Curt Sewell is the author of God at Ground Zero
CREATION BITS No 20.
Some Bible-Believing Creationist Scientists
| Author: Curt Sewell Subject: Creation Overviews Date: 11/8/1999 CREATION BITS INDEX |
One of the common remarks that evolutionists make today is that “real scientists know that evolution is a fact,” and that “creationists can’t be real scientists” because they hold to a preconceived idea that the Bible is literally true, so their scientific explanations must be fitted into the Bible’s story. Evolutionists sometimes refer to this contrast as a “core principle” of science.
Three centuries ago, science had almost a diametrically opposite core principle. Dr. Henry Morris compiled brief biographies of over a hundred Bible-believing scientists from years past.. Henry Morris, Men of Science, Men of God, (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, 1982) Many of these could be called “fathers of modern science,” who discovered the laws we’re now taught in science classes. Let’s look at several of these Bible-believing scientists:
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Lord Chancellor of England, is said to be the one who began the “scientific method.” This was based on experimentation and induction from data, rather than simply philosophical deduction like Aristotle used. Bacon was a devout Bible-believer, who wrote: “There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures [the created things of nature], which express His power.”
Johann Kepler (1571-1630), discovered the laws of planetary motion and celestial mechanics. He was an earnest Christian, and wrote that he was merely “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.”
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), mathematician, philosopher, a founder of hydrostatics and hydrodynamics, wrote the “wager of Pascal,” — “How can anyone lose who chooses to become a Christian? If, when he dies, there turns out to be no God and his faith was in vain, he has lost nothing — in fact, he has been happier in life than his non-believing friends. If, however, there is a God and a heaven and hell, then he has gained heaven and his skeptical friends will have lost everything in hell.”
Robert Boyle (1627-1691), father of modern chemistry, said to be the greatest physical scientist of his generation, active Christian and Bible student and translator.
Nicolaus Steno (1631-1686), developed the principles of stratigraphical interpretation of fossils, and was a Flood geologist, attributing the fossils to the Biblical Flood of Noah. He wrote many theological works.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), discoverer of the law of gravitation, the three laws of motion, the calculus, the first reflecting telescope, and many others. He wrote more theological works than scientific papers, including a book defending the Ussher chronology of the Earth. He wrote: “I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever.”
William Herschel (1738-1822), astronomer and telescope maker, discovered double stars and the planet Uranus. He was a devout Christian who wrote: “The undevout astronomer must be mad.”
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), universally acknowledged as one of the great scientists and experimenters, primarily in electricity and magnetism. He was a sincere Christian and faithful church-goer, and stated that he was supremely confident that true science and the Bible were both based on divine truth and were necessarily in agreement.
Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872), inventor of the telegraph, artist, sculptor, and builder of the first camera in America. He wrote: “The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God’s remedy for fallen man …”
Matthew Maury (1806-1873), oceanographer and “Pathfinder of the Seas.” A Bible-believer, he read Psalm 8:8, “… the paths of the seas …” and said that if God said there paths through the seas he would find them and chart them. He discovered the prevailing currents of the world’s oceans during his lifetime with the U.S. Navy.
James Joule (1818-1889), physicist and discoverer of the mechanical equivalent of heat and one of the chief founders of the scientific discipline of thermodynamics. He was also a devout Christian.
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), paleontologist, glaciologist, professor of natural history at Harvard, whose Museum of Comparative Zoology is named in his honor. Some have said he wasn’t really a Christian, but he certainly believed in God and His special creation of all kinds of organisms. He was an active opponent of the concept of evolution.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), established the germ theory of disease, pasteurization as a way of destroying bacteria, and demolished the evolutionary concept of spontaneous generation, developed vaccines for rabies, anthrax, and other diseases. He was a strongly religious man, who was criticized by the biological establishment of his day because he opposed Darwinism, yet he’s acknowledged as one of the greatest biologists of all time.
William Thompson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), was a Bible-believing Christian. He was one of the foremost physicists of all time, and held the chair of Natural Philosophy at University of Glasgow for 54 years. He established the scale of absolute temperature, and defined the first two laws of thermodynamics. Lord Kelvin was a strong opponent of Lyell’s principle of uniformitarianism and Darwin’s evolution. In 1903 he made a statement that “With regard to the origin of life, science … positively affirms creative power.”
Joseph Lister (1827-1912) was a great English surgeon, who developed the concept of antiseptic surgery and chemical disinfectants. Lord Lister received many honors during his lifetime, and was a firm Quaker Christian. He wrote: “I am a believer in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.”
Joseph Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was one of the greatest scientists of all time, best known for his comprehensive mathematical framework for electromagnetic field theory and other theoretical physics works. He strongly and actively opposed Darwinism and other naturalistic views of Earth’s origins. A hand-written paper found after his death affirmed his personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and quoted the Genesis account of man’s creation in the image of God.
George Washington Carver (1864-1943) is considered the greatest black scientist of all time, working mostly in the realm of agricultural products. He was born as a slave in the Southern U.S., and dedicated most of his life to helping his people, while also proclaiming his faith in God and the Bible.
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), the father of the U.S. space program, was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. in 1945, becoming a citizen in 1955. He was a practicing Lutheran, and was active in church life, and a sincere Bible student. He wrote: “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.”
This is just a tiny sampling of the many famous scientists who were also strong Christians and Bible believers. They have fought against the naturalistic theories, set forth in the last couple of centuries, that try to explain the world and its inhabitants without acknowledging God’s miraculous creation. These men’s lives put the lie to the propaganda of today’s scientific establishment, which tries to portray Bible-believers as being incapable of real science because they attempt to fit evidences into conformity with Biblical “fables.”
In truth, these God-fearing scientists followed the classical rules of Bacon’s “scientific method,” using experiments and physical evidences. It is today’s scientists who often violate that method, because their inquiry into ancient origins isn’t subject to experimentation (we can’t go back to the beginning). Instead, they devise imaginative explanations that fit their preconceived framework of naturalism. Creation Bits No. 21 will discuss more fully how this change of scientific attitude came about.