. When the Jesuit priest Monsignor Abbé Georges Lemaître, friend of Einstein, proposed the Big Bang and billions of years of evolution theory, he became a hero scientist of the Catholic Church. Wikipedia tells us ‘By 1951, Pope Pius XII declared that Lemaître's theory provided a scientific validation for Catholicism.
The Wikipedia reference to Pius XII comes in their article about Fr. Lemaitre. It is followed by footnote 34 which is to the text seen between the asterisks below. (What you see is actually a Google translation.)
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ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE XII
TO CARDINALS, TO THE LEGATES OF THE FOREIGN COUNTRIES
AND TO THE MEMBERS OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Thursday, November 22, 1951
To the Most Eminent Cardinals present,
to the Excellent Legates of the Foreign Nations,
and to the Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
An hour of serene joy, of which we are grateful to the Almighty, offers us this meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and gives us the pleasant opportunity to entertain you with an elected member of eminent cardinals, distinguished diplomats and ex-personalities , and especially with you, Pontifical Academics, well worthy of the solemnity of this assembly, because you, investigating and revealing the secrets of nature, and teaching men to direct their forces to their good, preached at the same time, with the language of the figures , of the formulas, of the discoveries, the ineffable harmonies of the most wise God.
In fact true science, contrary to reckless statements of the past, the more it advances, the more it discovers God, as if he were watching while awaiting behind every door that science opens up. Rather, we want to say that this progressive discovery of God, accomplished in the increments of knowledge, not only benefits the scientist when he thinks - and how could he abstain from it? - as a philosopher, but also profit all those who participate in the new found or take them on the subject of their considerations; in a special way the genuine philosophers take advantage of it, since taking the moves from the scientific achievements for their rational speculation, they gain greater security in their conclusions, clearer illustrations in the possible shadows, more convincing subsidies to give the difficulties and objections an always more satisfying answer.
NATURE AND FOUNDATIONS OF THE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Thus moved and guided, the human intellect comes to meet that demonstration of the existence of God, which Christian wisdom recognizes in philosophical arguments, sifted by the giants of knowledge over the centuries, and which is well known to you in the presentation of the " five ways" », Which the Angelico Doctor Saint Thomas offers almost sent and sure itinerary of the mind to God. Philosophical arguments, we have said; but not therefore a priori, as an ungenerous and incoherent positivism accuses them. They operate on concrete realities and ascertained by the senses and by science, even if they acquire probative force from the vigor of natural reason.
In this way philosophy and science are developed with similar and reconcilable activities and methods, employing empirical and rational elements to different degrees and conspiring in harmonic unity to the discovery of the truth.
But if the primitive experience of the ancients could offer reason enough arguments for the demonstration of the existence of God; with the widening and deepening of the field of experience itself, the more scintillating and clearer now shines the footprint of the Eternal in the visible world. It therefore seems profitable to re-examine on the basis of the new scientific discoveries the classical proofs of the Angelic, especially those taken from the motion and the order of the universe [ 1 ]; to search, that is, if and how much the deeper knowledge of the structure of the macrocosm and of the microcosm contributes to strengthening the philosophical arguments; then consider, on the other hand, if and to what extent they have been shaken, as it is often claimed, from having modern physics formulated new fundamental principles, abolished or modified ancient concepts, whose meaning in the past was perhaps judged fixed and defined, as, for example, time, space, motion, causality, substance, concepts which are extremely important for the question that now occupies us. Rather than a revision of the philosophical proofs, it is therefore a matter of scrutinizing the physical foundations - and we shall necessarily, for the reason of time, restrict ourselves to some only - from which those arguments derive. Nor are there any fears of surprises: science itself does not intend to leave that world, which today, like yesterday, presents itself with those five " ways of being ", whence the philosophical demonstration of the existence of God takes shape and strength. . TWO ESSENTIAL NOTES CHARACTERISTICS OF COSMO
Of these " ways of being " of the world around us, detected with greater or less understanding, but with equal evidence, from the philosopher and the common intelligence, two are that the modern sciences have marvelously sounded, ascertained and deepened beyond all expectations:
1 ° the mutability of things, including their birth and their end;
2 ° the order of finality that shines in every corner of the cosmos.
