‘Foundations’ shows harmony of faith and science

By Christine Bordelon

“Physics is awesome. And when you get to chemistry, chemistry is awesome.  What goes on in biological systems defies understanding sometimes. … We don’t know everything. Maybe we never will.”

Dr. Stacy Trasancos spoke these words during her lecture, “These Thy Atoms: Beauty and Symmetry in Chemistry,” at “Foundations New Orleans,” a week-long seminar for Catholic high school religion and science teachers June 18-23, hosted by Notre Dame Seminary and St. Mary’s Dominican High School.

Trasancos is a Ph.D. chemist who also has a master’s in theology. She has worked as a chemist at DuPont and has written two books, “Science Was Born of Christianity” and “Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Science.”

  As a Catholic convert, she said faith changed her view of science by answering her unanswered questions about the universe.

“When I accepted faith, I finally had the answer to the biggest question, ‘Why?’ In neuroscience – Why is this? What causes this? You butt up against the wall – and I literally had those experiences without faith – and you ask, ‘Who did all this,’ and you don’t have an answer for it (in science), so you just turn around and ignore that question. When I found faith and started rigorously studying philosophy and theology, I understood the biggest answer – God created it.”

What is Foundations?

“Foundations New Orleans” is a three-year expansion of a seminar series at McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. In New Orleans, science and religion teachers from nine Catholic schools – from a pool of 70 schools that applied – were chosen to participate in lectures, experiments and discussion. Participating institutions included Academy of the Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s Dominican in New Orleans, St. Scholastica Academy in Covington, and schools in Massachusetts, Texas, Alabama, New York, Michigan and Delaware.

Dr. Chris Baglow, Foundations director and professor of dogmatic theology at Notre Dame Seminary, said Foundations places special emphasis on STEM approaches to science education.

“STEM is about teaching students how to think like scientists and to move beyond memorization and concept mastery to scientific investigation and problem-solving,” he said. “‘Foundations’ follows this approach but expands it to include experiments that not only help us understand the world but that also prompt us to ask the ‘Big Questions’ – questions to which the Catholic faith provides the answers.”

Along with experiments,  important topics are discussed in seminars in which participating teachers and team members become conversation partners. Topics such as the biblical creation accounts, the Galileo affair, God the Creator, evolution and faith, and the science and theology of human origins are thoroughly examined. Special attention is given to the contribution of Catholics to science throughout the ages, which Baglow refers to as a “glorious history of harmony” between faith and science. Teachers also leave the seminar with two lesson plans integrating science and the Catholic faith.

“Foundations” responds to church’s vision of Catholic education as “a synthesis between faith, culture and life … reached by integrating all different aspects of human knowledge through the subjects taught, in the light of the Gospel,” in the words of the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education.

Through “Foundations,” teachers are empowered to convey the harmony of faith and science and enlighten students who may be questioning or leaving their faith due to a perceived conflict or “disconnect” between faith and science, as shown in an August 2016 CARA study.

Big questions abound

Trasancos and Baglow were joined by Dr. Cory Hayes, program co-moderator and senior professor of philosophy and theology at St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington; Dr. Stephen Barr, a particle physicist, president of the Society of Catholic Scientists and author of “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith”; Dr. Don Frohlich, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of St. Thomas; Dr. Clare Kilbane, implementation director and professor of education at Otterbein University; Tim Burgess, chair of the science department and physics teacher at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School; and Matthew Foss, chair of the science department at St. Mary’s Dominican High School.

Trasancos’ flame test experiment demonstrated the profound orderliness that chemistry uncovers in atomic elements – photons coming from atoms’ colors observed in the flames are explained by quantum mechanics.  She explained how her belief in the first line of the Apostle’s Creed – “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth” – solidifies how God created the universe. “There is no absolute randomness in a universe created by God,” she said.

Scientific discoveries continue due to order and symmetry, and faith offers a wider perspective that goes beyond what’s seen by the eyes, she said.

“If you are confident about what you pray in that first line of the creed, then science is a way to get to know God better because you are studying the handiwork of God.”

Trasancos suggested that to help students understand that classroom teaching is not totally abstract, teachers should stop lecturing every now and then and just get students to observe nature right outside their classroom window. This encourages a deeper understanding of what’s going on around them. She says it is a totally different way of looking at physical reality.

“I actually think science is a way to evangelize, because non-faithful scientists, I know first-hand, don’t have an answer for that big question: ‘Why?’” Trasancos said. “If you can talk to people who aren’t people of faith but who love science, they are on their way. Because, instead of science leading away from God – we all agree the physical world exists, we have that in common – let’s talk about why we can even do science. Why do we have the intellect to care about science? Why is the order there that can be discovered? I think that in this day and age, we can lead people to faith through science rather than away.”

Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarionherald.org.