Faith is rational act, not a feeling, priest tells Peruvian youth

Lima, Peru, Nov 8, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Renowned astrophysicist and long-time collaborator of the Vatican Observatory, Jesuit Father Manuel Carreira, told a group of Peruvian young people this week that “faith is not a feeling and must be backed up with reasons, for it is a rational act.”

Father Carreira was in Peru to give a talk at the 18th Encounter for Catholic University Students being held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. His talk was titled, “Christian Faith, Science and Miracles.”

Speaking to CNA, Father Carreira explained that “if God has made us rational, He can’t ask us not to be so when we’re talking about drawing close to Him, for through reason we can discover things that are important for faith.”

“Within Christian theology we talk about faith as a gift from God in a new sense—for it is given to us as a theological virtue, as a gift from God that presupposes my active attitude that gives me the ability to do something eternal,” he said.

“If one has a little bit of logic,” Father Carreira continued, “when he seeks a reason for the existence of the universe he finds that the only answer is a Creator, and science has no other explanation for the origin of the universe except to call it Creation.”

In speaking about the relation between science and the Church, Father Carreira maintained that the Church is present in science through the Vatican Observatory which has carried out “a serious and respected work and has kept us in contact with scientists all over the world.”