Dr. Guy Consolmagno D.

What can Galileo's extraordinary life and profound legacy teach us today? Galileo's story is a touchstone in debates about science and religion, but our preconceptions inevitably color the way we see the issues. To understand who Galileo was, what he accomplished, and what you can learn from his triumphs and failures, you need a great teacher to place him in context by exploring the cosmologies, political and religious and historical events, and famous...

This lecture exposes the false dichotomy between science and religion. Dr. Consolmagno argues that a more holistic approach to life dissolves any perceived conflicts between the two disciplines. Moreover, understanding when, how, and why the rift between science and religion developed, historically, helps us avoid making similar mistakes as we move forward and continue learning about God's manifold creation.

Would you baptize an extraterrestrial? If science discovers alien life, what would the implications be for the Catholic faith? What would the existence of extraterrestrial life mean for our notion of God? How should we understand God, God's love, and our place in God's creation while our understanding of the universe is expanding so rapidly? Let the debate begin.

The end of the world has been a constant source of fascination for humanity. Our understanding of physics, aided by our observations of astronomy, paints a different though equally inexorable end to the universe as we know it. In this lecture, Dr. Consolmagno examines scientific predictions about the death of the cosmos.

Within the scientific community, miracles are some of the most controversial phenomena described by religion. By definition, miracles are violations of the natural order which makes them, by default, inaccessible to scientific inquiry. But Dr. Consolmagno suggests that this discrepancy is due in part to the way the definition of "miracles" changed during the Enlightenment; he takes The Star of Bethlehem as a case study.

The anthropic principle is an idea extrapolated from a series of observations. Using the anthropic principle, some have argued that the Earth was custom-tailored to support life-as if the very improbability of Earth were evidence of the existence of God. In this lecture, Dr. Consolmagno examines the problematic arguments behind the anthropic principle.

Let the beauty of astronomy inspire your contemplation of creation. An Introduction to the Universe: The Big Ideas of Astronomy will give you a deeper appreciation of the sky and our ever-growing understanding of astronomy. Your guide for this journey through the cosmos is Dr. Guy Consolmagno (Ph.D., University of Arizona), a renowned astronomer and director of the Vatican's astronomical observatory. In his engaging lectures, you'll deepen your sense...

By way of introduction, this lecture elucidates the fundamental question of the relationship between science and religion. First of all, what motivates us to "do science"–? Dr. Consolmagno examines certain presuppositions of scientific inquiry and the building blocks of the scientific method.