Science and Religion are compatible! Well, obviously.

I'm taking a break from a painting (oil pastel) that I'm working on and thought I'd add an entry for today. Oh, by the way, Happy Easter!

As I was painting (pastelling?), I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts called The Daily Breakfast. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a show made by a Catholic priest in The Netherlands. It's a fun show to listen to with next to no preaching. He talks about the news, movies, games, etc. while teaching a little about the Catholic Faith.

Anyway, the reason why I'm mentioning his podcast is today's show had a mention of an e-mail I sent to him (I always get excited-- it's like hearing your name on the radio.). I mentioned that I listened to the latest Quirks & Quarks, a science program on CBC Radio One. A segment talked about the Vatican observatory in Arizona and all about the Catholic Church's endorsement of scientific research in the past and in the present (and the future, too).

Being an astronomy buff and a Catholic (who was also a little intrigued to have stumbled upon the Church's observatory in Rome), it made for an interesting listen. they interviewed Brother Guy Consolmagno who runs the observatory and talked about how science and religion really do co-exist in harmony.

The best thing was, I always believed the exact same thing. Science, the way things work, chemistry, physics, planetary orbits, etc. they all work because that is how God made them work. Just like how an engineer invents something to work in a specific way, that's how God made everything. And it's up to us to figure it all out. Though I wish we didn't have to resort to animal testing or building nuclear bombs, but I suppose we still have a long, long way to go in our evolution.

It was refreshing to hear the show after all the insults athiests spewed all over the Internet about religion being stupid and stifieing science. I think the problem with most people is they don't seem to take the time to think things through before posting-- and the Internet is notorious for that. All those flame wars. Oh puh-leaaaase.

Quirks & Quarks is also available as a podcast on iTunes.