Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio is a comprehensive pamphlet on the relationship between faith and reason. In short John Paul II affirmes that theological faith and philosophical reason confirm one another. He states the “Church considers philosophy an indispensible help for a deeper understanding of faith and for communicating the truth of the Gospel to those who do not yet know it.” The idea that faith and reason confirm one anther is supported biblically. Reasoning about nature is found in The Book of Wisdom when it reads: “For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen.” The Bible is stating that nature points to God. We may investigate nature and science to know God.
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One finds this interesting considering the history of the Galileo Affair. However, John Paul II quotes him saying “’[Galileo] declared explicitly that the two truths, of faith and of science, can never contradict each other, 'Sacred Scripture and the natural world proceeding equally from the divine Word, the first as dictated by the Holy Spirit, the second as a very faithful executor of the commands of God', as he wrote in his letter to Father Benedetto Castelli on 21 December 1613.” This is coming from a man who was sentenced to life in prison for standing what he believed to be truth. As John Paul II writes, man is morally obligated to adhere to the truth once it is discovered. Now the Vatican adopts similar language saying: “Methodical research, in all realms of knowledge, if it respects... moral norms, will never be genuinely opposed to faith: the reality of the world and of faith have their origin in the same God.” Galileo sensed in his scientific research the presence of the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions”: John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (10 November 1979): Insegnamenti, II, 2
One finds this interesting considering the history of the Galileo Affair. However, John Paul II quotes him saying “’[Galileo] declared explicitly that the two truths, of faith and of science, can never contradict each other, 'Sacred Scripture and the natural world proceeding equally from the divine Word, the first as dictated by the Holy Spirit, the second as a very faithful executor of the commands of God', as he wrote in his letter to Father Benedetto Castelli on 21 December 1613.” This is coming from a man who was sentenced to life in prison for standing what he believed to be truth. As John Paul II writes, man is morally obligated to adhere to the truth once it is discovered. Now the Vatican adopts similar language saying: “Methodical research, in all realms of knowledge, if it respects... moral norms, will never be genuinely opposed to faith: the reality of the world and of faith have their origin in the same God.” Galileo sensed in his scientific research the presence of the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions”: John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (10 November 1979): Insegnamenti, II, 2