#60 No Conflict Between Religion and Science

God is the author of ALL truth. The same God who is the God of our Faith, the God of the Bible, is the creator of the universe and everything in it. Because of this, there can be no true conflict between faith and reason or between science and religion.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth... because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God." (#159)

Pope John Paul II had this to say about the relationship between science and religion:

"Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes."

#57 Be Not Afraid!

Confidence in the faith is a joyful and contagious thing. It helps us get through tough times in which we are overcome by fear of the world and its evils. We need to prepare our children to go out and reclaim our culture. But how can we do this in the face of the threats that face us and them?

Cardinal Ratzinger suggests that we need to cultivate the virtue of hope...

To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go out to meet the future with confidence. The core of faith rests upon accepting being loved by God, and therefore to believe is to say Yes, not only to him, but to creation, to creatures, above all, to men, to try to see the image of God in each person and thereby to become a lover. That's not easy, but the basic Yes, the conviction that God has created men, that he stands behind them, that they aren't simply negative, gives love a reference point that enables it to ground hope on the basis of faith.

(Salt of the Earth)

#54 Go Out and Teach All Nations

As Christians, we are called to do our (albeit generally small) part in going out to teach all nations and Catholic education is very much concerned with preparing children to go out and do just that!

Archbishop Chaput had this to say:

'Go, make disciples of all nations' was the last command Jesus gave to us before returning to His Father. It's a big one. How can simple people like us convert the world? That brings us back to Mary, and to the apostles at Pentecost. They changed the world by letting God change them and work through them. We don't need to be afraid. We need to be confident in the promise made by Christ Himself: 'I am with you always, to the close of the age.'

Don't be afraid of the world. The Holy Spirit is on your side. Charles Spurgeon once said, 'The way you defend the Bible is the same way you defend a lion. You just let it loose.'

Quoted from Living the Catholic Faith: Discovering the Basics by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver.

The Balance Between Formation and Information (#51)

Though a solid educational philosophy requires an appropriate balance between formation - or who we become through education - and information - or what we actually learn, it is sometimes tempting to abandon one for the sake of the other. This is a serious mistake! Cardinal Ratzinger explains how this error led to the collapse of religious education in recent years:

“What is our catechesis doing? What is our school system doing at a time when religious instruction is widespread? I think that it was an error not to pass on more content. Our religion instructors rightly repudiated the idea that religious instruction is only information, and they rightly said that it is something else, that it is more, that the point is to learn life itself, that more has to be conveyed. But that led to the attempt to make people like this style of life, while information and content were neglected.” (Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth)

One Who Has Hope Lives Differently (#48)

As Catholics, our lives and priorities will be ordered in a different way than if we had no faith. This is a defining difference when it comes to education because, not only does it give a good example to our children, but it also prepares us to make everyday decisions about our children's education.

Here's what our Holy Father had to say in his encyclical on hope:

Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only "good news" - the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only "informative" but "performative." That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known - it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.

God's Saving Pedagogy (#44)

Pope John Paul II explained in his Letter to Families that:

...experience shows what an important role is played by a family living in accordance with the moral norm, so that the individual born and raised in it will be able to set out without hesitation on the road of the good, which is always written in his heart.

This is another great reminder of what a powerful impact that "Who we are" has upon the education of our children - especially in the long term. The Holy Father further elaborated:

Through Christ all education, within the family and outside of it, becomes part of God's own saving pedagogy, which is addressed to individuals and families and culminates in the paschal mystery of the Lord's death and resurrection. The "heart" of our redemption is the starting point of every process of Christian education, which is likewise always an education to a full humanity.

Lent for Families (#43)

The season of Lent can be a wonderful time for families to grow closer to each other and to Christ. Here are a few simple ideas that we use in our own family.

Place pictures of the Stations of the Cross around your house. Show your children how to walk their wayu around and identify each station, followed by a prayer or a song verse.

When your child makes a sacrifice or does a good deed, have them place a dry bean in a jar. This can be a great way to encourage them to help out a younger sibling or volunteer to do a chore. At Easter, you can replace the dry beans with colorful jelly beans to symbolize how Jesus takes our small sacrifices and makes them into something much better.

Finally, work on a spirit of generosity and simplicity. Eat simpler and donate the money saved to the needy. It's also a great time to donate toys, books and clothing to those in need.

Education and the Faith (#34)

This powerful quote from Orestes Brownson is particularly poignant in recognizing the value of the whole of education in relation to our Faith. It also challenges us to not simply isolate ourselves from the world in fear, but allow for a reasonable amount of exposure in order to challenge and strengthen our children for the difficulties they will face some day.

