The Nine Billion Names of God, by Francis X. Maier

By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing, March 27, 2026

Francis X. Maier is a senior fellow in Catholic studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church.

Science is an odd theme to choose on the brink of Holy Week.  Or maybe not so odd.  In a way, science is miraculous. It’s an expression of man’s dignity and genius.  It offers our species two deep satisfactions: the joy of discovering how the world works, and the means of using what we learn to improve our lives and the lives of others.  It also seems to answer the “why” of things.  Why do colliding atoms produce energy?  Why can enough of that energy, properly channeled, vaporize an entire city like Hiroshima?  And why can we even wonder about such things?

The first two questions are really disguised versions of “how.”  To the third question, science will likewise offer a very reasonable theory of evolution: the route from chemicals in a primordial soup to the contents of a Tiffany’s display window.  It will explain why those chemicals might combine and morph; why some of them ended up as wildly expensive diamonds; and why those diamonds trigger favorable biological responses in the mating dance of a uniquely intelligent animal.  But genuine science has the modesty to know its own limits; to acknowledge and respect other paths to truth and human fulfillment.  …

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