Gazing on—and beyond—the universe with Fr. Robert Spiitzer, SJ

“In studying how the world works, we are studying how God works, and thereby learning what God is. In that spirit we can interpret the search for knowledge as a form of worship, and our discoveries as revelations.”– Frank Wilczek, Nobel Prize winner, Physics (2004)

There is probably no active conspiracy to hide the positive connections between science and religion, as it is only human nature for those steeped in the Enlightenment narrative to be unaware of their prejudices and assumptions. Science writers might extol the genius of Blaise Pascal, Michael Faraday, or James Clerk Maxwell, and in all innocence never stop to consider for a moment how these men saw reality. (Pascal, the namesake for the metric unit of pressure, is equally famous for his feverish yet eloquent religious meditations as for his scientific work; Faraday and Maxwell were devout Protestants as well as the pioneers of the study of electromagnetism.)

In any event, a strong case can even be made that Christianity is to be credited with the Scientific Revolution. Why did the Babylonians or Greeks, creative as they were, never conceive of anything like Newton’s laws of motion? In Fr. Spitzer’s Universe: Exploring Life’s Big Questions (EWTN, 2024), while remarking upon Pius XII’s Divino Afflante Spiritu, Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, observes:

… the cultures surrounding ancient Israel essentially believed that many natural things are gods. But in truth there is only one God. So of course [Genesis] has to correct and counter that belief, which was infecting the beliefs of the Israelites. No, there are not many gods, there is only one God. All these things that the world believes to be gods are no gods at all; they and everything else are creations of God. There is no ocean god; the ocean is a creation of god. There is no star god or moon god; the moon and the stars are all creations of the one God.

Even nontheist scientists such as E.O. Wilson have remarked that the very concept of cosmic order may owe much to the shift from polytheism to monotheism, as the chaotic vision of a multiplicity of capricious wills gave way to worship of a supreme Lawgiver.

To highlight the relationship between rationality and faith, the prolific Fr. Spitzer brings up Kurt Gödel, the famous mathematician who authored the Incompleteness Theorem, and then goes on to argue that Gödel’s work suggests something “transalgorithmic” about human understanding. And indeed, Gödel seems to have held that there is something “transalgorithmic” about human understanding. As the Encyclopedia Britannica relates, Gödel believed that

in addition to the normal five senses, humans also possess a faculty of mathematical intuition, a faculty that enables people to grasp the nature of numbers or to see them in the mind’s eye. Gödel’s claim was that the faculty of mathematical intuition makes it possible to acquire knowledge of nonphysical mathematical objects that exist outside of space and time.

At least as striking, Gödel appears to have been a theist who subscribed to belief in both the afterlife and a personal God, and went so far as to develop his own variant of the ontological argument.

Reflections upon Gödel and Divino Afflante Spiritu are accompanied by consideration of the religious implications of Noam Chomsky’s linguistics and near-death experiences. However, Father Spitzer’s Universe does not focus only on the relationship between science and theology: Such discussions are situated within a survey of all the big questions of modern life, of practical ethics and spiritual discipline, no less than metaphysics. In a format paralleling that of his television program, Father Spitzer responds to concrete queries posed by EWTN host Doug Keck, including “Why didn’t God make the Universe much simpler?” and “How do we live in the world and not be a part of it?”

Such questions move in a logical progression, as the dialogue first considers the very broadest matters of cosmology and theism, and then narrows the discussion to the divinity (and humanity) of Christ. Toward the end of the volume, Fr. Spitzer zeroes in on specifically Catholic doctrines like the Eucharist, concluding with counter-cultural Church social teachings about abortion, contraception, and more.

Around the middle of the book, Fr. Spitzer considers whether Phariseeism consists of resentment at the thought that others might “get off the hook.” His response not only helps us better understand Our Lord’s condemnation of said faction, but may help us better understand contemporary society. Today, of course, any Catholic who treats the precepts of the Church seriously is liable to be attacked for Pharisaism. Yet, as Father Spitzer observes, what upset Christ about the Pharisees was not their fidelity to doctrine, but

their inauthenticity in laying heavy burdens on men’s shoulders and not lifting a finger to help them. Further, the Pharisees were basically telling people to give up on salvation because their sins made them irredeemable. Jesus gets angriest when He hears religious authorities saying this because it misrepresents God’s view and discourages people from seeking the mercy God wants to extend to them. Jesus is also concerned that the Pharisees by their bad faith are harming themselves in the process.

The Harvey Weinsteins of the world mouth feminist slogans one moment, but treat real flesh-and-blood women like trash in the next. Too, we might consider cries about racism and calls for open borders, which originate from the safety and comfort of gated communities and elite zip codes. Returning to scientific issues, it is interesting how many of those who complain about a religious “war on science” go curiously silent whenever science runs afoul of wokeness and political correctness.

As a classical educator who must frequently cope with widespread indifference if not distaste toward the West’s classical inheritance, I do wish Fr. Spitzer were a little more generous toward pre-Christian Rome, which did, after all, bequeath Americans many of our ideas about liberty and civic responsibility.

That said, he will get no argument from this reviewer when he calls out secular humanists for their refusal to give the Church her due. Only the most delusional followers of Rousseau can pretend that the human beast would be an altruistic angel if only left to his own devices, without the meddling of religious influence. We would do better to thank the Church for what human dignity and individual freedom we enjoy, instead of trying to condemn her for not providing enough of the ideals she gave us to begin with.

For it is only through the eyes of faith that anything like human rights—or the scientific quest — can be discerned at all. If we are happy to live in a society where intangible values such as human dignity and the wonder of nature are still somewhat cherished, the least we can do is show a little gratitude.

Fr. Spitzer’s Universe: Exploring Life’s Big Questions
By Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ
EWTN, 2024
Paperback, 147 pages