the christian foundation of modern science

THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONOF MODERN SCIENCE

DR. SARAH SALVIANDER

Defending ChristianityOctober, 2017

Evolution is a fact!

It’s a fact the way gravity is a fact!

Arguing with atheists about science…

Fact: g = 9.8 m/s2

Which theory explains it?

It’s a fact the way gravity is a fact!

Newtonian gravity General relativity

Aristotelian theory of gravity

Le Sage's theory of gravitation

Ritz's theory of gravitation

Nordström's theory of gravitation

Kaluza Klein theory

Whitehead's theory of gravitation

Brans–Dicke theory of gravity

Induced gravity

ƒ(R) gravity

Horndeski theory

Supergravity

String theory

Modified Newtonian dynamics

Self-creation cosmology theory of gravity

Loop quantum gravity

Nonsymmetric gravitational theory

Conformal gravity

Tensor–vector–scalar gravity

Gravity as an entropic force

Superfluid vacuum theory of gravity

Chameleon theory

Pressuron theory

”“WHAT IS SCIENCE?

Henri Poincaré, mathematician and physicist

Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.

WHAT IS SCIENCE?

Not just a collection of facts

Not just explanations

A system of knowledge held together by a way of thinking

That way of thinking is the philosophy of science

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

o is the search for truth about the material universe

o follows the scientific method

o follows all of the evidence

o is based on faith in natural laws

Everything else is elaboration and details.

THE POWER OF SCIENCE

SCIENCE VS. RELIGION?

Science and religion are fundamentally incompatible…

Vic Stenger, physicist


As the centuries go by religion has less and less room to exist and perform its obscurantist interference with the search for truth.

Richard Dawkins, biologist


The conflict between religion and science is inherent and (very nearly) zero-sum. …the maintenance of religious dogma always comes at the expense of science.

Sam Harris, neuroscientist

ORIGIN OF MODERN SCIENCE

It is indisputable that modern science emerged in the seventeenth century in Western Europe and nowhere else.

“”

Edward Grant, historian

MODERN SCIENCE EMERGED IN CHRISTIAN EUROPE

Not in spite of Christian faith...

...because of it.

BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE

WHEN WHO WHAT

DAWN OF MAN Everyone Rudimentary technology, astronomy

3rd MILLENIUM BC Predynastic Egyptians Math (numerals, calculations)

… Indians Math

2nd MILLENIUM BC Mesopotamians Math, astronomyAncient Egyptians Empiricism

7th CENTURY BC Pre-Socratic Greeks Thales, “father of science”

… Indians Brahmagupta, concept of zero

5/6th CENTURY BC Indians Trigonometry, algebra


WHEN WHO WHAT

… Ancient Greeks Pythagorus, atomism, astronomy

4th CENTURY BC Classical Greeks Plato, Aristotle, deductive reasoning, empiricism, pre-physics, cosmology


4th CENTURY BC Classical Greeks Plato, Aristotle, deductive reasoning,empiricism, pre-physics, cosmology

Laid the foundation for modern science:o Deductive reasoningo Observation and induction

Explosion in pre-scientific advanceso Anatomyo Astronomyo Botanyo Mathematicso Zoology


WHEN WHO WHAT

… Ancient Greeks Pythagorus, atomism, astronomy

4th CENTURY BC Classical Greeks Plato, Aristotle, deductive reasoning, empiricism, pre-physics, cosmology

4th CENTURY BC+ Chinese Astronomy

3rd/4th CENTURY BC Hellenistic Greeks Euclid, Archimedes

3rd CENTURY BC Hellenistic Greeks Aristarchus, heliocentrism (rejected)

?-1st CENTURY BC Chinese Decimals, negative and fractional

2nd CENTURY BC ROME CONQUERS GREECE


WHEN WHO WHAT

2nd CENTURY Greco-Egyptian Ptolemy, consolidated geocentric cosmology

3rd – 9th CENTURY Greeks Astronomy, algebra, medicine, anatomy (Platonic)

Arabs Medicine, mathematics, astronomy, alchemy (Aristotelian)

10th CENTURY Persians/Arabs Optics

11th CENTURY Arabs Optics, medicineEveryone Supernova 1054 observationChinese Geomorphology

12th CENTURY Arabs Gravitation, precursors to Newton’s laws, mechanics


WHEN WHO WHAT

13th CENTURY Western Europeans Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, the scientific method

Establishment of universities,paper mills

14th CENTURY Western Europeans Occam’s Razor, Oxford Calculators, mechanics, refraction

15th CENTURY Western Europeans Spring-driven clocksMovable type, Gutenberg Bible

16th CENTURY Western Europeans Copernicus, Brahe

17th CENTURY Western Europeans SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

ARISTOTLE AND THE CHURCH

o Early Church fathers like Augustine were influenced by Plato

o Aristotelian philosophy came from Christians in the Middle East ~12th century

o Scholasticism

o Thomas Aquinas most influential promoter of Aristotelianism in the Church

PLATO VS. ARISTOTLE

PLATO

o Mystico Inductive reasoningo Spiritual more real than physicalo Senses are unreliable for

perceiving trutho Perfect forms; crude copieso Form is statico Math is highest form of thinkingo Minimal scientific contribution

