For many people today, the controversy over the Catholic Church’s treatment of Galileo Galilei has only one lesson: faith and science are incompatible. After all, according to this argument, consider how the Church treated a brilliant scientist with innovative ideas in the seventeenth century. How can faith in Jesus Christ coexist with the quest for scientific truth?
Setting aside a discussion of the Galileo affair itself, another brilliant seventeenth-century scientist can help us gain some perspective on the relationship between faith and science. And this scientist, unlike Galileo, was recognized by both friends and enemies for his holiness.
Niels Stensen was born into a Lutheran family in 1638 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied at the University of Copenhagen at the age of nineteen, but afterwards he traveled to the Netherlands to further his studies of his favorite subject: anatomy. During this time, Stensen learned from—and studied with—some of the best scientists of the day.
Scientist and Saint: Blessed Niels Stensen (1638-1686) – Catholic World Report
Scientist and Saint: Blessed Niels Stensen (1638-1686) – Catholic World Report
