A question for your next trivia night

How about this for a trivia question?

What do the following have in common?

1. the discovery of the genetic process for inheritance of characteristics by sexual reproduction
2. the formation of fossils in rocks, which provides a way of estimating the geological age of the earth
3. the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.

Answer......

they were all theories proposed by Catholic priests.

1. Fr Gregor Johann Mendel (1822 - 1884)

was an Augustinian monk who studied the inheritance of characteristics in peas and bees and is considered the father of genetics.

http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_1.htm

Mendel was a contemporary of Charles Darwin, but Darwin probably did not know of Mendel's work, which is a pity, because it would have helped Darwin to realise the error of his idea of "blending inheritance"

http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/ahp/MBG/MBG2/MBG.Question.02.html

2.St Nicolas Steno (1638 - 1686)

Niels Stenson was born in Denmark where he studied anatomy and then travelled through Europe and was supported in his scientific work by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He latinised his name to Steno and also converted from his Lutheran faith to Roman Catholicism. He studied geology and explained how fossils are formed, which was a puzzle to the people of the time who thought they somehow grew in rocks. He wrote one of the classical works of geology, "De Solido".

In 1675, Steno was ordained a priest and in the following year he was made a bishop. He did not continue his scientific work after becoming a priest, but he did not deny the truth of his discoveries, which of course can be used to estimate the age of the earth and explain mysteries such as why fossils of seashells are found in rocks on mountaintops.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/steno.html

His pious and virtuous life resulted in him being canonised by Pope John Paul II.

3 Fr Georges Lemaitre (1894 - 1966)

Georges Lemaitre was born in Belgium and became a professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain.

He proposed a Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, which involves the universe starting at one point and expanding at an increasing rate.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/science/sc0022.html

This was a controversial theory at the time and was opposed by scientists like Sir Fred Hoyle, who proposed a "steady state" universe which has existed forever. Observations made in 1998 by astronomers in California indicate that Fr Lemaitre was right.

Incidentally, Sir Fred Hoyle was an atheist, but he has said that the existence of certain carbon isotopes which are required for life is statistically so unlikely that he has written a book called "The Intelligent Universe"

http://home.planet.nl/~gkorthof/kortho47.htm

This is sometimes quoted by supporters of Intelligent Design, but I don't know if Sir Fred agreed with them.