Vatican astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, SJ, PhD, delivered the 33^rd annual Nash Memorial Lecture to a capacity crowd at Campion College on Thursday, February 2.

A graduate of MIT and the University of Arizona, Br. Consolmagno entered the Jesuits in 1989 and was appointed to the Vatican observatory in 1993, where he currently serves as the Curator of the Vatican Meteorite collection and Director of Public Relations for the Vatican Observatory. As well, Br. Consolmagno conducts scientific research on the connection between meteorites and asteroids, and the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system. He is the author of numerous scientific publications and books, includingBrother AstronomerandGod’s Mechanics.

In his talk, The New Physics and the Old Metaphysics, Br. Consolmagno explains the relationship between science and religion, and how the two disciplines can support each other in our eternal quest for God.

Referencing the assertion made by Stephen Hawking in the bookThe Grand Designthat God is not necessary to explain the origins of the universe, Br. Consolmagno acknowledges where the argument for removing God as the touch point of the Big Bang is theologically correct.

“You do not need to invoke God to start the universe off; indeed, you should not,” says Br. Consolmagno.

He argues that our knowledge of how the universe works, the science, is constantly evolving and changing. Scientific knowledge a hundred years ago is different from what we know today, and it will continue to change as new information comes forward and new discoveries are made.

“Our cosmologies change; yet, our biggest questions remain constant: Who are we? Where did we come from? What are we doing here? These are questions that scientific cosmology can help inform, but ultimately they are not problems to be solved with an equation,” says Br. Consolmagno.

“The cosmology of Genesis is dated, but its essential message is that, regardless of how we picture that universe or the details of its creation, a God outside that universe, acting out of love, created the universe. That is a message that is never out of date,” Br. Consolmagno adds.

Br. Consolmagno enjoys his work as a scientist, researching and investigating his own hypotheses, playing, as he calls it, in God’s universe. However, he contends that science can only answer the question of how things work, explaining the natural causes of events, not why these forces exist.

“God is not a force to be invoked to swell a progress, start a scene or two, and fill the momentary gaps in our knowledge. God is the reason why existence itself exists. God is the reason why space, time and the laws of nature can be present to operate the forces that Stephen Hawking is talking about,” says Br. Consolmagno.

The Nash Memorial Lecture is available for viewing in both video and text format on the Campion College website: www.campioncollege.ca/events/nash-memorial-lecture-series.