Christianity is not only compatible with
science, but was a major factor in the rise of modern science.
- 1. THE
CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION OF MODERN SCIENCE DR. SARAH SALVIANDER Defending
Christianity October, 2017
- 2. Evolution is a fact! It’s a fact
the way gravity is a fact! Arguing with atheists about science…
- 3. Fact: g = 9.8 m/s2 Which theory
explains it? It’s a fact the way gravity is a fact!
- 4. Newtonian gravity General
relativity
- 5. 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
- 6. ” “ 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.
- 7. 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
- 8. 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.
- 9. THE POWER OF SCIENCE
- 10. THE POWER OF SCIENCE
- 11. SCIENCE VS. RELIGION? Science
and religion are fundamentally incompatible… Vic Stenger, physicist
- 12. SCIENCE VS. RELIGION? 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
- 13. SCIENCE VS. RELIGION? 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
- 14. ORIGIN OF MODERN SCIENCE It is
indisputable that modern science emerged in the seventeenth century in
Western Europe and nowhere else. “ ”Edward Grant, historian
- 15. MODERN SCIENCE EMERGED IN
CHRISTIAN EUROPE Not in spite of Christian faith... ...because of it.
- 16. 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, astronomy Ancient Egyptians
Empiricism 7th CENTURY BC Pre-Socratic Greeks Thales, “father of science”
… Indians Brahmagupta, concept of zero 5/6th CENTURY BC Indians
Trigonometry, algebra
- 17. BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE WHEN
WHO WHAT … Ancient Greeks Pythagorus, atomism, astronomy 4th CENTURY BC
Classical Greeks Plato, Aristotle, deductive reasoning, empiricism,
pre-physics, cosmology
- 18. BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE 4th
CENTURY BC Classical Greeks Plato, Aristotle, deductive reasoning,
empiricism, pre-physics, cosmology Laid the foundation for modern science:
o Deductive reasoning o Observation and induction Explosion in
pre-scientific advances o Anatomy o Astronomy o Botany o Mathematics o
Zoology
- 19. BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE 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
- 20. BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE 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, medicine
Everyone Supernova 1054 observation Chinese Geomorphology 12th CENTURY
Arabs Gravitation, precursors to Newton’s laws, mechanics
- 21. BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE 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 clocks Movable
type, Gutenberg Bible 16th CENTURY Western Europeans Copernicus, Brahe
17th CENTURY Western Europeans SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
- 22. 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
- 23. PLATO VS. ARISTOTLE PLATO o
Mystic o Inductive reasoning o Spiritual more real than physical o Senses
are unreliable for perceiving truth o Perfect forms; crude copies o Form
is static o Math is highest form of thinking o Minimal scientific
contribution ARISTOTLE o Logician o Deductive reasoning o Authenticity of
everyday world o Senses are necessary to perceive truth o Objects are form
+ matter o Change is inevitable o Separated math and science o Highly
influential in science
- 24. MEDIEVAL PRE-SCIENCE AND MATH o
Aristotle and the Church o Neo-Platonic crisis CHRISTIANITY SCIENCE Logic,
realism Mathematics
- 25. Greeks Romans 1200 AD Scientific
Revolution Industrial Revolution Modern Civilization 400 BC 500 AD 1620 AD
1760 AD 1900 AD Medieval Europe COMPLEXITY à SCIENCE?
- 26. COMPLEXITY à SCIENCE? Human need
to understand our place in the world More complex societies need greater
depth of understanding Does complexity necessarily lead to science?
- 27. WHY DIDN’T OTHERS CULTURES
INVENT SCIENCE? Some were insufficiently advanced. However… Greeks o
Philosophically advanced o Didn’t invent science Babylonians, Romans,
Chinese o Technologically advanced o Didn’t invent science Arabs o
Intellectually advanced o Didn’t invent science
- 28. WHY DIDN’T OTHERS CULTURES
INVENT SCIENCE? Science is the study of nature, and the possibility of
science depends on your attitude toward nature
- 29. 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”
- 30. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature is real o God made everything o The world and everything in it is
real o They can be studied philosophically and experimentally
- 31. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS Nature is denigrated o Material world associated with evil o The
material is denigrated o Slaves did all the labor while the upper classes
pursued “higher things” à Major reason Greeks did not invent science
- 32. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature is good o “And God saw that it was good” o Church defended a high
view of the material world as God’s creation o Respect for craftsmen o Dignity
in work, including scientific work
- 33. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
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
- 34. ” “ 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, the scientists doubled as theologians. Mitch Stokes, Isaac
Newton
- 35. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS 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
- 36. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature is a creation o Nature is good, but not a god o It is merely a
creation, not a deity o De-deification of nature was a crucial step toward
science
- 37. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS Nature is arbitrary Paganism: o A multitude of immanent gods who
are personifications of natural phenomena o Arbitrary and capricious
- 38. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature is ordered o Nature was created by God o God is trustworthy o
Creation is regular, ordered, dependable
- 39. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS Nature is alive Paganism: o Nature is alive and operates through
mysterious forces
- 40. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature is ordered o The world is the creation of a Law-Giver o It is
governed by laws; God is the “legislator” of natural laws
- 41. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS 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
- 42. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature is precise o God is sovereign o The universe is precisely what God
intends it to be Kepler’s stubborn refusal to ignore a discrepancy à
Kepler’s laws
- 43. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS 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
- 44. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
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
- 45. 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?
- 46. 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?
