Father Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest Research Paper

Father Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest - Research Paper Example Religion too opposes science, for example, by offering opposing explanations for occurrence. Despite this widely held view that science and religion oppose each other, there are scholars who believe that overall, science and religion have had a positive relationship between them(Sweet and Feist 2). According to this school of thought, the two complement each other. Promoters of this viewpoint claim that religion has made several contributions to science. They also point to the fact that, throughout history, several religious people have been involved in scientific research. One such person is Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest. Many scholars regard Teilhard as a pioneer of integrating science and faith within the Catholic Church. This paper examines Teilhard’s thoughts and contribution toward getting the Catholic Church to embrace science. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit priest who also doubled up as a scientist(Delio 155). As a paleontologist, T eilhard took part in the discovery of the â€Å"Peking Man†. They also had the concept of the â€Å"Omega Point†, the highest degree of complexity and awareness they believed the universes was evolving toward. The Catholic Church censored many of Teilhard’s writing primarily because of their views on the original sin. Today, Teilhard’s paleontological work is widely accepted among scientists. However, their theorizing on evolution is disparaged. Fr. Teilhard died in 1955 at the age of seventy-four years. Teilhard was among the very few leaders of thought to successfully marry pure scientific research with a religious calling. Teilhard believed that there was a need to reconstruct the doctrines of the Catholic Church from the viewpoints of science while at the same time, rebuilding science from the perspectives of science(Delio 157). In other words, they believed that the two spheres complemented each other.