The book Science, the test of God? by François Euvé is presented by Salvator editions as a response to the very media God, science, evidence, the dawn of a revolution published in November 2021 (Guy Trédaniel editor, 577 pages, 24 euros). In this book, the authors, Michel-Yves Bolloré (industrialist and computer engineer) and Olivier Bonnassies (entrepreneur and graduate in theology), affirmed that scientific advances since the last century make science “the new ally” of God and even provide evidence of his existence.
A position “caricatural”, considers François Euvé. The aim of his book Science, the test of God? (Salvator, 186 pages, 18 euros) is also much broader than a simple answer: it is a question of writing a history of the dialogue between science and religion. Catholic theologian, physicist by training and editor of the journal StudiesFrançois Euvé invites science and religion to dialogue without confusing their respective fields.
Presented as a response to Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies, your book makes almost no mention of theirs. What exactly was your goal?
The subject has interested me for a long time. When Bolloré-Bonnassies’ book came out, the idea was suggested to me of sorting out this vast and old question of the relationship between science and religion. Their work is in the background of mine, because I devote a long development to the notion of “proof” applied to the existence of God.
But my idea was not so much to make an answer. What interested me was rather to return to the fundamentals of this question. Their work essentially focuses on 20th century theories: that seems too narrow to me. As for their thesis – which consists in saying that science before the XXᵉ century takes us away from God while afterwards, it brings us closer to him – it seems caricatural to me, and even false.
I nevertheless think that the media effect of the book is interesting to note. This is not the first scenario: we can recall that the book by Jean Guitton and the Bogdanov brothers (God and Science, published in 1991 by Grasset) had sold a million copies. This is one example among many others. This kind of very shocking book, with very square theses, has a chance of meeting its audience.
In your view, the term “proof” is simply inapplicable to God. You prefer the term “sign” there. Why ?
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