BBC News: “Vatican’s Space Mission”

A website run cooperatively by the Vatican and the Italian Space Agency aims to attract readers who are interested in a “greater understanding” of both scientific and religious answers to deep questions like, “If the [b]ig [b]ang was the start of everything, what came before it?”

Gianfranco Basti, dean of the philosophy department at Pontifical Lateran University, explained, “From the [Roman Catholic] Church’s point of view, this is about getting religious people to see that scientists are not the enemy and getting scientists to see that religious people are not the enemy. The aim is for both sides to come together for the good of humanity.”

Piero Benvenuti of the Italian Space Agency added, “Science . . . doesn’t have all the answers, and we must accept that,” an admission that might rile some.

Rather than starting from a biblical foundation and interpreting science in the light of God’s Word, the new website will start from a secular foundation and only have room for religious explanations on the topics where science still has unanswered questions.

Basti also told BBC News, “I can believe in God and at the same time accept Einstein’s theory that time has not always existed.” This strangely seems to imply that Basti is unfamiliar with Genesis 1:1. The Bible has always taught that time had a beginning; it is not difficult to reconcile belief in God with (the biblically grounded) belief that time had a beginning! Perhaps this illustrates that rather than starting from a biblical foundation and interpreting science in the light of God’s Word, the new website will start from a secular foundation and only have room for religious explanations on the topics where science still has unanswered questions.

For more information:

• Get Answers: Creation—why it matters
• Get Answers: Astronomy

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