You’ve probably heard, the news. Pope Francis has announced that Big Bang cosmology and evolutionary theory are compatible with Catholicism and “may even be required.”
This is, of course, wonderful news. It’s evidence that science and religion are not necessarily incompatible and that people of faith can modify their beliefs based on the evidence around them.
But it should have been this way all along. Indeed, it originally _was_ this way. One of the people who developed Big Bang cosmology, Monseigneur Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a catholic priest who believed that his studies of physics brought him closer to the mind of God. Indeed, Pope Pius XII completely accepted Big Bang cosmology when Lemaitre developed it, even going so far as to claim that it supported catholic beliefs.
At the same time, Pius XII declared that evolution was not at odds with Catholic beliefs.
What happened?
Nothing went wrong! Francis was citing long-standing Church policy. The Catholic church has always accepted evolution, as I was surprised to learn.
Our Story Isn’t Over
The astute reader will remember that there may not have been a Big Bang. We now believe that instead, the early universe may have undergone a period of extremely rapid inflation. To learn about the discovery of the Big Bang and why we feel it might not be true, check out my three part series on the topic: