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The Copernican revolution was actually a contribution to the life of the church, the development of our view of ourselves in terms of the Universe, and therefore our view of God, et cetera. But, that took centuries, and struggles, and conflicts before that happened.

George Coyne

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George Coyne
Age: 87 †
Born: 1933
Born: January 19
Died: 2020
Died: February 11
Astronomer
Catholic Priest
Priest
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University Teacher
Baltimore
Maryland
George Vincent Coyne
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More quotes by George Coyne

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As a religious priest I find it a very enriching experience to do my scientific research.
George Coyne
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If I have a fundamental belief that the universe is created by God, then I also come to the belief that that universe reflects God, it gives me some knowledge of Him. Obviously, therefore, the more I know of the universe is, the more enriched my limited knowledge of God is.
George Coyne
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My answer to someone who is in contrast with me - by not seeing God in the scientific data - is that you don't see God in the scientific data because you're not me. I have other experiences than you have, that bring me to look at this data as enriching my experience of God.
George Coyne
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I don't use scientific data as a foundation for believing in God - I use it as an enrichment of my knowledge of God.
George Coyne
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The whole dimension of religious belief requires transcendence, it requires going beyond what you can establish rationally.
George Coyne
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Nothing we learn about the universe threatens our faith. It only enriches it.
George Coyne
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Neither of us can come to either a knowledge of God, or a denial of God by our scientific research.
George Coyne
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There are dimensions to me that are not just the thinking person, but the person who is much richer, the person who has other emotional experiences, psychological experiences, these experiences also enrich me.
George Coyne
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I can't see for the life of me how an attempt to understand the universe, which I believe comes from God, can alienate us from God.
George Coyne
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Christianity has always had sort of an ability to absorb the developments in science. But, it's always done it very slowly.
George Coyne
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Scientists in general tend to have what I would call a bit of hubris that the public do not necessarily understand. So scientists some times make claims that are misunderstood by the public.
George Coyne
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I think today the church faces a very real challenge in not repeating the errors of the past, in sort of a stand off, a fear of science.
George Coyne
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In a very real sense my science does inform my knowledge of God. If you would allow me to say that we never know God, because if I claim that I know God, I know something other than God, because God is not knowable, he is unknowable. So we have to approach it in that sense first, that my knowledge of God is always limited.
George Coyne
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Because God is reflected in the world in which me made, in some sense, my scientific investigation has always supported my belief in God in a very real sense. It helps me to pray better.
George Coyne
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The knowledge of God, the belief in God, is what I call an a-rational process. It's not rational - it doesn't proceed by scientific investigation - but it's not irrational because it doesn't contradict my reasoning process. It goes beyond it.
George Coyne
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People tend not to disassociate the technological issues from pure scientific research, so that science sometimes gets a bad name for things that science doesn't deserve having a bad name for.
George Coyne
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There are many people who do view scientific research as alienating from religion and from God, and when so many people do, there must be some reason for it.
George Coyne
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Science is and should be seen as completely neutral on the issue of the theistic or atheistic implications of scientific results.
George Coyne