Quote 1925
Most of the major figures who jump-started modern science were devout Christians—Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Boyle, Newton.
In a 2003 study, sociologist Rodney Stark identified the fifty-two top "stars" who did groundbreaking work to launch the scientific revolution. Turning then to biographical documents, he discovered that all but two of them were Christian.
Today many people assume that science and religion are inherently in conflict. But historians of science have turned that assumption upside down. Today most historians agree that the scientific outlook actually rests on fundamental concepts derived from a biblical view of nature.
Consider, for example, the idea of "laws" in nature. Today that idea is so familiar that we consider it common sense. But historians tell us that no other culture—East or West, ancient or modern—has ever come up with the concept of laws in nature.
It appeared for the first and only time in Europe during the Middle Ages, a period when its culture was thoroughly permeated with biblical assumptions.
As historian A. R. Hall notes, the use of the word law in the context of natural events "would have been unintelligible in antiquity, whereas the Hebraic and Christian belief in a deity who was at once Creator and Lawgiver rendered it valid."
Nancy Pearcey
https://twitter.com/NancyRPearcey/status/1744561510628618539647
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
It may be too much to attribute the rise of modern scientific thought exclusively to the influence of Christianity, but it is hard to deny that the two are connected. Belief in an orderly universe preceded the discovery and application of that order, and for that belief the teaching of the Bible was largely responsible. Many early Christian writers examined the world around them in great detail, and by claiming that everything they observed went back to the providence of a good Creator they were able to make sense of the universe to a degree that had not been achieved before.God Has Spoken, 165
To conclude, therefore, let no man out of weak conceit of sobriety, or in ill applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works.
We must never think that the Christian base hindered science. Rather, the Christian base made modern science possible.How Should We Then Live, 152
Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton and the early members of the Royal Society were religious men, who repudiated the sceptical doctrines of Hobbes. But they familiarized the minds of their countrymen with the idea of law in the Universe and with scientific methods of enquiry to discover truth. It was believed that these methods would never lead to any conclusions inconsistent with Biblical history and miraculous religion; Newton lived and died in that faithEnglish Social History (1942)
because the early scientists believed that the world was created by a reasonable God, they were not surprised to discover that people could find out something true about nature and the universe on the basis of reason.How Should We Then Live?, 147
The foundation for modern science can be said to have been laid at Oxford when scholars there attacked Thomas Aquinas's teaching by proving that his chief authority, Aristotle, made certain mistakes about natural phenomena.How Should We Then Live?, 144
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