Brad Alles

Continuing our focus on how Christianity changed the world with the Gospel and with culture, we examine the famous scientists who were Christian.  Rather than having an antagonistic attitude toward scientific discovery because of their faith, these Christians sought to understand the orderly creation that God had made.  Let’s examine astronomy and physics as two examples.

In astronomy, Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) developed the heliocentric theory, that the sun was at the center of the solar system.  His view was supported by Lutherans and Calvinists, which replaced the Catholic Church’s stance on a geocentric universe that was the belief held since the time of Aristotle and Ptolemy.  Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) introduced the laws of planetary motion, and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the first to use the telescope.

In physics, Isaac Newton (1642-1727) explained th elaws of motion and gravity.  Blaise Pascal (1623-1162) studied pressure and made the first adding machine.  Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) discovered current electricity, Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854) measured electrical resistance, and Andre Ampere (1775-1836) measured the  strength of an electrical current.  Today their legacy lives on in the terms volt, ohm, and ampere.  Michael Faraday (1791-1867) invented the generator, and William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907) worked with temperatures and the concept of absolute zero.

While this list is not exhaustive, it illustrates that the Christian Church and science are not at odds with each other.  An orderly world, created by the God of order, could be observed, measured, and known.