In the 17th century the bible-based faith of the Reformation inspired a truly remarkable crop of scientific geniuses. They included Sir Francis Bacon who formulated many of the principles of the scientific method, Johannes Kepler who framed the laws of planetary motion, Galileo Galilei whose observations confirmed the heliocentric view of the solar system asserted by Copernicus and Kepler, William Harvey who described the circulation of blood, Edmund Halley the astronomer, Robert Hooke who discovered live cells in plants, Robert Boyle the father of modern Chemistry and most distinguished of all, Sir Isaac Newton
From the bible, they saw that God is reasonable and His creation is ordered and amenable to reason. Such was their confidence in the order of God’s creation, that Sir Francis Bacon produced the first rules of inductive logic ever formulated. Also, by reasoning from biblical presuppositions, such as man’s God-given dominion over creation, they found they could understand the laws of creation and begin to manage the earth. Bacon expressed it this way:
“Man by the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over nature. Both of these losses however can even in this life be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by the arts and sciences.”[1]
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[1] Francis A. Schaeffer, “Escape from Reason”, Chapter 3, page 226 of Vol 1, 2nd ed. of his complete works, ISBN 0-89107-332-9
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