Kristityt luonnontieteilijät

Oxfordin yliopiston tieteen ja uskonnon professori Peter Harrison kiinnittää huomiota siihen, että monet merkittävistä luonnontieteilijöistä tieteen historiassa ovat olleet kristittyjä. Heidän kristillinen vakaumuksensa ei ole ollut pelkästään heidän yksityinen mielipiteensä, vaan se on vaikuttanut heidän tieteelliseen tutkimukseensa.¹

Oxfordin yliopiston matematiikan professorin John Lennoxin mukaan länsimaisen luonnontieteen parissa on ollut erityisen suuri merkitys kristinuskosta saadulla perusvakaumuksella, jonka mukaan maailmankaikkeuden on luonut älykäs ja kaikkitietävä persoona, niin että maailmasta on syytä etsiä järjestystä, jopa matemaattista kauneutta ja yksinkertaisuutta.²

Jotkut tieteelliset löydöt on tehty, koska tieteentekijä on edeltä ollut vakuuttunut siitä, että oikeiden yhtälöiden täytyy olla matemaattisesti kauniita ja elegantteja. Leibniz (1646–1716) johti optiikan alaan kuuluvan Snelin lain, koska hän uskoi, että luonto aina valitsee helpoimman ja suorimman tien vaihtoehtojen väliltä. Tämän metafyysisen periaatteen hän puolestaan johti teologisesta vakaumuksestaan, että Jumala on luonut maailman sellaiseksi, että siinä toteutuu maksimaalinen yksinkertaisuus ja täydellisyys. Carl von Linnéä (1707–1778) ohjasi luokittelutyössään teologinen näkemys, jonka mukaan Jumala on luonut organismit erillisiksi, luokiteltaviksi tyypeiksi ja lajeiksi. James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) johti valon kenttäteoriansa osittain teologisesta vakaumuksestaan, että Jumala on kolminaisuus ja että Jumala on tullut ihmiseksi.³

Raamatullinen maailmankatsomus on ohjannut tieteellistä tutkimusta myös korostamalla Jumalan vapautta luomistyössä. Koska Jumala on täysin vapaa persoona, hän on voinut luoda maailman sellaiseksi, ettei se vastaa ihmisen odotuksia. Tämä on tehnyt tieteentekijät avoimemmiksi pohtimaan vaihtoehtoisia hypoteeseja ja selitysmalleja, jotka eroavat vallitsevista tieteellisistä uskonkappaleista.

Kristillisiä luonnontieteilijöitä

Francis Bacon

Robert Boyle

Isaac Newton

Michael Faraday

James Clerk Maxwell

|Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) | |Catholic canon who introduced a heliocentric world view. In 1620, his work was forbidden by the Church "until corrected". The Church demanded, in "about a quarto page of fine print" that nine sentences, by which heliocentrism was represented as certain, had to be either omitted or changed. This done, the book was still specifically banned in each edition of the index of prohibited books, with an expanded entry in the 1819 index, and not removed from the list until the final edition, in 1828. |Catholic Encyclopedia [1], Joseph Mendham (1840). An Index of Prohibited Books: By Command of the Present Pope, Gregory XVI in 1835; .... Duncan and Malcolm.  |- bgcolor="#ccccff" |Michael Servetus (1511–1553) | |Nontrinitarian who was condemned and imprisoned by Catholics before being burned at the stake by Calvinists in Protestant-run Geneva. In science wrote on astronomy and his theological work "Christianismi Restitutio" contained the first European description of the function of pulmonary circulation. |Salon review of a biography of Servetus, History of Science article |- bgcolor="#ccffff" |Michael Stifel (c. 1486–1567) | |Led to the development of Logarithms, hence the picture. He was also among Martin Luther's earlier followers and wrote on Biblical prophecies. |University of Florida, Galileo Project at Rice University, and McTutor

