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The Road of Science and the Ways to God
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478 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1978
About the author
Stanley L. Jaki
98 books39 followersStanley L. Jaki, a Hungarian-born Catholic priest of the Benedictine Order, was Distinguished University Professor at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. With doctorates in theology and physics, he has specialized in the history and philosophy of science. The author of almost forty books and nearly a hundred articles, he served as Gifford Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and as Fremantle Lecturer at Balliol College, Oxford. He has lectured at major universities in the Unites States, Europe, and Australia. He was a honorary member of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences, membre correspondant of the Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts of Bourdeaux, and the recipient of the Lecomte du Nouy Prize for 1970 and of the Templeton Prize for 1987. He was among the first to claim that Gödel's incompleteness theorem is relevant for theories of everything (TOE) in theoretical physics.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 29, 2018
My book was written to popularize the thesis of this book by Fr Jaki.
October 11, 2024
THE PRIEST/SCIENTIST'S 1975-1976 GIFFORD LECTURES
Stanley L. Jaki (1924-2009) was a Hungarian Benedictine priest and Professor of Physics at Seton Hall University, New Jersey; he wrote many other books, such as 'A Mind's Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography,' 'Miracles and Physics,' 'Origin of Science and the Science of Its Origin,' 'The Limits of a Limitless Science and Other Essays,' 'Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe,' 'The Savior of Science,' 'Bible and Science,' etc.
He notes, "The emergence of China and India on the geopolitical scene meant entry into modern life of two ancient cultures... Their future is staked on their successfully solving the problem of assimilating the very same science that never flourished in their ancient soil... That the problem had deeper and broader dimensions was revealed in the massive volumes of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China... Needham, in spite of his avowed Marxism, gave prominent place among causes that prevented the escape of science from its blind alley in ancient China to a theological cause, namely, the early vanishing among the Chinese of a belief in a rational Lawgiver or Creator of the world. Lacking that belief, the Chinese could not bring themselves to believe that man was able to trace out at least some of the laws of the physical universe." (Pg. 14)
He suggests, "Long before Descartes set forth his method to enable man to become master and possessor of nature, Hugh of St. Victor emphatically declared in a widely read work... that God created man `to be the owner and master of the world.' Hugh ... was one of the many who kept their eyes fixed on Genesis as on a guiding star... by and large, and this is the marvel and great contribution of the Middle Ages, the star was faithfully kept within sight. It was beheld as the target of the quest for the ultimate in intelligibility which is Someone infinitely greater than one's own self. This was the reason why the steps to God functioned as stepping-stones to science." (Pg. 49)
He notes that "in addition to very unorthodox theological views, Newton also had a biblical, Puritan upbringing from which he retained a feeling of awe for the Creator and Ruler of all. He would hardly have kept that feeling had he not seen a rational basis for it. What he did not see was the historically intimate tie of that conviction about the Creator with the salient facts of biblical history and with their proclamation by historic Christianity. Biblical history was for him mere chronology, the meaning of which he sought in figures, not in facts." (Pg. 89)
He observes about Samuel Clarke, "It did not dawn on Clarke that he was now touching the very bedrock of the mind's road to God, namely the radical contingency of any existence engraved in its singularity. The word contingency occurred only once in the sixty or so pages occupied by Clarke's proof of the existence of God and some of his properties." (Pg. 92)
He observes, "A brief look at twentieth-century might show that the idea of the totality of consistently interacting things is indispensable in a meaningful scientific discourse about the universe of galaxies. Modern science is equally committed to the atomicity of matter and energy. While even a Thomist may agree with a Kantian that the beginning of the universe in time cannot be decided in philosophy, all the modern scientific evidence ...suggests a finite energy reservoir and time span for physical processes." (Pg. 122)
Jaki's writings are one of the most interesting in the contemporary discussions of religion and science, and this book is perhaps his masterpiece. It deserves serious study by all interested in such matters.
Stanley L. Jaki (1924-2009) was a Hungarian Benedictine priest and Professor of Physics at Seton Hall University, New Jersey; he wrote many other books, such as 'A Mind's Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography,' 'Miracles and Physics,' 'Origin of Science and the Science of Its Origin,' 'The Limits of a Limitless Science and Other Essays,' 'Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe,' 'The Savior of Science,' 'Bible and Science,' etc.