"No amount of pious training or pious culture will protect the faithful, or preserve them from contamination of the age, if they are left inferior to non-Catholics in secular learning and intellectual development. The faithful must be guarded and protected by being trained and disciplined to grapple with the false systems of the age... They must be better armed than their opponents - surpass them in the strength and vigor of their minds, and in the extent and variety of their knowledge. They must, on all occasions, and against all adversaries, be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them."

Love and Education (#31)

Pope John Paul II said:

The gospel of love is the inexhaustible source of all that nourishes the human family as a "communion of persons." In love the whole educational process finds its support and definitive meaning as the mature fruit of the parents' mutual gift. Through the efforts, sufferings and disappointments which are part of every person's education, love is constantly being put to the test. To pass the test, a source of spiritual strength is necessary. This is only found in the One who "loved to the end". Thus education is fully a part of the "civilization of love." It depends on the civilization of love and, in great measure, contributes to its upbuilding.

The Church's constant prayer... is for the education of man, so that families will persevere in their task of education with courage, trust and hope, in spite of difficulties occasionally so serious as to appear insuperable.

Cultivating a Love of the Good (#24)

Knowledge of the faith is an essential part of a child's education, but knowledge alone does not guarantee virtue or good behavior.

A love of "the good" can be cultivated in numerous ways, such as providing the grace of the sacraments and reading inspiring stories of saints and heroes.

In addition to these, we are powerful role models in our children's lives. We manifest God's love to our children when we provide them with a safe and loving home AND we are compelling models of Christian virtue when we strive to follow Christ in our own lives. This two-fold witness is a beautiful aspect of Christian education. Pope Benedict XVI said:

Especially when it is a matter of educating in faith, the figure of the witness and the role of witnessing is central. A witness of Christ does not merely transmit information but is personally involved with the truth Christ proposes and, through the coherency of his own life, becomes a dependable reference point.

Age Quod Agis (#20)

Age Quod Agis is an old Latin proverb that means "Do What You Are Doing". I think this concept is both helpful and encouraging to homeschool moms who are trying to move 15 different ways at once - often at the expense of being effective at accomplishing what truly needs to be done.

Fr. Thomas Dubay explained this concept quite beautifully:

Little children live intensely in the present moment, neither in the past nor in the future. As the French writer La Bruyre once put it, 'Children have neither past nor future, but they have something we seldom have - they rejoice in the present.'

This is the child-like trait which the New Testament would have us imitate. Age quod agis - literally, 'do what you are doing' ... The future does not yet exist and the past is gone forever. What we have is the present moment. By it we are fashioning our eternity.

The Importance of Joy (#19)

According to Cardinal Ratzinger, joy is an important thing in our lives and is often lacking in today's world. He said...

Something I constantly notice is that unembarrassed joy has become rarer. Joy today is increasingly saddled with moral and ideological burdens, so to speak. When someone rejoices, he is afraid of offending against solidarity with the many people who suffer. I don't have any right to rejoice, people think, in a world where there is so much misery, so much injustice...

There is a moral attitude at work here. But this attitude is nonetheless wrong. The loss of joy does not make the world better - and, conversely, refusing joy for the sake of suffering does not help those who suffer. The contrary is true. The world needs people who discover the good, who rejoice in it and thereby derive the impetus and courage to do good.

Prayer and Family Life (#16)

In his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, the Holy Father says, "Faith, hope and charity go together. Hope is practiced through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness."

How do we cultivate humility and patience in ourselves and in our families? Through prayer. In an address to children and families, the Pope explains why this is an essential aspect of family life...

Please, also pray together at home: at meals, before going to sleep. Praying not only leads us to God but also to one another. It is a force of peace and of joy. Life within the family becomes more special and of greater importance when God is there and His presence is experienced, lived in prayer. (read the rest here)

An Environment of Love and Learning (#12)

Education isn't just about what children know; perhaps more importantly, it's about what they love. Successful home education relies on a healthy family life where love of goodness and truth is modeled and cultivated.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers a beautiful explanation of this concept: "Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well-suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery - the preconditions of true freedom... Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them."

Further Information:

The above quote is from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2223

Pope Benedict XVI has recently written on the subject of beauty in education.

Don't Take Faith for Granted (#10)

In a messy and sometimes frightening world, it's easy to fall into a mode of reaction in which we recognize what is wrong "out there" but lose a sense of what is good. We fall into thinking that having our children avoid "the world" will automatically turn them into good people. But the faith is a living thing that needs to be actively cultivated.

Faith is a gift from God, but it is cultivated by His grace made accessible through prayer and the sacraments and also through education. Parents should provide their children with solid religious teaching, they should help make the teaching accessible according to the child's needs and abilities and they should strive to live their own life in accordance with God's will.

