As one journeys on their deeper walk with the Lord it is always easier to travel when we know that we don’t walk it alone. There is a tremendous dynamic that exists in the area of togetherness that we will discuss much more fully in a future devotion. When we know that others are around our ability to get motivated increases dramatically. In the same way if we feel we stand alone in our beliefs, discouragement and doubt can often have a much easier time invading our consciousness.
In our ultra-high-tech space-age society a good percentage of the great men of scientific knowledge – our scientists – tell us you can’t embrace modern science and still believe the Bible. This presents us with an uncomfortable challenge to our precious faith in the Lord – or does it really?
Satan wants us to believe what the majority of today’s scientists are telling us – so let’s examine some very interesting past evidence.
When Charles Darwin’s book the Origin of Species came out in 1859, a revolution in scientific thinking began; which heralded the age of evolution. Darwin’s influence on our present day thinking is truly monumental. His theory, many scientists contend, makes it not only unnecessary to believe in the Bible but downright foolish.
Many of you may never have heard of Robert Boyle. But if I were to tell you that he is generally considered to be the father of modern chemistry, you may just be able to grasp his importance. Boyle (1627-1691), in addition to being a great scientist, was a strong believer in the Bible. His belief in the Word of God was so strong that he used a lot of his own personal wealth for Bible translation work. He apparently saw no conflict between being a man of science and a believer in the Holy Scriptures.
As one studies the private lives of many of the greatest scientists our world has ever produced, during the last 500 years, he will be amazed at how many of them not only read the Bible but interpreted it literally; and used it as a guidebook for their lives.
The list of Bible believing scientists reads like a “Who’s Who,” in the world of science. Names like Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Samuel Morse, and Benjamin Franklin are known to both scientists and laymen. Many other names are also universally known by scientist and science student. Kepler, Pascal, Faraday, Maxwell, Dalton, Joule, Kelvin, Fleming, Babbage, and Carver were all men, who in addition to being scientific geniuses, were men who made the Bible the most important book in their own personal lives.
A sampling of the scientific disciplines these men and others are generally considered to be the founder or father of can be seen from the following table:1
SCIENTIST DISCIPLINE
Johann Kepler Physical Astronomy
Robert Boyle Modern Chemistry
Isaac Newton Calculus
John Dalton Atomic Theory
Charles Babbage Computer Science
Matthew Maury Oceanography
James Joule Thermodynamics
John A. Fleming Electronics
In addition, these and other Bible believing scientists formulated a host of universal natural laws which form the basic building blocks, on which all of our science rests. The listing below highlights these laws and their discoverers:
DISCOVERER LAW
Johann Kepler 3 laws of planetary motion
Robert Boyle Basic laws relating gas pressures to temperature and volume
Isaac Newton Law of universal gravitation
John Dalton Gas law of partial pressures
Lord Kelvin 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics
In tomorrow’s Part II of this devotion we will share more examples of just how influential the Bible was in these great scientist’s lives.
1 Henry M. Morris, Men of Science: Men of God (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, 1988), pp. 99-101 (Chart partially adopted and modified).