I refer to the debate between Joseph Farrugia and Joseph Caruana about faith and reason.

There is compatibility between faith and reason. This theory was also amply propagated by Jurgen Habermas and Pope Benedict XVI in a public lecture wherein they both stressed the importance of genuine secular reason and authentic religious conviction.

The truth of faith and the truths of secular science come to us from God, the former through revelation, the latter through human reason.

Truth cannot contradict truth. God, it has been well said, is not afraid of your reason, he made it.

There can never be a real conflict but there may be an apparent clash between the doctrines of faith and the findings of science.

My stance that physics, chemistry and biology – indeed, reason itself – are not incompatible with belief and that scientific achievements and faith in God are in harmony and complimentary has been further strengthened by what Francis Collins, a convert from atheism, head of the Human Genome Project and one of the world’s leading scientist said:

“It is time to call a truce in the escalating war between science and spirit. The war was never really necessary… Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced. God is most certainly not threatened by science. He made it all possible. So let us together seek to reclaim the solid ground of an intellectually- and spiritually-satisfying synthesis of all great truths.

“That ancient motherland of reason and worship was never in danger of crumbling. It never will be. It beckons all sincere seekers of truth to come and take up residence there. Answer that call. Abandon the battlements. Our hopes, joys and the future of our world depend on it.”