23. There is only one truth, to which both faith and scientific reason refer.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church, Lesson 23

Ave Maria Series

23.  Is there a contradiction between faith and science?

There is no insoluble contradiction between faith and science, because there cannot be two kinds of truth. [159]

Galileo showing the Doge of Venice how to use the telescope (Fresco by Giuseppe Bertini). ….. 13

 Galileo defended heliocentrism, and in his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina argued that it was not contrary to passages in Scripture. He took the Augustinian position that poetry, songs, and instructions or historical statements in Scripture need not always be interpreted literally. Galileo argued that the writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world in which the sun does rise and set. In this way Galileo claimed that Scripture discussed a different kind of "movement" of the earth, and not rotations. 

There is not one truth of faith that is in competition with another truth of science.  There is only one truth, to which both faith and scientific reason refer.  God intended reason, with which we can recognize the rational structures of the world, just as he intended faith.  That is why the Christian faith demands and promotes the natural sciences.  Faith exists so that we might know things that are not apparent to reason yet are real above and beyond reason.  Faith reminds science that it is supposed to serve creation and not set itself up in place of God.  Science must respect human dignity instead of violating it.

“What we believe is important, but even more important is the One in whom we believe.”  Pope Benedict XVI, May 28, 2006

“No one can arrive at the knowledge of divine and human things unless he has previously and thoroughly learned mathematics.”  St. Augustine (354-430)

“Mathematics is the alphabet with which God wrote the world.”  Galileo Galilei (1564-1642, Italian mathematician, philosopher, and physicist)

[159]

Faith and science:

159  "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."(Dei Filius 4:Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3017.)³⁷   "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are. (Gaudium et Spes 36 § 1.)"³⁸ --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition