<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 3px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 28px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">The history of love is found in the passionate pursuit of science and faith.</p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">This review comes out of the reflection by Mary Lou Halferty in this Sundays People Progress on faith. </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">Mary Lou wrote, “Some months ago, a visitor to our liturgy explained the different uses of the word faith. For him faith was not just the framework of his religion but a deep trust in God - an eternal presence of what we need, an eternal availability. “.</span></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">Mary Lou finishes “I really like that.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">Let me first share a colourful note about Stephen Hawking. In the documentary A Short History of Time, he notes that at Oxford when it was time for a reckoning they asked him what marks should they give. He said if you give me low marks I will stay here. If you give me high marks I’ll go to Cambridge-he went to Cambridge. </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">Stephen Hawking noted in the documentary that he had met four Popes . One <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Pope told him that we have faith that God created science and the universe.</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">Hawking went on to say if science were to find the source to understand the universe we would know the mind of God. </span></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">I told that to my son, and he said “no, Hawking is an atheist and went on say if you believe in God, you would know the mind of God. But Hawking himself did not believe in God. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He looked it up and was correct. </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">Hawking noted in the documentary that he was interested in two points. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>One, why was there creation ? The second, Why were humans created ? </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">One of the past members of our Sunday Community and a good friend was a scholar who would regularly meet with scientists to have discussions on science and faith. In my discussions with him he would say things like , “Things attract”. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That leads to stoicism where the thing is the medium and the human received the message. </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">My scholar friend, has a way to ignite discussion on a discovery in science. I venture if my friend met Stephen Hawking he would say to him, I like you research on energy in The Black Hole. Hawking may follow up with a few words. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Then, my friend would ask a question. What prompted him to initiate the search? From that point the discussion follow along the lines of how theoretical study was not just the framework of his love of theoretical astrophysics but a deep trust in science - of its eternal presence. </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">I arranged a meeting between my scholar and <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>a psychiatrist friend. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The psychiatrist special calling was to react instantly when he was needed at Sick Kids Hospital. </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">When they met, the psychiatrist immediately asked the scholar “Have you met God ?” My friend said “ at <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Harvard they taught him never to lie, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Yes I met <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>God”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">He explained. “Well into my work, I suddenly became bed ridden for two years. My body would not let me move. One day I looked up and saw the sun light in the window overlooking the garden. I asked God to let me up, look at the garden and go right back to bed”. He knew that God let him up.</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">The difference I find between my scholar friend and Stephen Hawkins is that the scholar had the faith to address the will of God to help him and Stephen Hawkins was using his mind to find the mind of God. </span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">One final thing with my scholar. His Harvard mentor worked with him for twelve years before letting him enter into discussions with scientists. Decades later while walking with him , I asked for the reference in which St. Augustine wrote “It’s solved by walking “. He forgot and immediately phoned his Harvard ninety-five-year-old mentor who was in a Boston hospital. I heard his mentor saying to the scholar, “I’ve told you over and over again you have to remember your references.</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">The history of love is found in the passionate pursuit of science and faith.</span></p><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2"></span><br></p><p class="p3" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2">John Scandiffio</span></p><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div></body></html>