On the one hand, there are marvelous discourses in institutions of higher learning about how science deepens faith. On the other hand, the public presentation of faith and science is a tale of incessant conflict.

So there is a gap, and people who just want to learn more about the faith-and-science dialogue are left wondering where to start. Is there a conflict? Is there unity? Can someone please just lay out the basics?

Count the following 10 imperatives as so many points to begin to bridge this rift.

Profess the Creed in confidence. If you pray, “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible,” then your faith comes first. Christianity is not a hypothesis or a theory; it is everything, a pervasive worldview. As Catholics, we do not call some things intelligently designed and declare other things mere random chances of nature, as if nature were not the handiwork of God; we see everything as a consistently interacting totality, a creation, including every particle and force governed by the laws of physics.

Know your faith, and let it guide your reasoning. “Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure” (Catechism, 89). There are a number of sources for finding Church teaching. Besides the Catechism, Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma and Heinrich Denzinger’s Sources of Catholic Dogma are good. Be aware of the hierarchy of truths (Catechism, 90). We cannot accept a conclusion that the soul does not exist or that God did not create the world. Most discussion happens where theological opinions are proposed and science aids comprehension.

Respect the experts. Be careful not to promote novel opinions as accepted teaching. Read the writings of theologians and communicate their work. Likewise, respect the scientists. Many scientists are not people of faith, but if you have not placed your reputation behind conclusions, it is hard to appreciate what it takes to add new scientific knowledge. Be confident in your faith and read scientific papers, so you can figure out what to accept or reject for yourself.

Do not be anxious until you find the one, final answer. Think of the process of navigating science in the light of faith as a dive into complementary mysteries. Faith and science are two different manifestations of the same reality. When they seem to have conflicting conclusions, it is because our knowledge is not complete. There are many questions that will not have clear answers, which is why they are debated. How much were Neanderthals like humans? In what ways can brain chemistry influence our behavior? Try to understand a variety of opinions, but do not articulate an opinion until you are ready.

Clarify the kind of proof science provides. Inductive proofs widen from details to broad conclusions; they affirm. For example, the Big Bang affirms a beginning in time; it does not absolutely prove the ultimate t=0. Deductive proofs narrow from broad statements to conclusions; they confirm. One may reason that infinite time is highly unlikely, so by default finite time is highly likely. Science is never absolute proof of theological tenets. The Big Bang, fine-tuning in nature and design in living things are inductive proofs of the opening lines of the Christian Creed, but only in the same way rainbows and yellow Labrador puppies are proofs of God. Science should inspire awe and wonder because it is the study of creation.

Ponder Mars. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that there is an order in nature of causes and effects (Summa Theologiae, I.105.6). God creates everything and holds all things visible and invisible in existence; he is the first cause, the Creator, not subject to secondary causes such as change and motion. If there were no other created being with will and intellect, then the material realm would follow, to the elementary unit, the laws of physics as God designed them — like on Mars. Physical scientists think within this strictly physical realm.

In his 1947 book Miracles, C.S. Lewis refers to nature as a “hostess” (94). If a tomato sauce is invaded with basil, for example, nature rushes to accommodate the newcomer. If you prefer not to think of nature as a female serving up munchies, think of it as the physical medium in which we live. Nature accommodates the actions of our free will, which is why human life on this planet has rendered Earth vastly different than if it were left to its own devices.

Assert that humans are body and soul. Beings with wills are movers. God can move particles, and if it is outside the order of nature known to us, we call it a miracle (Summa, I.105.7). St. Thomas says that angels are “heavenly minds” (I.58.3), instantly knowing all they are created to know. The good angels choose to will good, so they do God’s will (I.59.2). They can move matter, possibly in ways we do not understand. We are body and soul. We can move matter in limited ways. We can kick rocks and build smartphones, but we cannot turn paper into gold or un-grow children. We pursue knowledge by “discursive intellectual operation,” by advancing from one thing to another rationally, as we do using the scientific method (I.58.3).

Be assured that physics cannot explain free will. Determinism is a philosophical idea that all events are determined by strict laws of nature. If there were nothing except the physical realm, like on Mars, strict physical determinism would apply. But as Christians we understand that the total system of reality includes both the natural and the supernatural. So while atheists are stuck with the problem of free will and how it would break the laws of physics to declare that they think freely, Christians have accepted the existence of the soul and moved on with life.

Fear not evolution. In fact, go further. Catholics should not frown when people say humans evolved from atoms and primates. We should add that we evolved from the beginning. Atoms constitute the matter that makes us up, and every atom in our bodies came from the Earth, whose particles seem to have come from supernovas, whose matter and energy probably came from the earliest moments after the Big Bang.

Biologically, we see a single evolutionary step every time we see a baby. Every child is genetically like its parents but also genetically unique as an individual. As such, every child responds to his or her environment in unique ways. Environments change over time, further affecting genetic expression. These are facts. But evolutionary science cannot identify a first man, first woman or original sin committed in a moment, because evolution deals with populations over thousands and millions of years. Expecting evolution to find our first parents is like expecting a bulldozer to find the first two grains of sand on a beach. Not only is it the wrong tool, it is the wrong scientific concept. If Adam and Eve began to live, literally, as a fully grown man and woman through a miraculous act of God, or if they came to exist in some other way, science can only shrug and keep on digging.

Realize that science was born of Christianity. The belief that the universe was created by God with an absolute beginning in time and a faithful order is an ancient Judeo-Christian belief forming an unbroken thread all the way back to Genesis. The Old Testament people held a belief in creation in time. The early Christians defended that belief against the pantheistic ideas of ancient Greek philosophy, even to martyrdom. Today, we need to be absolutely clear about the limits of science. Nothing a scientist says should shake our faith. If a scientist claims we are nothing but atoms, have no free will or the world is eternally cycling (as all the other ancient cultures did), then we simply do not agree.

If the biblical cultures and early Christianity are taken as the womb that nurtured and protected this fundamental belief about creation, then the Christian West can be taken as the culture that gave birth to science — upon the works of scholars such as Adelard of Bath, Thierry of Chartres, Robert Grosseteste, William of Auvergne, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Siger of Brabant, Étienne Tempier and Father Jean Buridan, who postulated the impetus theory, which was the precursor to Newtonian mechanics. Science today, as mature and independent as it has become, is like the Prodigal Son in need of its … mother.

The Church guards truth and guides her children. No other religion has ever come close to such a Trinitarian and Incarnational worldview. God is one God and three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Son who became man, the Word, the Logos, the reason. And science relies on order. Without faith in Christ, science does not even make sense.

Stacy Trasancos, Ph.D., is a home-schooling mother of seven.

Her new book, Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Science (Ave Maria Press),

will be published in October. Her website is Science in the Light of Faith (StacyTrasancos.com).