The contribution so lent from the sciences to the two philosophical demonstrations, that on them they are impregnated and that they constitute the first and the fifth way, is remarkable. At first physics especially has conferred an inexhaustible mine of experiences, revealing the fact of mutability in deep recesses of nature, where before now no human mind could ever even suspect its existence and breadth, and providing a multiplicity of empirical facts , which are a very valid aid to philosophical reasoning. We say subsidy; because the direction, however, of the same transformations, though ascertained by modern physics, seems to exceed the value of a simple confirmation and almost achieves the structure and the degree of physical argument for much new and many minds more acceptable, persuasive and welcome .
With equal wealth the sciences, especially astronomical and biological, have recently brought to the subject of the order such a set of knowledge and such a vision, so to speak, intoxicating, of the conceptual unity that animates the cosmos, and of the finality that it directs the path, to anticipate to the modern man that joy, which the Poet imagined in the empyrean sky, when he saw how in God "he is interred - bound with love in a volume - that which for the universe is squaderna " [ 2 ]. Nevertheless Providence has arranged that the notion of God, so essential to the life of every man, as it can easily draw from a simple glance thrown onto the world, so that not understanding its voice is foolishness [ 3 ], so it receives confirmation from every deepening and progress of scientific knowledge. Therefore, wishing to give here a quick essay of the precious service which the modern sciences render to the demonstration of the existence of God, We will restrict ourselves first to the fact of mutations, noting mainly the breadth, the vastness and, so to speak, the totality that the physics modern finds in the inanimate cosmos; so we will dwell on the meaning of their direction, as it was also verified. It will be like giving the ear to a small concert of the immense universe, which however has a sufficient voice to sing " the glory of the One who moves everything " [ 4 ]. A) THE MUTABILITY OF COSMOS - MADE OF MUTABILITY
a) In the macrocosm
At first glance it is just astonishing to see how the cognition of the fact of mutability has gained ever greater ground and in the macrocosm and microcosm, as the sciences have progressed, almost confirming with new evidence the theory of Heraclitus: " everything flows ": πάντα ρετ. As is known, the same daily experience shows a huge amount of transformations in the world, near or far, that surrounds us, especially the local movements of the bodies. But besides these real local motions, the multiform chemical-physical changes are also easily visible, for example the change in the physical state of the water in its three phases of vapor, liquid and ice; the profound chemical effects through the use of fire, whose knowledge dates back to prehistoric times; the disintegration of stones and the corruption of plant and animal bodies. This natural experience was joined by natural science, which taught to understand these and other similar events as processes of destruction or construction of bodily substances in their chemical elements, that is to say in their smallest parts, chemical atoms. On the contrary, proceeding further, it made clear how this chemical-physical mutability is in no way restricted to terrestrial bodies, according to the belief of the ancients, but extends to all the bodies of our solar system and the great universe, which telescope, and even better the spectroscope, showed to be formed by the same species of atoms.
b) In the microcosm
Against the unquestionable mutability of inanimate nature, however, the enigma of the unexplored microcosm still rose. In fact, it seemed that inorganic matter, unlike the animated world, was in a certain sense immutable. Its smallest parts, of chemical atoms, could but join together in the most diverse ways, but it seemed that they enjoyed the privilege of eternal stability and indestructibility, coming out unchanged from any synthesis and chemical analysis. A hundred years ago, it was still believed to be simple, indivisible and indestructible elementary particles. The same was thought for the energies and the material forces of the cosmos, above all according to the fundamental laws of the conservation of mass and energy. Some naturalists even considered themselves authorized to formulate in the name of their science a fantastic monistic philosophy, whose petty memory is linked, among others, to the name of Ernst Haeckel. But at the time, towards the end of the last century, even this simplistic conception of the chemical atom was overwhelmed by modern science. The growing cognition of the periodic system of chemical elements, the discovery of the corpuscular radiations of the radioactive elements, and many other similar facts have shown that the microcosm of the chemical atom with dimensions of the order of ten thousandths of a millimeter is the theater of continuous mutations, not less than the well known macrocosm.
