A nuclear passion for Christ and science

The common myth that science killed religion was itself laid to rest after Australia’s leading voice on nuclear science, Dr Adi Paterson, delivered the third annual Labouré Lecture.

Dr Paterson is the former CEO of Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, (ANSTO), current chair of Nuclear for Australia, and the go-to spokesman on all things nuclear for media outlets such as Sky News and the ABC. He also appeared in a recent Senate hearing into the nuclear energy debate.

The lecture was given at St Catherine Labouré Gymea’s annual parish dinner on 6 December, this year held on Sydney Harbour cruise.

About 300 parishioners, along with Bishop Richard Umbers, heard Dr Paterson tell his passion for both Christianity and nuclear science.

“I remember as a young man in the chapel there was the reading after Easter on Thomas who said, ‘Unless I put my hand in his side I will not believe,’” Patterson said

“I knelt to pray for God to invade my life and I said: ‘Lord, I would like to believe.”

He thanked a Catholic Brother Laurence who gave him catechism classes. “That man was a saint,” he said.

“About eight Christian kids grew to about 60 at that school and suddenly, bullying stopped, people respected one another, Bible studies erupted, the fundamental character of the school changed.”

“It’s my prayer that we trust God to do some amazing things. Never give up on prayer.”

Dr Paterson, who was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science in 2017 by the University of Wollongong, grew up without a father and with an atheist mother.

At age 68, his mother eventually converted to Christianity and Dr Paterson received a Christian education at the wish of his maternal grandmother.

He obtained a bachelor’s in science and chemistry and a PhD in engineering from the University of Cape Town.

Dr Paterson, erudite and eloquent, disagreed with the “ruling philosophy of our age that everything can be known through science,” and that, “science has dealt with all that Christian stuff.”

“What we should be doing is asking the sceptic’s question, ‘Was Galileo right?’

“Is it true that everything can be known through science?

“Well, it was true until we managed to split the atom, and we realised that within the atom are other bits of stuff which are the nuclei, and holding the nuclei together are these very strange forces.

“And whatever we do, what seems to happen says that atoms are really, difficult to understand. Our knowledge is starting to fray at the edges.”

He cited the work of “the greatest mathematician ever,” Gregory Chaitin, who has now “proved a theorem that in mathematics there is an unknowable number,” Paterson said.

“The radical outcome of this theory is that science doesn’t know everything.

“Gregory Chaitin has already proved it. It is a rigorous mathematical proof.

“So deep is God’s sense of humour, that at the bottom of mathematics – after all of this certainty that we are going to solve all of the problems – there is an unknowable number.

“At the end of science, at the end of everything we can know about this created universe, there is nothing. It started with nothing, so you can go all the way back to nothing.

“The hint in Scripture is that there is a beginning of who we are, and our humanity, and the fact is we need a relationship with the creator of this world because mathematics is not going to sort out all the problems,” he said.

Dr Paterson has debated Peter Fitzsimmons on atheism, and he once asked the world’s most famous non-believer, Richard Dawkins; “How can you be a scientist and not believe in God?”

Equally at home speaking on Christianity and nuclear science, Dr Paterson finished his address donning his Nuclear for Australia hat.

“The most dangerous thing in Australia today is to believe intermittent renewables can provide reliable power,” Dr Paterson said.

“If you stop black and brown coal and you are going to lose gas in 50 years. We better start doing nuclear now!”

As the sold-out Bella Vista gracefully sailed under Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, Gymea parish priest Fr Greg Morgan began his vote of thanks to Dr Paterson reflecting on “one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

“The power of beauty is so important, as we try to evangelise a culture that no longer values reason, or dialogue, that even disregards truth itself,” Fr Morgan said.

“The irony today is that it is the church that calls back humanity to regain confidence in reason over relativism, to regain confidence in science over scientism, and intelligibility over chance.

“One thing about Dr Paterson’s life is that he has refused to pit science against faith. I thank you for being a man of intelligence, a man of conviction but most of all a man who loves Jesus Christ.”

This year’s lecture on “Science and Religion” followed on from the inaugural lecture in 2022 given by Danny and Leila Abdallah on “Forgiveness” and last year’s address by The Australian’s Foreign Editor, Greg Sheridan, who spoke on “Coming out as a Catholic in the media.”

The Labouré Lecture is held each year as close as possible around the time of the feast day of St Catherine Labouré, 28 November.