ARISTOTLE

o Logiciano Deductive reasoningo Authenticity of everyday worldo Senses are necessary to perceive

trutho Objects are form + mattero Change is inevitableo Separated math and scienceo Highly influential in science

MEDIEVAL PRE-SCIENCE AND MATH

o Aristotle and the Church

o Neo-Platonic crisis

CHRISTIANITY SCIENCE

Logic, realism Mathematics

GreeksRomans

1200 AD

ScientificRevolution

IndustrialRevolution

ModernCivilization

400 BC 500 AD 1620 AD 1760 AD 1900 AD

MedievalEurope

COMPLEXITY à SCIENCE?

COMPLEXITY à SCIENCE?

Human need to understand our place in the world

More complex societies need greater depth of understanding

Does complexity necessarily leadto science?

WHY DIDN’T OTHERS CULTURES INVENT SCIENCE?

Some were insufficiently advanced. However…

Greekso Philosophically advancedo Didn’t invent science

Babylonians, Romans, Chineseo Technologically advancedo Didn’t invent science

Arabso Intellectually advancedo Didn’t invent science

WHY DIDN’T OTHERS CULTURES INVENT SCIENCE?

Science is the study of nature, and the possibility of science depends on yourattitude toward nature

NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS

Nature is not real

Pantheism and idealism:

o Individuality and separateness are an illusion

o Everything is an appearance of some absolute “One”

CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS

Nature is real

o God made everythingo The world and everything in it is realo They can be studied philosophically

and experimentally


Nature is denigrated

o Material world associated with evilo The material is denigratedo Slaves did all the labor while the

upper classes pursued “higher things”

à Major reason Greeks did not invent science


Nature is good

o “And God saw that it was good”o Church defended a high view of the

material world as God’s creationo Respect for craftsmeno Dignity in work, including scientific

work


Nature is good

“I give you thanks, Creator and God, that you have given me this joy in thy creation, and I rejoice in the works of your hands. See I have now completed the work to which I was called. In it I have used all the talents you have lent to my spirit.”

Kepler’s spontaneous notebook prayer

”“

SCIENCE AS TRUE WORSHIP

…[Newton’s intensity was] a measure of his devotion to God. For Newton, “To be constantly engaged in studying and probing into God’s actions was true worship.” This idea defined the seventeenth-century scientist, and in many cases, thescientists doubled as theologians.Mitch Stokes, Isaac Newton


Nature is deified

Pantheism and idealism:

o Nature is the abode of gods or emanation of God’s own essence

o Pagan man “lives in an enchanted forest” alive with spirits, sprites, and demons; focus is on appeasing or warding them off

o Nature is sacred


Nature is a creation

o Nature is good, but not a godo It is merely a creation, not a deityo De-deification of nature was a crucial

step toward science


Nature is arbitrary

Paganism:

o A multitude of immanent gods who are personifications of natural phenomena

o Arbitrary and capricious


Nature is ordered

o Nature was created by Godo God is trustworthyo Creation is regular, ordered, dependable


Nature is alive

Paganism:

o Nature is alive and operates through mysterious forces


Nature is ordered

o The world is the creation of a Law-Givero It is governed by laws; God is the

“legislator” of natural laws


Nature is crude

Greek paganism:

o The world was structured by a lesser god who struggled against stubborn matter

o Material world is rough, imperfect copy of Forms and Ideas

o Mathematics is in the realm of the divine, separate from the material world


Nature is precise

o God is sovereigno The universe is precisely what God

intends it to be

Kepler’s stubborn refusal to ignore a discrepancy à Kepler’s laws


Nature is inscrutable

Paganism:

o If there is any order in nature, it was not ordained by a rational being

o It is inscrutable by human minds


Nature is knowable

o Science arose from the leap of faith that the universe is ordered by God and knowable by rational minds

o Faith comes from the belief that humans are made in the image of God

o Humans are endowed with the gift of reason

Science is different to all the other systems of thought… because you don’t need faith in it. You can check that it works.

Brian Cox, physicist

SCIENCE DEVOID OF FAITH?


Nature need not be tested

Aristotelianism:

o Once an object’s purpose has been determined, we can deduce everything else we need to know about it

o No need to testo Inspired by geometry


Nature must be tested

o Voluntarism vs. scholasticismo God’s freedom to impose his will in the

worldo God could have created any sort of

worldo Inspired experimentationo God is not constrained by Forms, but by

his own nature


Nature must be conformed to

Animism and pantheism:

o The divine is immanento Humans should try to know nature

only to conform and adapt to it


Nature is for the glory of God and the benefit of mankind

o We are made in God’s imageo Our kinship is with God, not natureo We are free to manipulate God’s

creation intellectually and with experimentation

o 17th century Protestant ideal: studying nature was a duty imposed by God


o Nature is realo Nature is goodo Nature is a creationo Nature is orderlyo Nature is lawfulo Nature is precise / mathematicalo Nature is knowableo Nature must be testedo Nature is for the glory of God and the benefit of

mankindo Time is linear

MEDIEVAL PRE-SCIENCE AND MATH

o Aristotle and the Church

o Neo-Platonic crisis

CHRISTIANITY SCIENCE

Logic, realism Mathematics


The conflict between religion and science is inherent and (very nearly) zero-sum. The success of science often comes at the expense of religious dogma; the maintenance of religious dogma always comes at the expense of science.

Sam Harris, neuroscientist

John PhiloponusBede the VenerableRabanus MaurusLeo the

MathematicianHunayn ibn IshaqPope Sylvester IIHermann of

ReichenauHugh of Saint VictorWilliam of ConchesHildegard of BingenRobert GrossetestePope John XXIAlbertus MagnusRoger BaconTheodoric of FreibergThomas BradwardineWilliam of OckhamJean Buridan

Nicephorus GregorasNicole OresmeNicholas of CusaOtto BrunfelsNicolaus CopernicusMichael ServetusMichael StifelWilliam TurnerIgnazio DantiBartholomaeus PitiscusJohn NapierJohannes KeplerGalileo GalileiLaurentius GothusMarin MersenneRené DescartesPierre GassendiAnton Maria of RheitaBlaise PascalIsaac Barrow

Juan LobkowitzSeth WardRobert BoyleJohn WallisJohn RayGottfried LeibnizIsaac NewtonColin MaclaurinStephen HalesThomas BayesFirmin AbauzitEmanuel

SwedenborgCarolus LinnaeusLeonhard EulerMaria Gaetana

AgnesiJoseph PriestleyIsaac MilnerSamuel Vince

Linthus GregoryBernhard BolzanoWilliam BucklandAgustin-Louis CauchyLars Levi LaestadiusGeorge BooleEdward HitchcockWilliam WhewellMichael FaradayCharles BabbageAdam SedgwickTemple ChevallierJohn BachmanRobert MainJames Clerk MaxwellAndrew PritchardArnold Henry GuyotGregor MendelPhilip Henry Gosse

Asa GrayFrancesco Faà di BrunoJulian Tenison WoodsJames Prescott JouleHeinrich HertzJames Dwight DanaLouis PasteurGeorge Jackson MivartArmand DavidGeorge StokesGeorge SalmonHenry Baker TristramLord KelvinPierre DuhemGeorg CantorHenrietta Swan LeavittDmitri EgorovMihajlo Idvorski PupinPavel Florensky

Agnes GiberneJ. J. ThomsonJohn Ambrose

FlemingMax PlanckEdward Arthur MilneRobert MillikanCharles StineE. T. WhittakerArthur ComptonRonald FisherGeorges LemaîtreOtto HahnDavid LackCharles CoulsonGeorge R. PriceTheodosius

DobzhanskyWerner Heisenberg

Michael PolanyiHenry EyringSewall WrightWilliam G. PollardAldert van der ZielMary Celine

FasenmyerJohn EcclesCarlos Chagas FilhoSir Robert BoydRichard SmalleyMariano ArtigasArthur PeacockeC. F. von WeizsäckerStanley JakiAllan SandageCharles Hard TownesIan BarbourFreeman DysonRichard H. Bube

Antonino ZichichiJohn PolkinghorneOwen GingerichJohn T. HoughtonRussell StannardR. J. BerryGerhard ErtlMichał HellerRobert GriffithsGhilean PranceDonald KnuthGeorge Frances Rayner

EllisColin HumphreysJohn SuppeEric PriestChristopher IshamHenry F. Schaefer, IIIJoel PrimackRobert T. Bakker

Joan RoughgardenWilliam D. PhilipsKenneth R. MillerFrancis CollinsNoella MarcillinoSimon Conway MorrisJohn D. BarrowDenis AlexanderDon PageStephen BarrBrian KobilkaKarl W. GibersonMartin NowakJohn LennoxJennifer WisemanArd LouisLarry WallJustin L. Barrett

ARCHITECTS OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Rodney Stark surveyed 52 scientists key to the Scientific Revolution

o 50 Christiano 1 unknowno 1 atheist

Of the 50:o 60% “devout”o 40% “conventional”

Scientificmethod

Copernican revolution

Empiricism and mathematics in science

United the heavens and earth, gravity, calculus

Relativity Quantumrevolution

Big bang theory

Scientificmethod

Copernican revolution

Empiricism and mathematics in science

United the heavens and earth, gravity, calculus

Quantumrevolution

Relativity

Big bang theory


The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to myself, 'So that's how God did it.' My goal is to understand a little corner of God's plan.

Fritz Schaefer,Quantum chemist


I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.

Wernher von BraunRocket scientist


It seems to me that when confronted with the marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how. The only possible answers are religious.

Arthur SchawlowPhysicist (Nobel laureate)

I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life.

SUMMARY

o Modern science arose in 17th century Christian Europe and nowhere else

o Greek philosophy + Christian theology à science

o Science arose because of Christianity, not in spite of it

o 96% of the architects of the Scientific Revolution were Christian

o Christians need to embrace science as one of the blessings of their religion