c) In the electronic sphere
And first the character of mutability was ascertained in the electronic sphere. From the electronic structure of the atom give off light and heat irradiations, which come from the external bodies absorbed, corresponding to the energy level of the electronic orbits. The ionization of the atom and the transformation of energy in the synthesis and analysis of chemical combinations are accomplished in the outer parts of this sphere. One could then suppose that these chemical-physical transformations still left a refuge to stability, not reaching the same nucleus of the atom, the seat of the mass and of the positive electric charge, for which the place of the chemical atom in the natural system is determined. of the elements, and where it seemed to find almost the type of the absolutely stable and invariable.
d) In the nucleus
But already at the dawn of the new century, the observation of radioactive processes, to be referred, ultimately, to a spontaneous shattering of the nucleus, led to the exclusion of such a type. Once the instability was verified, even in the deepest recess of the known nature, there remained a perplexing fact, seeming that the atom was at least unaffected by human forces, since in the beginning all attempts to accelerate or halt its natural radioactive disintegration, or even to shatter non-active nuclei, they were made. The first very modest fragmentation of the nucleus (of nitrogen) dates back to just three decades ago, and only a few years ago it was possible, after immense efforts, to carry out in considerable quantity processes of formation and decomposition of nuclei. Although this result, which, in as much as it serves the works of peace, must certainly be ascribed to our century's worth, does not represent a first step in the field of nuclear physics, but for our consideration an important conclusion is ensured: the nuclei atomic are but for many orders of magnitude more firm and stable than ordinary chemical compositions, but, nevertheless, they are also in principle subjected to similar laws of transformation, and therefore changing.
At the same time, it has been found that such processes have the greatest importance in the energy economy of fixed stars. In the center of our sun, for example, it takes place according to the Bethe, in a temperature that is around twenty million degrees, a chain reaction in itself returning, in which four nuclei of hydrogen are joined in a helium nucleus . The energy, which thus frees itself, compensates for the loss due to the irradiation of the sun itself. Even in modern physical laboratories it is possible to carry out, through the bombardment with particles with very high energy or with neutrons, transformations of nuclei, as can be seen in the example of the uranium atom. In this regard, it is also necessary to mention the effects of cosmic radiation, which can shatter the heavier atoms, thus frequently releasing sub-atomic swarms of particles.
We wanted to cite only a few examples, but such to put out of any doubt the express mutability of the inorganic world, large and small: the millecuple transformations of the forms of energy, especially in the decompositions and chemical combinations in the macrocosm, and no less the mutability of atoms chemicals up to the subatomic particle of their nuclei.
THE EVERY IMMUTABLE
The scientist of today, pushing his gaze in the interior of nature more profoundly than his predecessor a hundred years ago, knows that inorganic matter, so to speak in its innermost marrow, is marked with the imprint of mutability, and that therefore his being and his subsistence require an entirely different reality and by its nature invariable. As in a chiaroscuro painting, the figures stand out from the dark background, obtaining only in this way the full effect of plastic and life; thus the image of the eternally unchangeable emerges clear and shining from the torrent that all the material things in the macro and in the microcosm with itself kidnap and overwhelm in an intrinsic mutability that never poses. The scientist, who pauses on the bank of this immense torrent, finds rest in that cry of truth, with which God defined himself: " I am who I am " [ 5 ], and that the Apostle praises as " Pater luminum, apud quem non est transmutatio neque vicissitudinis obumbrati o »[ 6 ]. B) THE DIRECTION OF TRANSFORMATIONS
a) In the macrocosm: the law of entropy
But modern science has not only broadened and deepened our knowledge of reality and the amplitude of the mutability of the cosmos; it also offers us valuable indications about the direction, according to which the processes in nature are accomplished. While still a hundred years ago, especially after the discovery of the law of constancy, it was thought that natural processes were reversible, and therefore, according to the principles of strict causality - or rather, determination - of nature, it was possible to estimate an ever recurrent renewal and rejuvenation of the cosmos; with the law of entropy, discovered by Rodolfo Clausius, it became known that spontaneous natural processes are always combined with a decrease of free and usable energy: what in a closed material system must lead, finally, to the cessation of the processes in scale macroscopic. This fateful fate, which only hypotheses, sometimes too gratuitous, like that of continuous supplementary creation, endeavor to save the universe, but which instead springs from positive scientific experience, eloquently postulates the existence of a necessary Body.
