More daily thoughts on BBC radio solent

As this week is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origins, BBC radio solent asked me to give four thoughts relating science and faith. I chose to look at four famous scientists and ask how their science impacted their faith.

The day1 audio can be listened to here and the text is below:

Good morning,

In this “Darwin anniversary” week I plan to look at four famous scientists and ask how their discoveries influenced their life and faith.

First off is Galileo Galilei, the 17th century physicist and astronomer famous for being one of the first to point a telescope at the stars, and also for discovering the principles of gravity by supposedly dropping objects off the top of the leaning tower of Pisa. However, perhaps even more memorable than his scientific discoveries, was Galileo's trial before the Roman inquisition, the guilty verdict and his subsequent sentencing to a lifetime of house arrest. This was because he taught that the earth orbited the Sun, contradicting the churches teaching that the earth was the stationary centre of the universe.

Some say that the way Galileo was treated is typical of what happens when “evidence based” science meets “faith based” religion. Indeed some contemporary authors argue that religion is an old fashioned way of looking at the world, and scientists like Galileo are the heroes responsible for bringing about a new, less superstitious scientific age. However this was not how Galileo himself understood the matter.

In a long letter explaining how he understood the relationship between science and faith, Galileo argued that it was a serious mistake to view the bible as if it were a scientific textbook because it was written not to teach physics or biology, but rather to convey truths about people and their relationship with God. He wrote "The bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heaven's go."

400 years later we would do well remembering these words of Galileo. Although science shows us how the world around us works, it is, and cannot, ever be an excuse for not living a life of faith.