Benedict XVI received members of the Pontifical Academy of Science on the occasion of its plenary session, where they are pondering the question of 'Complexity and Analogy in Science: Theoretical, Methodological and Epistemological Aspects". A "new vision of the unity" of research is bridging the gap between Christian philosophical and theological view of the universe.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - There is a need for "continued dialogue and cooperation between the worlds of science and of faith in the building of a culture of respect for man, for human dignity and freedom." Indeed, recent developments in science "directed to the study of nature as a unified, intelligible and harmonious reality in its undoubted complexity" show "fruitful points of contact" with the Christian vision of the universe, said Benedict XVI in his address to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Science who are meeting in the Vatican in plenary session to discuss the "Complexity and Analogy in Science: Theoretical, Methodological and Epistemological Aspects".

For the pope, there is "a new vision of the unity of the sciences," for the latter tend "to reduce the various forms of energy to one elementary fundamental force". In modern research, an elementary force explains both simple and complex systems, showing that the "sciences are not intellectual worlds disconnected from one another and from reality but rather that they are interconnected and directed to the study of nature as a unified, intelligible and harmonious reality in its undoubted complexity. Such a vision has fruitful points of contact with the view of the universe taken by Christian philosophy and theology [. . .] in which each individual creature, possessed of its proper perfection, also shares in a specific nature and this within an ordered cosmos originating in God's creative Word." For the pontiff, in this Year of Faith, men of science and faith must therefore work together.

If "The universe is not chaos or the result of chaos," but rather "an ordered complexity," we can thus rise, "through comparative analysis and analogy" to "a more universalizing viewpoint".

The dialogue between science and faith shows that it is necessary to build "a culture of respect for man, for human dignity and freedom, for the future of our human family and for the long-term sustainable development of our planet. Without this necessary interplay, the great questions of humanity leave the domain of reason and truth, and are abandoned to the irrational, to myth, or to indifference, with great damage to humanity itself, to world peace and to our ultimate destiny.

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