Brad Alles

Our exploration of the contributions that Christianity has made to culture continues with an examination of the field of science.  Contrary to popular opinion, Christians are not anti-science.  As a matter of fact, the scientific method developed nowhere else but Christian Europe.

The Christian worldview starts with the following assumptions: 1) God exists and is rational; 2) God created and is separate from His creation; and 3) humans, created in God’s image, can be rational and investigate the world.

If we examine the beliefs of Christianity in the light of other beliefs, we see why other worldviews did not develop the scientific method.

First, according to the Bible, God created the world.  In pantheism, the world is god.  Pantheists didn’t study the world, but rather worshiped everything as god.

Second, God created a good world originally, before sin and death entered due to man’s rebellion.  In gnosticism, the world is inherently evil and inferior to the spiritual realm.  Why study an inferior location that one seeks to escape?

Third, God created a real world that can be investigated.  In Hinduism, objects are illusions, so why bother studying them?

Fourth, God created an orderly world.  In polytheism, the nature gods are in conflict, and there is no order.  How can one study the chaos that the gods are wreaking?

Fifth, God created man in His image, and man can discover truth.  In Taoism, the Tao is undefined.  How can one study it?

The Christian worldview led to the development of the scientific method.  Christians believed that God created a world with fixed laws, and that faith in a rational God led them to the search for order in His world.