"The creative science of Galileo"

“A perusal of Galileo’s “Dialogue” should make it clear, except to closed-minded Humeans, that the creative science of Galileo was anchored in his belief in the full rationality of the universe as the product of the fully rational Creator, whose finest product was the human mind, which shared in the rationality of the Creator.”

~Stanley L. Jaki: The Road of Science and the Ways to God, Chap. 7.

Portrait of Galileo Galilei, by Justus Sustermans.
Oil on canvas, 1636; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

John Paul II: Science

“SCIENCE encourages legitimate human curiosity to know the universe and to admire and contemplate its beauty and goodness. In this way we enter into communion with God himself, who looked upon what he had created and saw that it was very good.”

~Pope St. John Paul II: Discourse to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Sept. 26, 1986.

Lemaître: "The radius of space began at zero"

"The radius of space began at zero; the first stages of the expansion consisted of a rapid expansion determined by the mass of the initial atom, almost equal to the present mass of the universe. If this mass is sufficient, and the estimates which we can make indicate that this is indeed so, the initial expansion was able to permit the radius to exceed the value of the equilibrium radius. The expansion thus took place in three phases: a first period of rapid expansion in which the atom-universe was broken into atomic stars, a period of slowing-down, followed by a third period of accelerated expansion. It is doubtless in this third period that we find ourselves today, and the acceleration of space which followed the period of slow expansion could well be responsible for the separation of stars into extra-galactic nebulae."

~Monsignor Georges Lemaître: La formation des nebuleuses dans l'univers en expansion, Comptes Rendus (1933), 196, 903-4. Trans. Helge.

Lemaître and Einstein