The Church and Science

I’m sure that you probably have a lot of preconceptions about how the church views science. To be honest, for a very, very long time, I’ve had many of my own. I went to a Catholic middle school and we were taught that the church used to believe that all life revolved around God’s Creation and that the Earth was the center of the universe.

As I grew in my Catholic faith and learned more about this topic, I realized that this is not the case anymore. The church does believe in the science of evolution and climate change despite what the Bible says. Now, there are many Catholic leaders who are scientists and preach about where science and the beliefs of the Church align. Did you know that a Catholic priest invented the Big Bang Theory? (The actual theory, not the TV show haha)

My team and I did more research on the topic of how the church views climate change and here’s a slide deck we made:

This presentation was a lot of fun to research and create. This topic also sparked some really insightful discussions between me and my partner – particularly on the second slide. I’d say that overall, we went as in-depth as we possibly could in terms of content during our actual presentation, but since this is just the slide deck, I’ll explain a few elements.

First, the Catholic Social Teaching is a social doctrine that the Church traditionally follows which guides followers toward a morally just society using ethical principles. The four teachings listed above specifically address the issues of environmental degradation and climate change.

The first teaching explains that humans were made in the image of God to fulfill His work towards the common good and to take care of his creation. We must all work together towards this common goal of addressing the issues of climate change. The next two teachings call attention to the poor. “The poor and vulnerable often do not have the economic and technological resources to either adapt to or ward off the expected impacts of climate change” (“Why the Church Cares”). In helping these people, we promote human development and fulfill our goal of living out our Catholic faith. Lastly, the Virtue of Prudence states that humans must not only be able to identify the harmful effects of climate change on our society and environment, but also must have the prudence to take action and address these issues.

I also want to briefly explain that Laudato Si is a movement created by Pope Francis as a call for everyone to take care of the Earth and God’s Creation. In his encyclical, he addresses climate change and global degradation. He also draws attention to the irresponsibility of humans in terms of polluting the Earth as well as how our actions impact the environment.

As for our presentation, we did pretty well and also had some very fun discussions with Team AP Bio. I’d say that the only part we could have improved was choosing a template to make the slide deck look a little more interesting instead of sticking with the default. Other than that, I think it turned out great and I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic too!