Reflection by Andrew Silagi
I grew up going to a handful of different American evangelical megachurches, which unknowingly led me to the belief that evolution and the Big Bang Theory were incompatible with Christianity. I don’t remember exactly where I got this idea, but I’m pretty sure it came mostly from my parents and was not explicitly challenged by any of the churches I attended. I remember an interaction with someone at my public middle school when I plainly stated something about my disbelief in evolution. He reacted with disgust at what to him was utter ignorance. Throughout high school and into college, I only thought about the intense tension I felt between Young Earth Creationism and theistic evolutionary theories every so often, hearing the voices from both sides of the argument that said I was either grievously misguided or patently unbiblical. Because of my desire to avoid conflict and my status as a non-science major, I tried the best I could to stay away from the issue on account of its charged nature. Eventually, my college ministries group back home started a series on controversial questions, one of which was creation. In our breakout group, two friends of mine in STEM talked about their adoption of theistic evolution beliefs, which brought the topic once again to the forefront of my mind.
When I saw that the Saint Benedict Institute had invited Dr. Stephen Barr to give a lecture entitled “The Big Bang, the Beginning, and Creation,” I knew I had to attend. Barr, the president of the Society of Catholic Scientists and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, was given the opportunity to defend the compatibility of modern science with the Christian faith. He opened by distinguishing two often conflated terms, “beginning” and “creation,” clarifying that “beginning” refers to the temporal starting point of the universe, whereas “creation” refers to the notion that God is the one on whom the existence of the universe depends. Barr disputes the connection between these two terms, asserting instead that while the creation of the universe can be philosophically proven, its beginning is only known by divine revelation.
Admittedly, I was only somewhat following Barr’s argument when he entered a domain that I am much more familiar with: literature. A Secondary English Education major myself, I was delighted to hear Barr use the analogy of a novel and its author to help the audience better understand God’s role in the creation of the universe. To illustrate this point, Barr compared the Big Bang to the beginning of a novel. The Big Bang is not the cause for the universe’s existence any more than the first sentences of the novel are the cause of its existence. The creator, just like a novelist, is the origin of this body of work. The author of a work is the one who brings it into existence; he is not its beginning.
Throughout the rest of the lecture, Barr discussed many convincing arguments for the congruence between faith and science, including the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that an infinitely regressing world would lack any sense of decay, and how God used the laws of physics to create the world rather than some unscientific miracle. He even emphasized the significance of the Belgian Roman Catholic priest Georges Lemaître, who was the first to propose the Big Bang Theory.
While I still have a good deal of prayer and reflection to do on where I stand on this issue, I greatly appreciate Barr’s expertise on this topic. It is clear that many people who have a deep commitment to the historic Christian faith still believe in the theories of modern science. As a non-scientist, I am grateful that the Saint Benedict Institute and Barr recognize the relevance of these questions and the importance of having these conversations on college campuses.
Andrew Silagi is a senior from Arlington Heights, IL. He is majoring in Secondary English Education.
Stephen Barr’s lecture was part of our fall series, Creation, Evolution, and Our Place in the Cosmos.