The battle between science and religion was brought to the Administración de Empresas amphitheater on August 21st .
On that Thursday, the amphitheater was packed. All of the seats were taken and students lined the aisles. A very important character was speaking to the UPRM community- Dr. George Coyne was ready to discuss quantum cosmology and creation to anyone who listened.
He was no ordinary speaker- his tittles range from former director of the Vatican Observatory to having a meteor named in his honor. Coyne, equipped with PhD’s on astronomy and theology, has always been active in the debate of the religious implications of scientific evolution.
The 81-year old Jesuit shared with the audience thoughts on the search for the truth in science and in religious belief. With a good joke here and there he explained the interaction between cosmology and Christian faith. As he explained the scientific evolution and the quest of faith he quoted Galileo saying “The book of scripture and the book of nature speak of the same god.”
Photo taken by UPRM contributor
When asked if his scientific self ever clashed with his religion self he answered, “not at all, they actually complement each other.” During his presentation, Coyne affirmed that when it came to his notion of God he had to rethink his religious beliefs in terms of his scientific knowledge in order to not lose faith.
The visit from the Jesuit astronomer was brought to the UPRM community as part of a project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities– an interdisciplinary course that promotes critical thinking. The current course focuses on three distant yet similar disciplines- cosmology, evolution and beliefs.
“It’s a remarkable opportunity for us to bring such universal arguments to our campus” shared Professor M. Cafaro- who teaches the evolution section of the course. This visit and the ones to come are very important as Cafaro said it “helps to create a debate atmosphere between colegiales and propell them to think on complementary visions of what we are.
Special thanks to Professor M. Landers who let us use a few of his photos of the event.