St. Albert's Day Lecture flier

The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer is happy to announce that its second annual St. Albert’s Day Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Stephen Barr, a professor of physics at the University of Delaware.  Dr. Barr will deliver an address entitled “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith.”  He has published a book by the same title.

The lecture will be held on Thursday, November 13, at 7:00 PM.  The event is free and open to the public.

The publisher’s synopsis of Dr. Barr’s book offers us glimpse of his thesis:

A considerable amount of public debate and media print has been devoted to the “war between science and religion.” In his accessible and eminently readable new book, Stephen M. Barr demonstrates that what is really at war with religion is not science itself, but a philosophy called scientific materialism. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith argues that the great discoveries of modern physics are more compatible with the central teachings of Christianity and Judaism about God, the cosmos, and the human soul than with the atheistic viewpoint of scientific materialism. Scientific discoveries from the time of Copernicus to the beginning of the twentieth century have led many thoughtful people to the conclusion that the universe has no cause or purpose, that the human race is an accidental by-product of blind material forces, and that the ultimate reality is matter itself. Barr contends that the revolutionary discoveries of the twentieth century run counter to this line of thought. He uses five of these discoveries — the Big Bang theory, unified field theories, anthropic coincidences, Godel’s Theorem in mathematics, and quantum theory — to cast serious doubt on the materialist’s view of the world and to give greater credence to Judeo-Christian claims about God and the universe. Barr’s clear and elegant writing is in the best tradition of science for the non-physicist or non-mathematician and will appeal to anyone interested in science and religion.

In addition to his book, Dr. Barr has written numerous articles on faith and science, many of which have been published in First Things.  Click here for a listing of these articles.

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