Catholic Scientists – Prof. Jonathan I. Lunine

The Thomistic Institute

Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Thomism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Catholicism, Philosophy, Christianity

4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Prof. Jonathan I. Lunine presents his life as a planetary scientist and Catholic convert as a lived example of the harmony between faith and science, then highlights two priest‑scientists—Georges Lemaître and Gregor Mendel—whose foundational work on the Big Bang and genetics shows that Catholic belief has stood at the center of modern scientific revolutions.

This lecture was given on February 20th, 2026, at Duke University.

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About the Speakers:

Jonathan Lunine is the Chief Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Beforehand, he was the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Lunine is interested in how planets form and evolve, what processes maintain and establish habitability, and what kinds of exotic environments (methane lakes, etc.) might host a kind of chemistry sophisticated enough to be called "life". He pursues these interests through theoretical modeling and participation in spacecraft missions. He is co-investigator on the Juno mission now in orbit at Jupiter, using data from several instruments on the spacecraft, and on the MISE and gravity science teams for the Europa Clipper mission. He was on the Science Working Group for the James Webb Space Telescope, focusing on characterization of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt objects. Lunine has contributed to concept studies for a wide range of planetary and exoplanetary missions. Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has participated in or chaired a number of advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy and for NASA.

Keywords: Big Bang, Catholic Scientists Society, Conversion Story, Darwin Mendel Synthesis, Georges Lemaitre, Gregor Mendel Augustinian Monk, Myth of War Between Science And Religion, Planetary Science, Thomistic Perspective On Creation, Vatican Observatory

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.3	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:25.2	So I'm going to divide my talk essentially into more or less three parts.
0:31.1	So the first part is to give you a sense of what I do as a professional scientist.
0:36.9	It's very important in talking about science and faith that you believe that I have the credentials of a scientist.
0:44.3	So that's what I'm going to do for first 10 minutes or so.
0:48.3	Then I'm going to talk about my own personal journey as a Catholic.
0:53.3	I'm not a cradle Catholic. I'm a convert. I converted in 2007.
0:58.0	And I want to tell you a little bit about this sort of co-evolution of my scientific and
1:06.0	spiritual background, I guess you would say.
1:13.1	And that involves some Catholic scientists.
1:24.3	And then the largest part of the talk is going to be on two Catholic scientists who were both priests and both of whom have contributed to our understanding of the physical world in a way that
1:33.1	has really been, I would say, undersold. By the time I'm done with this lecture, I hope I will
1:41.7	have convinced you that both of them actually played critical roles in two of the most important developments in modern science,
1:49.8	which itself contradicts the narrative that somehow science and faith are in conflict with each other.
1:58.1	So most people assume that the conflict between science and faith,
2:04.1	at least as far as the Catholic Church goes,
2:08.2	really began with Galileo and has never really ended.
2:13.0	Actually, that conflict really begins much, much later.
2:17.2	It begins in the mid-19th century, at least the narrative
	...

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