Lately, a letter appeared in The Times trying to inculcate in readers’ mind that the recently-discovered Higgs boson would eventually embarrass believers because there would be less room for religion after such discoveries. Nothing of the sort!

I have always maintained that the Catholic Church does not feel nervous at all about the origin of the universe and is convinced that scientific evidence can walk hand in hand with religious beliefs.

This is in complete harmony with excerpts from the compendium of the Catholic Church. “Even though faith is stronger than reason, there can never be contradictions between faith and science because both of them owe their origin to God. It’s God Himself who endows man with both the light of reason as well as faith.”

The mysticism of St Augustine, “Believe in order to understand, understand in order to believe”, here fits like a glove in the line of reasoning.

Reverting to my personal convictions, two quotations readily come to mind: “Stand still and show yourself attentive to the wonderful works of God (Job 37:14) and “When I admire the wonders of a sunset... my soul expands in the worship of the creator” (Mahatma Gandhi).

Speculative theories and fertile scientific imagination are utterly convincingly thrashed by quotations from at least 15 scientists, all of whom believe and proclaim that an intelligent and wise God created living beings rather than the latter sprung out of nothing or through a spontaneous coincidence.

The common facts of ethics, science, history apologetics, hermeneutics and philosophy point most compellingly towards a powerful case for God the Creator and Christianity.

The most important thing for us mortals is to discover God, especially in this year of faith. Such a task has already been laid open for us by the Church in the joy she received on the occasion of the Christmas activities and the Resurrection.