The Christian Origin of Science

VIEWED IN THE WIDEST HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, the explosive development of science in seventeenth-century Europe is one of the most astonishing events in the whole of human history. It makes our civilization unlike any other. For the first time people all over the world are joined together by rapid communications, easy travel, and extensive trade. Why did this understanding of the detailed structure of the world that we call science develop and come to maturity just when and where it did? This is a question that can lead us to the heart of the relation between science and the Christian basis of our civilization.

It is usual to discuss the relation of science to religion as if they are two independent activities. We can then compare and contrast their objectives, their modes of procedure, and the status of their conclusions. This is not without value, but it presupposes that they are two independent activities that somehow have to be related to each other. This directs attention away from the central point that is essential for the understanding of their relationship, namely that when seen in the perspective of history there is an organic connection between them. Science as we know it is based on certain definite beliefs about the world, and these beliefs have their origin in the theology of Christian Europe.

If we look at the great civilizations of the past, in China and India, in Babylon and Egypt, in Greece and Rome, we frequently find well-developed social structures, magnificent artistic and architectural achievements, imperishable drama and philosophy, but nothing remotely equivalent to modern science. We find great skill in the working of wood and metal, ingenious mechanical contrivances, and perceptive philosophical speculations about the world, but not the detailed quantitative understanding of matter, from quarks to galaxies, expressed as the solution of a few differential equations, that is the hallmark of the more developed areas of modern science.

Most of the great civilizations of the past were able to provide all the material requirements for the growth of science. There was a leisured class, technical skills, and systems of writing and mathematics. Obviously this by itself is not enough. What was lacking was the attitude of mind toward the material world that is the essential precondition of science, and in some cases a social structure that allows new ideas to flourish.

What do we have to believe before we can hope to become a scientist? We must believe that the world is in some sense good, so that it is worthy of careful study. We must believe that it is orderly and rational, so that what we find out one day will still be true on the next day. We must believe that this order is open to the human mind, for otherwise there would be no point in trying to find it. We must believe that this order is not a necessary order that could be found out by pure thought like the truths of mathematics, but is rather a contingent or dependent order that can only be found by making experiments.

In addition to these beliefs about the world itself, the development of science depends on moral convictions such as the obligation to freely share any knowledge that is gained. Furthermore, once it becomes clear that scientific understanding can be applied to grow more food and to cure diseases then its further development is encouraged if we believe that we should do these things to help all people.

These beliefs may seem obvious to us, but in the context of human history they are very special. They are not found in the ancient civilizations, and that is why science in the modern sense never developed among them. In some cases, particularly in ancient Greece, an impressive start was made by a few individuals of genius, but they lacked the support of a coherent set...