b) In the microcosm
In the microcosm this law, in statistical terms, has no application, and besides, at the time of its formulation, almost nothing was known of the structure and behavior of the atom. However, the most recent investigation into the atom and the unexpected development of astrophysics have made surprising discoveries possible in this field. The result can not be here briefly mentioned, and it is that a sense of direction is clearly assigned to the atomic and intra-atomic development.
To illustrate this fact, it will suffice to resort to the aforementioned example of the behavior of solar energies. The electronic structure of the chemical atoms in the photosphere of the sun releases every second a gigantic amount of radiant energy in the surrounding space, from which it does not return. The loss is compensated from inside the sun by the formation of hydrogen helium. The energy, which thereby frees itself, comes from the mass of hydrogen nuclei, which in this process for a small part (7 ‰) converts to equivalent energy. The compensation process therefore takes place at the expense of energy, which originally exists in the nuclei of hydrogen, as a mass. Thus this energy, over billions of years, slowly, but irreparably, turns into radiation. A similar thing happens in all radioactive processes, both natural and artificial. Even here, then, in the narrow and proper microcosm, we find a law that indicates the direction of evolution, and which is analogous to the law of entropy in the macrocosm. The direction of spontaneous evolution is determined by decreasing the energy that can be used in the structure and nucleus of the atom, and so far no processes are known, which could compensate or cancel this exploitation by spontaneous formation of high energy value nuclei.
C) THE UNIVERSE AND ITS DEVELOPMENTS
In the future
So if the scientist turns his gaze from the present state of the universe to the future, albeit very distant, he is forced to find, in the macrocosm as in the microcosm, the aging of the world. Over billions of years, even the quantities of seemingly inexhaustible atomic nuclei lose usable energy, and matter approaches, to speak figuratively, to an extinct and scoriforme volcano. And it is made to think that, if the present cosmos, today so pulsating with rhythms and life, it is not enough to give reason of itself, as we have seen, the less will that cosmos do, on which it will be passed, in its own way , the wing of death.
And in the past Now look back at the past. As it recedes, matter is always richer in free energy and the scene of great cosmic upheavals. So everything seems to indicate that the material universe has taken, from finite times, a powerful beginning, provided as it was of an unimaginably large abundance of energy reserves, by virtue of which, at first quickly, then with increasing slowness, it evolved in the present state. So two questions arise so spontaneously to mind: Is science able to say when this powerful principle of the cosmos has occurred? And what was the initial, primitive state of the universe? The most excellent experts in the physics of the atom, in collaboration with astronomers and astrophysicists, have endeavored to shed light on these two difficult, but extremely interesting problems.
D) THE PRINCIPLE IN TIME
First of all, to cite a few figures, which at least claim that to express an order of magnitude in designating the dawn of our universe, that is its principle in time, science has several paths, one quite independent from each other. , yet convergent, which we briefly indicate:
1. The spacing of the spiral nebulae or galaxies. - The examination of numerous nebula spirals, performed especially by Edwin E. Hubble in the Mount Wilson Observatory, led to the significant result - though tempered by reserves - that these distant systems of galaxies tend to distance themselves from one another with such speed that the interval between two such spiral nebulae in about 1300 million years is doubled. If one looks back at the time of this process of the Expanding Universe , it turns out that, from one to ten billion years ago, the matter of all the nebula spirals was compressed in a relatively small space, when the cosmic processes were .
2. The age of the solid crust of the earth. - To calculate the age of radioactive primary substances, very approximate data are derived from the transmutation of uranium isotope 238 in a lead isotope (RaG), uranium 235 in actinium D (AcD) and thorium isotope 232 in thorium D (ThD). The mass of helium, which thus forms, can serve as a control. In this way it would appear that the average age of the oldest minerals is at most 5 billion years.
