Why did Pope John Paul II tell Stephen Hawking not to study the origin of universe?

Question

Was the Pope afraid we'd find out we don't need "god" to explain it? That could put the church out of business! See the article at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199673,00.html, and don't answer unless you read the article!

Flytransamguy,

Your answer indicated that you have maybe an 8th grade education? To put it the way you would, your answer sucks and so does your car (if you even have one) and so do you.

I just now clicked on the link and it works. If's on FOXNEWS.COM

Dave Stark:
Did Science and Religion "complement" each other when the church burned Giodarno Bruno at the stake for saying that the stars were other suns?
See http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/john_kessler/giordano_bruno.html

Jaime, you think Stehpen Hawkings lied?

Skipy, you are totally wrong when you say "faith and reason" don't contradict each other. Faith means believing WITHOUT reason, reason means using logic to thing things through.

Answer 1

There's a problem with your link -- correct one is below.

The pope's suggestion not to study the origins was consistent with religion's position on science as long as the two have existed: don't dig too deep. And yes, the religious groups are afraid there will one day be "proof" that god doesn't exist, or that enough people will realize there's no need for god (we've already found that out, a long time ago) and they'll be scrambling to keep their believers. Putting artificial limits on what we should or should not know always has been silly (and ineffective -- people are inquisitive, and are going to find out no matter what some religious leader says) -- that the church was still doing it so recently is patently absurd.

Answer 2

Many people think they don't need God to explain the origen of the Universe. They think that unless something is proven is not true. If we only believe what we experience then all knowledge should be put into question, there would be no absolutes. How come are we (evolving from apes as we have) be able to question ourselves about the origin of the Universe? We are the living proof that there is a divine spark in each and every single person in this world.

I think faith and reason are not against each other.

Answer 3

I believe, actually, the pope asked all scientists not to look at the conditions and events of the universe BEFORE the big bang.

The pope thought that science used to explain how things work in the universe is okay, but going beyond the confines of space and time were matters for religion.

Answer 4

The cathoilic church tries to accomodate it's set of dogmas to such scientific knowlege as becomes to well established to blatantly deny.
The Big Bang theory set very well with various religions, because it implies a moment of creation and as such a creator (though I don't see it thatt way myself). Other theories that say that the universe did not begin with the Big Bang, that talk of, for example, paralel universes and such are more difficult for the church to explain and incorporate into it's worldview.
Moreover, the more we discover about the universe the more insubstantial our role in it seems. People used to belive the Earth was the centre of the universe, now astronomy and cosmology tell us that there are many other planets orbiting counless distant suns. Even our universe it seems, may turn out to be of no special significance (other then to ourselsves). The special relationship between god and men was always a big feature of religion, now that is beeing called into question as well.

Answer 5

I found the Pope's speech on the Vatican's website: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1985/july/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19850706_conferenza-cosmologia_en.html

From what I can read, the Pope did not tell the scientists not to study the origin of the universe.

He said that he believed that science could not discover everything. That "certain aspects of our lives rise above and move beyond the material dimension and, while having deep roots in the material, surpass the understanding which the natural sciences are capable of providing."

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

The church is and has always been afraid of science and the knowledge it brings. Over the years when the power of the church was more reaching they hunted down and persecuted many well known scientist. It is sad the length one will go to to protect their beliefs from being proved wrong.

Answer 7

Science cannot tell us the "origin" of the universe. The modern scientific method is not a method that will lead us to discover the origin of the universe because it is a method that is based on measureable fact. Science works by observation and by quantification (measurement).

Now no one was there to "observe" the universe as it was being created, and no one can "measure" anything that can reveal to us the origin of universe, or even its age.

Answer 8

Why should the pope (a religious leader) have anything to say about what scientists do? Scientists should be able to do whatever they have to do to figure out once and for all what caused us to be here.

Religious leaders really get on my nerves, they believe things that so obviously aren't true and then denounce anything that doesn't go along with what they believe in, and get mad when religion is referred to as mythology (which is really what it is).

Answer 9

People say science will "kill" God, I think science may one day prove God as we know it never existed, or explain the overlying energy force as what we feel as God.

I think you are correct in that the Pope was afraid of the answer.

Answer 10

Well, it would help to find the article if the link weren't broken . . .

I don't understand why people seem to think that science and religion are mutually exclusive. They really have many things in common, and complement each other very nicely, if you don't take things too literally.