How He Did It

Astronomer Guy Consolmagno was recently interviewed as part of ABC's Encounter programme. He was asked about 'religion and science' and made the following remark...

One of my quick answers is that the Bible tells me that God made the universe but it is my science that tells me how he did it!

The episode covered a number of areas, and also interviewed 2008 Templeton Prize winner Michal Heller. Meanwhile, Guy Consolmagno was also asked about being a religious person embedded in the scientific world...

There absolutely is this commonality and you forget sometimes but modern science really is fundamentally based on religious ideas. It's based on the idea that the universe does make sense, that there are laws to be found. You know, a lot of religions thought that things happened arbitrarily, because you know the god of thunder made the thunder fall, the god of crops made the crops grow. And Christianity says no there is only one God and he made the universe in an orderly way and he gave us the intelligence to be able to figure it out. But even more than that: our religion believes that, you know as the Bible puts it, God so loved the world that he sent his Son, it was primarily out of love of this creation that he found was good. So to love creation and to become more intimate with it by studying it as a scientist is a religious act, it is an act of worship. It is why I get up in the morning.