3. The age of the meteorites . - The previous method applied to meteorites, to calculate their age, gave roughly the same figure of 5 billion years. This result, which acquires special importance because meteorites come from outside our land and, except for terrestrial minerals, are the only examples of celestial bodies that can be studied in scientific laboratories.
4. The stability of double star systems and star clusters. - The oscillations of gravitation within these systems, such as the tidal friction, again restrict their stability within the terms of 5 to 10 billion years. If these figures can move in amazement, yet even the simplest of believers do not bring a new and different concept from the one learned from the first words of Genesis « In the beginning », that is to say the beginning of things over time. At those words they give a concrete and almost mathematical expression, while more comfort arises for those who share the esteem with the Apostle to that divinely inspired Scripture, which is always useful " ad docendum, ad arguendum, ad corripiendum, ad erudiendum "[ 7 ]. E) THE STATE AND QUALITY OF ORIGINAL MATERIALS
With equal commitment and freedom of investigation and assessment, the learned, as well as the question on the age of the cosmos, have applied the audacious teachings to the other already mentioned and certainly more difficult, which concerns the state and quality of the primitive matter .
According to the theories that are taken as a basis, the relative calculations differ not little from each other. However, scientists agree that, alongside mass, density, pressure and temperature must also have reached enormous degrees, as can be seen in the recent work by A. Unsöld, director of the Kiel Observatory [ 8 ] . Only with such conditions can the formation of the heavy nuclei and their relative frequency be understood in the periodic system of the elements. On the other hand with reason the mind, greedy for truth, insists on asking, why did matter come into such a state so unlikely to our common experience of today, and what preceded it. In vain would one expect an answer from natural science, which, on the contrary, declares loyally that it is faced with an insoluble enigma. It is certainly true that one would demand too much from natural science as such; but it is also certain that the human spirit poured into philosophical meditation penetrates more deeply into the problem.
It is undeniable that an enlightened mind enriched by modern scientific knowledge, which serenely assesses this problem, is bound to break the circle of a wholly independent and indigenous matter, or because uncreated, or because it is created by itself, and to go back to a Spirit Creator. With the same clear and critical look, with which he examines and judges the facts, he sees and recognizes the work of creative omnipotence, whose virtue, stirred by the powerful " fiat " pronounced billions of years ago by the creator Spirit, unfolded in the universe , calling into existence with a generous gesture of love the exuberant matter of energy. It really seems that today's science, going back millions of centuries, has succeeded in witnessing that primordial " Fiat lux ", when out of nowhere a matter of light and radiation broke out with matter, while the particles of the chemical elements they split and gathered in millions of galaxies.
It is true that of the creation over time the facts ascertained so far are not a matter of absolute proof, as are those taken from metaphysics and revelation, as regards simple creation, and from revelation, if it is a question of creation over time. The facts pertaining to the natural sciences, to which we referred, await even more investigation and conformity, and the theories based on them require new developments and trials, to provide a secure basis for an argument, which for itself is outside the sphere of the natural sciences.
Nevertheless, it is worthy of attention that modern scholars of these sciences estimate the idea of the creation of the universe entirely compatible with their scientific conception, and that they are spontaneously led by their investigations; while, a few decades ago, such a " hypothesis " was rejected as absolutely irreconcilable with the present state of science. Still in 1911 the famous physicist Svante Arrehnius declared that " the opinion that anything can arise from nothingness, is in contrast with the present state of science according to which matter is immutable " [ 9 ]. The statement is similar to the Plate: " Matter exists. Nothing is born of nothingness: consequently matter is eternal. We can not admit the creation of matter "[ 10 ]. What is different and more faithful mirror of immense visions is the language of a modern scientist of the highest order, Sir Edmund Whittaker, Pontifical Academician, when he speaks of the aforementioned investigations around the age of the world: "These different calculations converge in the conclusion that there was an era, about 10 9 or 10 10 years ago, before which the cosmos, if it existed, existed in a form totally different from anything known to us: so that it represents the last limit of science. We may perhaps without impropriety refer to it as to creation. It provides a fitting background to the world view, which is suggested by geological evidence, that every organism existing on earth has had a beginning over time. If this result were to be confirmed by future research, it could well be considered as the most important discovery of our age; since it represents a fundamental change in the scientific conception of the universe, similar to the one carried out, four centuries ago, by Copernicus "[ 11 ]. Conclusion
What is therefore the importance of modern science with regard to the argument in proof of the existence of God taken from the changeable nature of the cosmos? By means of exact and detailed inquiries into the macrocosm and the microcosm, it has considerably broadened and deepened the empirical foundation on which that argument is based, and from which it ends in the existence of an ensemble, by its very nature unchanging. Furthermore, it has followed the course and direction of cosmic developments, and as the fatal term has glimpsed, so it pointed to their beginning in a time of about 5 billion years ago, confirming with the concreteness of physical evidence the contingency of the universe and the well-founded deduction that towards that time the cosmos came out of the hand of the Creator.
