Academician Boris Viktorovich Rauschenbach, Associate of S.P. Korolev, was also Orthodox

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleПравославным был и соратник С.П.Королёва - академик Борис Викторович Раушенбах
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning - Complementarity - Modes of interaction
6. Publication date 22-07-2018
7. lemma work Васильевич, Александр [Author]. Православным был и соратник С.П.Королёва - академик Борис Викторович Раушенбах
8. lemma manifestations Русская беседа
9. Keywords Russian Orthodoxy - Catholic Church - protestantism - Copernicus - Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642) - atheism - religious education
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <p>Васильевич, Александр (2011). Православным был и соратник С.П.Королёва - академик Борис Викторович Раушенбах. <em>Русская беседа</em>. Retrieved from: <a href="http://forum.rusbeseda.org/index.php/topic,6209.0.html">http://forum.rusbeseda.org/index.php/topic,6209.0.html</a> </p>
12. Lemma body

    1. The author describes academician Rauschenbach, an associate of Korolev and prominent scientist, as a religious person. He was a German Huguenot, but was very knowledgeable about Orthodoxy and became Orthodox at the end of his life. When he taught at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, he also taught a course on icons which attracted crowds of people from different regions of the USSR. Patriarch Pimen, Pitirim, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, and Cyril, Metropolitan of Smolensk were his friends. He visited Trinity-Sergius Lavra several times and authored an article on the Baptism of Russia, which he gave a talk about, at a UNESCO session in Paris.

       Rauschenbach once said that most great scientists were religious people. He also stressed that the antagonistic relationship between religion and science were an exaggeration. He gave a few historical examples to prove his point. Copernicus, who held a high position in the church hierarchy (a deputy bishop) was attacked by humanists and not by the Church. Galileo, who was a close friend of the Pope and lived at the papal court, was first attacked by Protestants. On the contrary, in the beginning the Catholic Church defended Galileo’s and Copernicus’ heliocentric system. Eventually the pope gave in to pressure from the Protestants. In general, Rauschenbach argued that the Church never cared too much about science and in scientific debates usually took the side of the majority of established scholars.

       Rauschenbach believed that science and religion complement each other, science being the realm of logic, and religion - beyond logical understanding. And yet some theological issues can be explained in terms of logic. This is for example the case of the Trinity which is similar to the notion of vector in mathematics. It has three components, but it is one. Rauschenbach added that the Church approved of this comparison. He also maintained that there was a problem with atheism as any “decent, educated” atheist in Europe in fact followed Christian dogmas. This could not have been otherwise as Christianity was the major religion in Europe for the past two thousand years. At the same time Rauschenbach was worried about the possibility of Christianity being replaced by sects, especially in Russia. This is why in the 1990s he was an outspoken advocate of teaching the Basics of Orthodox Christianity in schools.