Galileo. [...] after ticking off some of the advances in science that the church sponsored, the retired University of California Berkeley professor emeritus added, "probably on balance, the Catholic Church's exchange with what we call science is pretty good." There are remaining clashes about the ethics of scientific and medical practices — such as abortion and using stems cells from embryos — but that's more about morality than reality of science. With that complicated history looming, Pope Francis, once a chemist, will soon issue an authoritative church document laying out the moral justification for fighting global warming, especially for the world's poorest billions. "Everything you know (about Galileo) is wrong but the truth unfortunately doesn't make the church look any better," said Brother Guy Consolmagno, an astronomer and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation in Arizona. Galileo wasn't sent to prison and "he had his meals catered from the Tuscan embassy so he didn't have to eat Inquisition food," said Numbers, editor of the book "Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion." [...] Galileo was persecuted for espousing science, not denying it, said Harvard University science historian Naomi Oreskes.

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