- 47. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS 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 test o Inspired by geometry
- 48. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature must be tested o Voluntarism vs. scholasticism o God’s freedom to
impose his will in the world o God could have created any sort of world o
Inspired experimentation o God is not constrained by Forms, but by his own
nature
- 49. NON-CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND
IDEALS Nature must be conformed to Animism and pantheism: o The divine is
immanent o Humans should try to know nature only to conform and adapt to
it
- 50. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
Nature is for the glory of God and the benefit of mankind o We are made in
God’s image o Our kinship is with God, not nature o 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
- 51. CHRISTIAN ASSUMPTIONS AND IDEALS
o Nature is real o Nature is good o Nature is a creation o Nature is
orderly o Nature is lawful o Nature is precise / mathematical o Nature is
knowable o Nature must be tested o Nature is for the glory of God and the
benefit of mankind o Time is linear
- 52. MEDIEVAL PRE-SCIENCE AND MATH o
Aristotle and the Church o Neo-Platonic crisis CHRISTIANITY SCIENCE Logic,
realism Mathematics
- 53. SCIENCE VS. RELIGION? 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
- 54. John Philoponus Bede the
Venerable Rabanus Maurus Leo the Mathematician Hunayn ibn Ishaq Pope
Sylvester II Hermann of Reichenau Hugh of Saint Victor William of Conches
Hildegard of Bingen Robert Grosseteste Pope John XXI Albertus Magnus Roger
Bacon Theodoric of Freiberg Thomas Bradwardine William of Ockham Jean
Buridan Nicephorus Gregoras Nicole Oresme Nicholas of Cusa Otto Brunfels
Nicolaus Copernicus Michael Servetus Michael Stifel William Turner Ignazio
Danti Bartholomaeus Pitiscus John Napier Johannes Kepler Galileo Galilei
Laurentius Gothus Marin Mersenne René Descartes Pierre Gassendi Anton
Maria of Rheita Blaise Pascal Isaac Barrow Juan Lobkowitz Seth Ward Robert
Boyle John Wallis John Ray Gottfried Leibniz Isaac Newton Colin Maclaurin
Stephen Hales Thomas Bayes Firmin Abauzit Emanuel Swedenborg Carolus
Linnaeus Leonhard Euler Maria Gaetana Agnesi Joseph Priestley Isaac Milner
Samuel Vince
- 55. Linthus Gregory Bernhard Bolzano
William Buckland Agustin-Louis Cauchy Lars Levi Laestadius George Boole
Edward Hitchcock William Whewell Michael Faraday Charles Babbage Adam
Sedgwick Temple Chevallier John Bachman Robert Main James Clerk Maxwell
Andrew Pritchard Arnold Henry Guyot Gregor Mendel Philip Henry Gosse Asa
Gray Francesco Faà di Bruno Julian Tenison Woods James Prescott Joule
Heinrich Hertz James Dwight Dana Louis Pasteur George Jackson Mivart
Armand David George Stokes George Salmon Henry Baker Tristram Lord Kelvin
Pierre Duhem Georg Cantor Henrietta Swan Leavitt Dmitri Egorov Mihajlo
Idvorski Pupin Pavel Florensky Agnes Giberne J. J. Thomson John Ambrose
Fleming Max Planck Edward Arthur Milne Robert Millikan Charles Stine E. T.
Whittaker Arthur Compton Ronald Fisher Georges Lemaître Otto Hahn David
Lack Charles Coulson George R. Price Theodosius Dobzhansky Werner
Heisenberg
- 56. Michael Polanyi Henry Eyring
Sewall Wright William G. Pollard Aldert van der Ziel Mary Celine Fasenmyer
John Eccles Carlos Chagas Filho Sir Robert Boyd Richard Smalley Mariano
Artigas Arthur Peacocke C. F. von Weizsäcker Stanley Jaki Allan Sandage
Charles Hard Townes Ian Barbour Freeman Dyson Richard H. Bube Antonino
Zichichi John Polkinghorne Owen Gingerich John T. Houghton Russell
Stannard R. J. Berry Gerhard Ertl Michał Heller Robert Griffiths Ghilean
Prance Donald Knuth George Frances Rayner Ellis Colin Humphreys John Suppe
Eric Priest Christopher Isham Henry F. Schaefer, III Joel Primack Robert
T. Bakker Joan Roughgarden William D. Philips Kenneth R. Miller Francis
Collins Noella Marcillino Simon Conway Morris John D. Barrow Denis
Alexander Don Page Stephen Barr Brian Kobilka Karl W. Giberson Martin
Nowak John Lennox Jennifer Wiseman Ard Louis Larry Wall Justin L. Barrett
- 57. ARCHITECTS OF THE SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION Rodney Stark surveyed 52 scientists key to the Scientific Revolution
o 50 Christian o 1 unknown o 1 atheist Of the 50: o 60% “devout” o 40%
“conventional”
- 58. Scientific method Copernican
revolution Empiricism and mathematics in science United the heavens and
earth, gravity, calculus Relativity Quantum revolution Big bang theory
- 59. Scientific method Copernican
revolution Empiricism and mathematics in science United the heavens and
earth, gravity, calculus Quantum revolution Relativity Big bang theory
- 60. SCIENCE VS. RELIGION? 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
- 61. SCIENCE VS. RELIGION? 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 Braun Rocket scientist
- 62. SCIENCE VS. RELIGION? 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 Schawlow Physicist (Nobel laureate) I find a need for God in the
universe and in my own life.
- 63. 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
