AMERICAN CATHOLICS AND SCIENCE 513 



reward for the sake of a burning intellectual interest. With 

 few exceptions, the great scientists have not been rich; most of 

 them were comparatively poor. Rich or poor, they were so 

 intent on the pursuit of knowledge that they refused to be 

 diverted from it, even by the promise of greater material gain 

 in other fields. What sparks that burning interest? Where has 

 Catholic education failed? 



It can not be argued that the intent single-mindedness of the 

 devoted scientist indicates a higher level of intelligence than is 

 required in other fields. Intellectual capacity (and dedication) 

 must lie at the foundation of eminence in any pursuit, whether 

 the great man be doctor, lawyer or merchant chief. The touch- 

 stone of excellence in the study of the natural sciences is an 

 insatiable curiosity. This thirst for knowledge of the causes 

 of things is a natural human endowment, as any one can testify 

 who has been subjected to the relentless series of " Why's " of 

 a young child. The child's queries are not directed to motiva- 

 tion alone, but, as the scholastic would put it, to the four causes 

 of natural things. All too often this initial curiosity is stifled, 

 put off with " It's so because I say it's so " or " That is the 

 nature of the thing." Most deadly of all responses to the bur- 

 geoning spirit of inquiry is the chilly rebuke for having raised 

 the question at all. Is there an inherent factor, in content 

 or method, in Catholic education that stifles pre-scientific 

 curiosity? 



Revealed religion is based on the word of God, with 

 mysteries not explicable by human reason. Man comes to a 

 knowledge of the supernatural only by faith. The primary 

 purpose of a Catholic education is to teach these truths of 

 faith. We do employ logic, philosophy, the resources of history 

 and archaeology to show that there is no contradiction between 

 these truths and reason, but in the final analysis their proof 

 rests on the authority of God and his Church. This being the 

 case, it is easy for those untrained in the relationship of faith 

 and reason to allow an authoritarian approach undue influence 

 in the teaching of non-religious subjects. Such confusion of the 



