Science and Religion: the Big Bang Theory.

As part of their core R.E. programme this term, Mrs McDermott (Head of R.E.) is leading Upper VI in their investigations into the relationship between science and religion.  The origins of the universe have intrigued and fascinated people for millennia and here Naomi Jeffries writes about Mgr. Georges Lemaître, who formulated the Big Bang Theory in the late 1920s.

‘Georges Lemaître (1894 – 1966) was a Belgian astronomer and cosmologist who formulated the modern big-bang theory, which says that the universe began in a cataclysmic explosion of a small, primeval “super-atom.” Lemaître also conducted research on cosmic rays and on the three-body problem, which concerns the mathematical description of the motion of three mutually attracting bodies in space.

However, Lemaître was also a Monsignor in the Catholic Church and through his life he showed that religion and science did not have to be incompatible. In the course of carrying out his research, he confronted illogical thinking that pitted science against the Church.

It was shocking to many that a man who would think of a great scientific theory, could also be a Catholic priest. Lemaître managed to bring together the science of creation and the religious views of God’s creation, which forever changed the future landscape of both science and religion, and their connection with each other.’