Is God a science stopper or science promoter? According to Regis Nicoll,
retired nuclear engineer and physicist, God has inspired the quest to understand
His ordered creation:
* Francis Bacon, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and
Isaac Newton were all men of faith whose faith gave them hope that scientific
knowledge was attainable. Because the universe was the product of an
Intelligence that made it intelligible to intelligent beings, they had
confidence that man could discover something of the true nature of nature by
careful observation and experimentation.
They believed that God had created rational universe and welcomed human
attempts to understand it. Nicoll continues:
* Kepler put it this way: "The chief aim of all investigations of the
external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has
been imposed on it by God and which he has revealed to us in the language of
mathematics."
While all scientists employ a similar methodology to unlock creation's
mysteries, there are deeper mysteries to ponder, namely, the origin of creation
and its knowable order:
* Similarly, Newton warned people inclined to infer a "Clockwork Universe"
from his laws of motion and gravity that "gravity explains the motions of the
planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all
things and knows all that is or can be done."
According to Newton, God establishes, underpins, and sustains His creation
with His elegant, immutable laws. If this is so, then every finding of science
belongs to Him, and He should be acknowledged for every piece of knowledge that
we gain.
Nicoll adds that God has enabled us to do science because of the
intelligible nature of His creation:
* Our ability to learn about the universe derives from the fact that it is
governed by laws and exhibits a rational order and functional design that
reflect purpose.
Is this the conclusion of blind faith? Certainly not, but a necessary
inference from our observations of a rational order.
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