|- bgcolor="#ccffff" |William Turner (c.1508–1568) | |He is sometimes called the "father of English botany" and was also an ornithologist. Religiously he was arrested for preaching in favor of the Reformation. He later became a Dean of Wells Cathedral, pictured, but was expelled for nonconformity. |Galileo Project |- bgcolor="#ffcccc" |Ignazio Danti (1536–1586) | |He was a bishop of Alatri who convoked a diocesan synod to deal with abuses. He was also a mathematician who wrote on Euclid, an astronomer, and a designer of mechanical devices. | McTutor |- bgcolor="#ffcccc" |Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) | |He was an Italian philosopher, priest, cosmologist, and occultist, known for espousing the idea the that Earth revolves around the Sun and that many other worlds revolve around other suns. For his many heretical views, including his denial of the divinity of Christ, he was tried by the Roman Inquisition and burned at the stake. The Catholic Encyclopedia labels his system of beliefs "an incoherent materialistic pantheism." |Catholic Encyclopedia; The Pope and the Heretic by Michael White and Malline:Cite encyclopedia |- bgcolor="#ccffff" |Bartholomaeus Pitiscus (1561–1613) | |He may have introduced the word trigonometry into English and French. He was also a Calvinist theologian who acted as court preacher at the town then called Breslau, hence the image of their town square. |McTutor |- bgcolor="#ccffff" |John Napier (1550–1617) | |Scottish mathematician known for inventing logarithms, Napier's bones, and being the popularizer of the use of decimals. He also was a staunch Protestant who wrote on the Book of Revelation. |McTutor |- bgcolor="#ccffff" |Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | |Eminent English scientist and originator of the eponymous Baconian method or simply, the scientific method. |Dictionary of the History of Ideas |- bgcolor="#ccffff" |Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) | |His model of the cosmos based on nesting Platonic solids was explicitly driven by religious ideas; his later and most famous scientific contribution, the Kepler's laws of planetary motion, was based on empirical data that he obtained from Tycho Brahe's meticulous astronomical observations, after Tycho died of mercury poisoning. He had wanted to be a theologian at one time and his Harmonice Mundi discusses Christ at points. |Galileo Project and Adherents.com and Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder (2005). Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries. Anchor. ISBN 978-1-4000-3176-4 (1-4000-3176-1) ISBN.  |- bgcolor="#ccffff" |Laurentius Gothus (1565–1646) | |A professor of astronomy and Archbishop of Uppsala. He wrote on astronomy and theology. |Uppsala University |}

Ratio Studiorum to French Revolution

The Ratio Studiorum was crucial in the establishment of Jesuit education in 1599. Jesuits played an important role in science dealt with in List of Jesuit scientists. Further Jesuit education and science was an influence outside the Catholic world as well through scholarly communication.

This section goes on to the French Revolution which led to the first major de-Christianization attempts in Europe to occur in many centuries. This culminated in the Cult of the Supreme Being. The period thus saw Christianity in transition and eventually conflict.

Aiheesta muualla

• Cambridge Christians in Science (CiS) group
• Christians in Science website
• Ian Ramsey Centre, Oxford
• The Society of Ordained Scientists-Mostly Church of England
• "Science in Christian Perspective" The (ASA)
• Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation about page explaining why they exist
• The International Society for Science & Religion's founding members.(Of various faiths including Christianity)
• Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences
• Secular Humanism.org article on Science and Religion

Viitteet

Name	Image	Reason for inclusion	Sources
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)		Scientist who had many problems with the Inquisition for defending heliocentrism in the convoluted period brought about by the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In regard to Scripture, he took Augustine's position: not to take every passage too literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history.	Catholic Encyclopedia [2]
Marin Mersenne (1588–1648)		For four years he devoted himself to theology writing Quaestiones celeberrimae in Genesim (1623) and L'Impieté des déistes (1624). These were theological essays against atheism and deism. He is more remembered for the work he did corresponding with mathematicians and concerning Mersenne primes.	MacTutor archive