Why I admire Gregor Mendel
Despite coming from a relentlessly science-oriented family, it took reading my mother’s old high school textbook to learn of Gregor Mendel’s work. At seven years of age, this information completely blew my mind—Mendel did his work in the mid-1800’s, and he made his discoveries through observation, experimentation and perserverence. No “big science” here, no multimillion dollar lab—just the power and practice of the well-tuned human brain founding an entire branch of biology.
Even more astonishing to me at the time, he did all of this as an Augustinian monk. At that time, the mainstream view was that religion and science were NEVER on speaking terms—and while I knew better, I was stone amazed to see any one else did.
While it would be facile to say Mendel’s influence led me in later years to study genetics and molecular biology, the truth is more profound—Papa Mendel taught me that the greatest understanding of nature always arises from observation, and that faith and science are enemies only to the small-minded or weak of faith.