Cardinal Ratzinger said: "Faith is not maintained automatically. It is not 'finished business' that we can simply take for granted. The life of faith has to be constantly renewed.'

Further Information:

The above quote is from Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism (Ignatius Press)

Children and Nature (#8)

The Catechism says "The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God...who made them what they are."

God reveals himself to us in a special way through nature. This is part of why we study science and why connections with the natural world are so essential in introducing our children to the world of science, long before any formal studies are necessary. Explore the wonders of your neighborhood and your own backyard. Let them observe in simplicity and awe the beauty of a starry night and the song of birds. Cultivate and encourage their enthusiasm for bugs, flowers and beautiful sunsets.

Cardinal Ratzinger explains: "Man can touch the eternal only in sensible realities, but the things of this world are also intrinsically designed to mediate contact with God."

Further Information:

The quote from the Cathechism of the Catholic Church is from paragraph#159. Here is the paragraph in its entirety:

Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth. Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made then what they are.

The quote from Cardinal Ratzinger can be found in Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism (Ignatius Press).

Related Thoughts:

Saint Paul says in his Letter to the Romans: "what can be known about God is plain...because God has shown it...Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made."

"The reason for the crisis and its consequences have been described often and extensively. In the technological world, which is a self-made world of man, one does not immediatley encounter the Creator; rather, initially, it is only himself that man always encounters." (Cardinal Ratzinger, Handing on the Faith in an Age of Disbelief - Ignatius Press)

The "Lens of Faith" (#7)

Our children need to develop a "lens of faith" through which they can view the world and make judgments and decisions. Developing this lens requires a well-formed conscience, an appreciation and conviction for what is good and true and a "skeptometer" to recognize and filter out what is wrong. A "lens of faith" requires both knowledge and application. One of the exciting things about homeschooling, though it can be true for all parents, is that we get to learn with our children all the time. Pray for God's guidance in making these important connections as a family. Reading and conversation are particularly helpful.

The Declaration on Christian Education from Vatican II said: "The Church is bound as a mother to give to these children of hers an education by which their whole life can be imbued with the spirit of Christ.

Fairy Tales (#3)

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1917), "One is entitled to think that the future of humanity is in the hands of those who are capable of providing the generations to come with reasons for life and optimism."

It may surprise you that reading classic fairy tales is recommended to cultivate a child's sense of hope. The world has, to some extent, long recognized the value of fairy tales. Albert Einstein said that: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

G.K. Chesterton reveals something much deeper: "The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

Further Information:

G.K. Chesterton recommends The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang in Heretics.

Here is a larger portion of the quote from Chesterton on fairy tales. It comes from "The Red Angel" in Tremendous Trifles (pg. 86):

I find that there really are human beings who think fairy tales bad for children. I do not speak of the man in the green tie, for him I can never count truly human. But a lady has written me an earnest letter saying that fairy tales ought not to be taught to children even if they are true. She says that it is cruel to tell children fairy tales, because it frightens them. You might just as well say that it is cruel to give girls sentimental novels because it makes them cry. All this kind of talk is based on that complete forgetting of what a child is like which has been the firm foundation of so many educational schemes. If you kept bogies and goblins away from children they would make them up for themselves. One small child in the dark can invent more hells than Swedenborg. One small child can imagine monsters too big and black to get into any picture, and give them names too unearthly and cacophonous to have occurred in the cries of any lunatic. The child, to begin with, commonly likes horrors, and he continues to indulge in them even when he does not like them. There is just as much difficulty in saying exactly where pure pain begins in his case, as there is in ours when we walk of our own free will into the torture-chamber of a great tragedy. The fear does not come from fairy tales; the fear comes from the universe of the soul.

The timidity of the child or the savage is entirely reasonable; they are alarmed at this world, because this world is a very alarming place. They dislike being alone because it is verily and indeed an awful idea to be alone. Barbarians fear the unknown for the same reason that Agnostics worship it - because it is a fact. Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give a child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies, that these strong enemiesof man have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

Math and Science (#1)

All education is for the sake of knowing Christ. That can be a shocking statement in a culture that judges an education by how much money the student earns once he graduates. As Catholics, we want our children to go to Heaven, and we judge education by how it contributes, directly or indirectly, to that goal. Religion is not the only subject that matters. Math and Science, besides providing for intermediate goals like being able to support a family, can have a profound effect on reinforcing the child's faith. Math, for example, develops and disciplines the mind, provides a sense of order and presents an opportunity to practice virtues such as patience, neatness and perseverance.

Pope Pius XI says: "Since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man's last end."

Further Information:

Read Pope Pius XI's entire encyclical On Christian Education (1929)