He notes, "The emergence of China and India on the geopolitical scene meant entry into modern life of two ancient cultures... Their future is staked on their successfully solving the problem of assimilating the very same science that never flourished in their ancient soil... That the problem had deeper and broader dimensions was revealed in the massive volumes of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China... Needham, in spite of his avowed Marxism, gave prominent place among causes that prevented the escape of science from its blind alley in ancient China to a theological cause, namely, the early vanishing among the Chinese of a belief in a rational Lawgiver or Creator of the world. Lacking that belief, the Chinese could not bring themselves to believe that man was able to trace out at least some of the laws of the physical universe." (Pg. 14)
He suggests, "Long before Descartes set forth his method to enable man to become master and possessor of nature, Hugh of St. Victor emphatically declared in a widely read work... that God created man `to be the owner and master of the world.' Hugh ... was one of the many who kept their eyes fixed on Genesis as on a guiding star... by and large, and this is the marvel and great contribution of the Middle Ages, the star was faithfully kept within sight. It was beheld as the target of the quest for the ultimate in intelligibility which is Someone infinitely greater than one's own self. This was the reason why the steps to God functioned as stepping-stones to science." (Pg. 49)
He notes that "in addition to very unorthodox theological views, Newton also had a biblical, Puritan upbringing from which he retained a feeling of awe for the Creator and Ruler of all. He would hardly have kept that feeling had he not seen a rational basis for it. What he did not see was the historically intimate tie of that conviction about the Creator with the salient facts of biblical history and with their proclamation by historic Christianity. Biblical history was for him mere chronology, the meaning of which he sought in figures, not in facts." (Pg. 89)
He observes about Samuel Clarke, "It did not dawn on Clarke that he was now touching the very bedrock of the mind's road to God, namely the radical contingency of any existence engraved in its singularity. The word contingency occurred only once in the sixty or so pages occupied by Clarke's proof of the existence of God and some of his properties." (Pg. 92)
He observes, "A brief look at twentieth-century might show that the idea of the totality of consistently interacting things is indispensable in a meaningful scientific discourse about the universe of galaxies. Modern science is equally committed to the atomicity of matter and energy. While even a Thomist may agree with a Kantian that the beginning of the universe in time cannot be decided in philosophy, all the modern scientific evidence ...suggests a finite energy reservoir and time span for physical processes." (Pg. 122)
Jaki's writings are one of the most interesting in the contemporary discussions of religion and science, and this book is perhaps his masterpiece. It deserves serious study by all interested in such matters.
September 5, 2018
Discovery is the soul of science. This work shows that science is a road that leads to God, but scienticism, logistical positivism, empiricism, and rationalism all fall short and are reductions of what is true about science. Instead of searching for a complete unified theory of everything, a form of utopian-ism, man should use the creative genius of a scientific road that believes in two truths: the existence of an ordered world (moderate realism) and the existence of a human mind capable of understanding it. Jaki makes the case that all "truly creative scientists" believe these truths and as such none were atheists.
The reading is sometimes difficult due to the nature and audience that originally heard these lectures. More accessible works exists that convey most of what is here by Pearcey, Moreland, Craig, and Stark. But still this work is an excellent road to travel on you way to God.
The reading is sometimes difficult due to the nature and audience that originally heard these lectures. More accessible works exists that convey most of what is here by Pearcey, Moreland, Craig, and Stark. But still this work is an excellent road to travel on you way to God.
December 5, 2017
I didn't understand most of it, but that's quite alright. What I did understand reaffirmed that Jaki is one of the most dazzling minds of at least the past century. He has a habit of assuming the reader knows far, far more than they do - that makes reading him, for me, a substantial amount of work. The amount that I learn is tremendous, though, so it's worth it. I continue to be appalled that I never heard of him until recently.
Want to Read
November 29, 2009Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 13, as one of Six Books by Stanley L. Jaki.
Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Intro to Part Three, as one of Schall's Unlikely List of Books to Keep Sane By---Selected for Those to Whom Making Sense Is a Prior Consideration, but a Minority Opinion.
Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Intro to Part Three, as one of Schall's Unlikely List of Books to Keep Sane By---Selected for Those to Whom Making Sense Is a Prior Consideration, but a Minority Opinion.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews