Did Early Scientists really believe?
Kevin Rogers
(Investigator 124, 2009 January
Review
In the spring edition of the Skeptic Jon Jeremy argued that a Christian
cannot practice science and be consistent with their beliefs. According
to Jon, all scientists should be atheists. His argument was basically
that since the Christian God operates the universe in accordance with
his will, therefore the urnverse would be unpredictable and not
amenable to scientific investigation.
In the summer edition Bill Moriarty and I challenged this thesis. The
main point that we both made was that Jon falsely assumed God was
arbitrary and capricious. The Christian has just as much reason as an
atheist to believe that nature will act consistently. I added that the
origins of modern science were deeply influenced by Christians and that
many of the major scientists have been Christians. Our letters evoked
responses from Paul Barclay and Brian Hewson in the autumn edition and
from Jon Jeremy in the winter edition.
A number of issues have been raised and space prevents me from
addressing them all. However, both Paul Barclay and Jon Jeremy claimed
that early scientists maintained "a facade of conventional religious
belief" to avoid persecution. In other words, Paul and Jon inferred
that the early scientists were really closet atheists. Neither Paul nor
Jon provided any evidence for their assertion. Being a good skeptic, I
did some research.
Early Scientists
There were many scientists who called themselves Christians.
Some prominent examples born prior to the 20th century were
Roger Bacon (1214-1292),
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543),
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601),
Francis Bacon (1561-1626),
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642),
johannes Kepler (1571-1630),
Rene Descartes (1597-1650),
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662),
Robert Boyle (1627-1691),
Robert Hooke (1635-1703),
Isaac Newton (1643-1727),
Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716),
William Herschel (1738-1822) and
his astronomer son John Herschel (1792-1871),
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783),
John Dalton (1766-1844),
Johann Gauss (1777-1855),
Louis Cauchy (1789-1857),
Michael Faraday (1791-1867),
Charles Babbage (1791-1871),
Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884),
James Joule (1818-1889),
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895),
Joseph Lister (1827-1912),
Lord Kelvin (William Thompson 1824-1907),
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879),
Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919),
J.J. Thomson (1856-1940),
Max Planck (1858-1947) and
Arthur Compton (1892-1962).
There were many more that I have not listed.
Were they faking it?
Was their faith real, or were they faking it? If you read their
biographies you will find that many of them were quite overt in their
profession of faith and demonstrated their faith by what they did.
Roger Bacon was a Franciscan Friar and Copernicus was a Roman Catholic
cleric. Mendel was an Augustinian priest who became abbot of his abbey.
Francis Bacon wrote in "The Essays: Of Atheism" that "a little
philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy
bringeth men's minds about to religion." Galileo, despite his
altercations with the Roman Catholic Church was a devoted Roman
Catholic all of his life. Pascal wrote the Pensées ("Thoughts"),
which was intended to be a coherent examination and defense of the
Christian faith. The original title was "Apologie de la religion
Chrétienne" (Defense of the Christian Religion).
Boyle, as a director of the East India Company, spent large sums in
promoting the spread of Christianity in the East, contributing
liberally to missionary societies, and to the expenses of translating
the Bible or portions of it into various languages. Isaac Newton,
although unorthodox in some of his beliefs, was a member of the
Anglican Church and was involved in the distribution of Bibles to the
poor and the construction of new churches. He wrote more on the Bible
and theological topics than he wrote on science. Gottfried Leibniz was
the co inventor of calculus with Isaac Newton. He was also a theologian
and philosopher and was responsible for developing a form of the
cosmological argument for the existence of God based on the Principle
of Sufficient Reason.
Michael Faraday was an elder and regular preacher in the Sandemanian
(foot washers) Church. Babbage originated the concept of the
programmable computer. In 1837 he published his Ninth Bridgewater
Treatise, "On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in
the Creation".
Maxwell's faith is well documented. He attended both Presbyterian and
Episcopalian services as a child and later underwent an Evangelical
conversion in April 1853. Compton was a deacon in the Baptist Church.
Joseph Lister was originally a Quaker and subsequently joined the
Scottish Episcopal Church. J.J. Thomson put the text "The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom" over the Cavendish Laboratory in
England.
Max Planck was a devoted and persistent adherent of Christianity from
early life to death. The God in which Planck believed was "an almighty,
all-knowing, benevolent but unintelligible God that permeated
everything, including physical laws." Planck objected to atheism.
I could go on and on, but hopefully you will get the point. This
information is very accessible. The truth is out there. Jon and Paul
claim that they were faking it. Well then, which of the above were
faking it? Where is your evidence?
Conclusion
Some contributors to the Skeptic magazine give the impression that
atheists are the sole custodians of science and rational thinking. This
has as much credibility as the Burmese government rebadging foreign aid
to pretend that it came from them. The modern scientific movement
certainly did not arise from atheism. It had its roots in the Christian
West. Many of the early scientists were Christians and their words and
deeds indicate that their profession was genuine.
Jon claimed that theism is incompatible with the scientific method. On
the contrary, theism provides the rational source for the laws of
nature. To quote Paul Davies, "Science is based on the assumption that
the universe is thoroughly rational and logical at all levels. Atheists
claim that the laws of nature exist reasonlessly and the universe is
ultimately absurd. As a scientist, I find this hard to accept. There
must be an unchanging rational ground in which the logical, orderly
nature of the universe is rooted."
Quoted from page 111 of "There is a God", by Antony Flew.