Catholic Education and the Study of Science: The Mysticism of Scientific Pursuit

Abstract

In the past forty years, science has been gradually relegated to technology and utilitarian knowledge. To avoid forgetting what science truly is, it is paramount to train students to discern the difference between scientific knowledge and technological progress. Catholic education possesses the necessary tools to achieve such a goal and to give back, to science, its rightful place in human knowledge as a mystical instrument that can demonstrate the logic in the existence of a Creator beyond creation and enable humanity to climb the mountain of truth. The starting point of this ascent is to use scientific approaches to unravel the laws that govern the natural world. At the top of the mountain, the climber will contemplate the hidden mysteries of the Creator and His creation. In this paper, the development of science, from a united body of knowledge to a compartmentalized ensemble of different disciplines, will be presented. The difference between science as liberal knowledge and technology as utilitarian knowledge will also be discussed, and the fundamental role that Catholic education has to play in the restoration of scientific knowledge, as a liberal endeavour of the human mind, will be considered. The necessity of using the dialogue between faith and reason as a tool to train students in understanding the essence of scientific pursuit will be presented.

Keywords

• catholic education
• utilitarian knowledge
• liberal knowledge
• science education
• mysticism
• scientific inquiry