Creation over time, therefore; and therefore a Creator; therefore God! This is the voice, though not explicit or complete, which we asked of science, and which the present human generation awaits from it. It is an erupting voice from the mature and serene consideration of only one aspect of the universe, that is to say from its mutability; but it is already sufficient for the whole humanity, apex and rational expression of the macrocosm and the microcosm, becoming aware of its high factor, to feel its own thing, in space and time, and, falling to its knees before its sovereign Majesty, begin to invoke the name: " Rerum, Deus, tenax vigor, - immotus in te permanens, - lucis diurnae tempora - successibus determinans " [ 12 ]. The knowledge of God, as the only creator, common to many modern scientists, is but the extreme limit to which natural reason can reach; but it does not constitute - as you well know - the last one. frontier of truth. Of the same Creator, met by science in his path, philosophy, and much more the revelation, in harmonious collaboration, because all three instruments of truth, almost rays of the same sun, contemplate the substance, reveal the contours, portray the appearance. Above all, revelation makes it almost immediate, vivifying, loving, which is what the simple believer or scientist feels in the intimacy of their spirit, when they repeat without hesitation the concise words of the ancient Symbol of the Apostles: " Credo in Deum , Patrem omnipotentem. Creatorem caeli et terrae »!
Today, after so many centuries of civilization, because centuries of religion, it is not already necessary to discover God for the first time, but rather to feel him as a Father, to reverence him as a Legislator, to fear him as a Judge; He hopes, for the salvation of the Gentiles, that they may adore the Son, the loving Redeemer of men, and bow to the sweet impulses of the Spirit, fruitful Sanctifier of souls.
This persuasion, which takes the distant moves from science, is crowned by faith, which, if rooted more and more in the consciences of the peoples, can truly bring about fundamental progress to the course of civilization.
It is a vision of the whole, of the present as well as of the future, of matter as of the spirit, of time as of eternity, which, illuminating the minds, will save the men of today a long night of storm.
It is that faith, which makes us at this time raise to Him, whom we have now invoked Vigor, Immotus and Pater , the fervent supplication for all his children, to us given in custody: " Largire lumen vespere, - quo vita nusquam decidat »[ 13 ]: light for the life of time, light for the life of eternity.
* Speeches and Radio messages of His Holiness Pius XII , XIII,
Thirteenth year of the Pontificate, 2 March 1951 - 1 March 1952, p. 393 - 406
Polyglot Vatican Typography
AAS, vol. XXXXIV (1952), n. 1, pp. 31 - 43.
[ 1 ] S.Th. , 1 pq 2 art. 3. [ 2 ] 2 Par ., 33, 85-87. [ 3 ] Cf. Sap ., 13, 1-2. [ 8 ] Kernphysik und Kosmologie, in Zeitschrift für Astrophysik , 24. B., 1948, pp. 278-305. [ 9 ] Die Vorstellung vom Weltgebäude im Wandel der Zeiten , 1911, p. 362. [ 10 ] Ultramontane Weltanschauung und moderne Lebenskunde , 1907, p. 55. [ 11 ] Space and Spirit , 1946, pp. 118-119. [ 12 ] Ex Himn. to Nonam .
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