Gerard Bodifee

Gerard Bodifee (Mortsel, February 7, 1946) is a Belgian astrophysicist and writer.

Education

After his studies in chemistry at the universities of Antwerp and Ghent, Bodifee concentrated on astronomy with a focus on the problem of the formation of stars. At the University of Brussels he conducted scientific research on the origin and evolution of galaxies.

He obtained a Ph.D in science from the University of Brussels with a doctoral thesis titled Oscillating Star Formation and Dissipative Structures in Galaxies. His promoter was Professor C. de Loore. This research was undertaken in collaboration with Ilya Prigogine.

Career

As acting Managing Director of the National Planetarium, associated to the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, Bodifee drew up several programmes for national education. He also presented a television series on the stars and celestial phenomena on VRT, National Television Belgium.

Additionally, he used to teach chemistry in a secondary school (Saint-Rita high school in Kontich).

Next to his scientific work, Bodifee became a well-known writer and columnist for the weekly magazine Knack and the newspaper De Standaard. His style is slightly ironical and often inspired by Christian philosophy. The articles were always well-grounded and critical, even with relation to his own scientific domain.

Gerard Bodifee calls himself a Christian philosopher because he wants to stress the importance of the Christian cultural heritage. He considers the question whether God exists to be subordinate to the positive effects of a religious awareness in which morality, altruism, and giving meaning to existence and love, are inherently linked with their Christian origin.

Bodifee concentrates on writing and lecturing in Belgium and abroad. He founded the House for Philosophy, and gives courses about the foundations of our culture in Greece and elsewhere. He links the origin of philosophy with modern science. Bodifee has published some twenty books in the field where science, philosophy and religion interact. He does not believe that humans have an effect on climate change.[1]

Family

He is married to Lucette Verboven. She is an interviewer of diverse television programmes in Belgium (KTRO) and the Netherlands (KRO) and author of a number of religious books.

Bodifee currently gives guest lectures at the University of Antwerp (UA).

Works

Most of Bodifee's publications are in Dutch but his more recent works are also published in English.

Science, history of science, religion, philosophy, and similar topics

Philosophical fiction

Compilations of columns

Bodifee published columns in the literary supplement of the Belgian journal De Standaard, in the Belgian weekly magazine Knack, and elsewhere.

References

  1. Debeil, Anne Debeil; Lemeire, Rob (8 December 2014). "De klimaatwijziging: 'We leven in een tijd met een beangstigend “politiek correct” klimaat, we hebben een soort DDR-systeem gecreëerd'" (in Dutch). Express.be. Retrieved 22 December 2015.

External links


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