Unnecessary Necessities (Part 1)

Is atheistic naturalism a requirement for scientific progress?


The primary contention of the movie "Expelled" (which I have not seen, but have some reservations about) is that anyone not espousing an atheistic point of view is being discriminated against in the general scientific community. This aligns with rhetoric coming from the New Atheists, who claim that religion stifles research, supernatural beliefs are nonsense, and teaching children to believe in God retards their ability to think critically. Self-assured blowhards like Marshall Brain say things like this (taken from the "God Is Imaginary" site):

"In other words, it is only by assuming that God is imaginary that science can proceed."

In short, the anti-God crowd is trying to say one or both of the following: that those who profess belief in God, even those who doubt atheistic assumptions, are sub-standard in their scientific thought; that the idea of God is anathema to scientific progress.

Beyond the logical potholes this entails, there is also the matter of history. I’ve already answered the bogus charge that religion has been opposed to science. Mankind’s scientific progress has not only occurred thanks to its theistic roots, but many of the achievements that have shaped our modern world are credited to people who strongly embraced a theistic worldview. They didn’t check their faiths at the laboratory door, or their brains in the church lobby.

As I’ve discussed before, this prerequisite attitude towards atheism has become a sort of "scientific shibboleth". Anyone who says that religion destroys science, or that religious persons cannot reconcile faith and reason is a fool, pure and simple. In support of that contention, please consider the following examples of scientists who were also firm believers in God. I’ve divided the list into two separate sections for a very good reason. This will be explained with the remainder of the roster in part 2.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is most popularly known for his conflict with the Catholic Church over heliocentrism, an issue explored with greater depth here. Galileo never saw his discoveries as disproving the Bible. Rather, he argued for a more careful interpretation of God’s infallible word: "It is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth -- whenever its true meaning is understood," and, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is seen by scientific historians as a pioneer of the scientific method. He contributed to astronomy, optics, and scientific philosophy, and ranks as one of modern science’s greatest founding fathers. Kepler wove a great deal of religious language and reasoning into his work, based on his conviction that the universe was intelligible because God had created it in an orderly way. His views on science and religion formed a comprehensive worldview through which he made his discoveries.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) fathered the modern computer and made great strides in the understanding of fluid mechanics. The standard unit of pressure is named for him. His philosophical work, Pensées, was intended to be a wide-ranging work of apologetics. This written defense of Christianity was not completed before his death at age 39. Pascal saw submission and humility before God as essential to human knowledge. His name is famously associated with Pascal’s Wager.

Robert Boyle (1627-1691) is known as the “Father of Modern Chemistry.” He strongly emphasized experimentation, believing that scientific theories had to be experimentally proven before they could be considered valid. He proposed the existence of atoms, and that there were far more than the classical “four elements”. Boyle also exerted a great deal of effort in theology and apologetics. He sponsored missionaries, Bible translation programs, and lectures defending the faith.

Isaac Newton (1643-1727) had a more profound effect on the advancement of science than any other scientist before or since. He described gravitation, developed the laws of classical mechanics (physics), as well as an entire mathematical system: calculus. He also made great advancements in the field of optics. What many critics fail to point out is that he wrote more words on theology than anything else. Newton considered his discoveries to be overwhelming evidence of a Creator, and dealt with the Mechanism Fallacy more than 275 years ago: "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done."

Edward Jenner (1749-1823), who was a Christian, is known for developing the first vaccine. Jenner used the modern methods of theory and experimentation to inoculate his patients against smallpox, triggering the end to a disease that was killing hundreds of thousands of Europeans each year. Jenner’s first contribution to science was the understanding of the life cycle of cuckoos. Through observation, Jenner demonstrated that prior assumptions about the birds were wrong, and that the faulty assumptions were based too little time observing the birds’ actual actions.

Part 2 will continue examining the compatibility of science with Christian belief. Those included in the second part of this list also share an interesting and important quality, to be discussed later.