Pope says science can unite humans with God

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI told scientists that their
research can lead to knowledge of God by revealing the natural order of
the universe.

The pope made his remarks on Thursday (Oct. 28) before a plenary
session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican.

The evident logic governing the universe "leads us to admit the
existence of an all-powerful Reason, which is other than that of man,
and which sustains the world," Benedict said.

"This is the meeting point between the natural sciences and
religion," the pope said. "As a result, science becomes a place of
dialogue, a meeting between man and nature and, potentially, even
between man and his Creator."

The academy is a group of 80 eminent scientists, including more than
two dozen Nobel laureates, who promote research into natural science and
related philosophical issues. Membership is without regard to religious
affiliation.

One of the academy's most famous members, British physicist Stephen
Hawking, provoked controversy last month by arguing in a new book that
the existence of the universe provides no evidence of the existence of
God.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will
create itself from nothing," Hawking wrote. "It is not necessary to
invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."