However the great successes of science - Galileo's telescopic observations, Newton's law of gravity, etc - all of this great success caused people to sort of say, what if we could establish religion on that same successful basis? What if we could have a good rational foundation for religious belief. What if religion could be sort of like science. Of course, that can't be.

God gave me the gift of faith. I don't mean that in any miraculous sense, I mean through the parents who educated me, through the brothers and sisters I grew up with, the schools I went to, there was this influence upon me which was the faith, in the concrete. I accepted it, I questioned it, I grew up with it, and in the end, as a mature adult, I continue to accept it.

The whole dimension of religious belief requires transcendence, it requires going beyond what you can establish rationally.

As a religious priest I find it a very enriching experience to do my scientific research.

There are dimensions to me that are not just the thinking person, but the person who is much richer, the person who has other emotional experiences, psychological experiences, these experiences also enrich me.

I think today the church faces a very real challenge in not repeating the errors of the past, in sort of a stand off, a fear of science.

Being a scientist helps to support both my life as a Jesuit and my belief in God.