Throughout his academic studies and career in science, Dr. Stephen Barr noticed something about his colleagues in the field.
“If you’re in the academic world and you’re out of step, or you think you’re out of step, with what people believe, you tend to keep your head down. You tend to keep quiet about it,” he said. “People find it safer to sort of be discrete about their faith, unfortunately. As a consequence, religious people tend to be much less visible in the scientific world.”
This has led to a notable result. “Religious scientists don’t know of each other’s existence. They don’t know about each other,” said Dr. Barr, who appeared on a recent episode of the Diocese of Camden’s “Talking Catholic” podcast.
Dr. Barr, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Delaware, set out to change that. He is the president and founding member of the Society of Catholic Scientists, an organization that he started in 2016 with a group of five friends in the field. It now has more than 2,200 members among its ranks.
“It’s an organization of Catholic scientists, and it’s the only one that I have heard of in the world,” he said, noting that the nonprofit works to explore and highlight “the harmony between science and faith.”
“There is a widespread misperception that somehow science and religion don’t fit together, that they are at odds with each other,” he said. “That has done tremendous damage to religious beliefs, to the Church, and we thought [that] we need to start pushing back against that.”
During the podcast, Dr. Barr reflected on some of the big names in the sciences who have joined the Society of Catholic Scientists and have shared their faith among their colleagues.
“We want to create a spiritual and intellectual fellowship among Catholic scientists,” he said, adding another objective is helping people consider science in the context of their faith.
To that end, the organization’s website – catholicscientists.org – includes a great deal of information, including articles about Catholic and scientific topics, listings of current and past Catholic scientists, and well-researched answers to common questions posed by young people about the intersection of science and faith – spanning topics like evolution, free will and more.
“They are very substantive, and they cover a lot of ground very concisely,” he said of the questions and answers. The answers include both references and suggestions for further reading, as well.
The society also has some 25 college chapters that organize lectures and other programs; there are also organized Gold Masses – intended for scientists and science teachers – in some communities. Dr. Barr’s team also organizes a conference to bring Catholic scientists together.
“An essential part of pushing back against [the misconception about faith and science] would be having a large number of scientists who are believers, making themselves public as believers,” he said. “If you have a large number of scientists – reputable scientists – who come out and who are Catholic believers, that is something that cannot be so easily dismissed.”
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To listen to the “Talking Catholic” podcast episode with Dr. Stephen Barr, which aired June 3, visit talking.catholicstarherald.org.
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