"The Faith of Scientists: In Their Own Words"

Excerpts from Karl Giberson's review in CT of Nancy Frankenberry's The Faith of Scientists: In Their Own Words-- "a collection of the writings of leading scientists from Galileo to Richard Dawkins"...

Giberson opens with a quote from Francis Bacon:

"God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it."

before moving on to an interesting question:

I have often wondered what Christianity would look like if Jesus had appeared after the Scientific Revolution. Would our awareness of the vast cosmos and the likelihood of other life forms have altered the emphasis on the universal character of the Incarnation? How would our understanding of nature's order and rationality have informed the doctrine of Creation and God's revelation in nature?...

Then, to an overview of her book...

Frankenberry starts with Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, and Isaac Newton, who all lived in the deeply religious 17th century. Their uncritical, even naïve, acceptance of the truth of difficult biblical passages—such as Joshua's long day, or the psalmist's assertion that the earth is fixed—is striking. But these architects of modern science all labored mightily to prevent their new science from contradicting the Bible.

An undercurrent of natural theology permeates their writings, born of their excitement in uncovering the deep and rational structures built into Creation. But they were frustrated that so many of their peers rejected the new science....

Faith for these founders of modern science was a given. But the Subject of their faith was neither generic nor confined. Christianity was not a limited, parochial worldview, or the Old Testament a collection of Bronze Age myths. Convinced that both nature and the Bible were revelations from God, they found ways to harmonize science and their faith. But they did more than harmonize. The eloquent and even devotional prose of Kepler, Pascal, Newton, and others shows that their science was inspired and even informed by their faith. This contrasts greatly with leading contemporary scientists who, if they care at all about religion, see it as something that interferes with science....

Of the 15 scientists after Darwin in Frankenberry's volume, only one, John Polkinghorne, holds conventional Christian beliefs. Yet he was selected mainly as a counterpoint to Weinberg, with whom he had a famous debate, excerpted in this volume....

Ursula Goodenough, who closes this volume, speaks of the "sacred depths of nature." Goodenough's worldview is shaped by the values of the scientific community. Yet she very much enjoys worship and even sings in a church choir. She is inspired by cathedrals. But she cannot believe in the supernatural: "Such faith," she laments, "is simply not available to me."

I wonder what God thinks of Ursula Goodenough. Can God be worshiped by those who celebrate the Creation without acknowledging the Creator? In conversation, someone once praised one of my books but could not remember the author's name. The praise was strangely more genuine for its inarticulate anonymity. I suspect, as C. S. Lewis once speculated, that God may have more connection with honest atheists than many think.

The Faith of Scientists is a feast of provocative, sobering reflections. Why so many leading scientists find conventional belief in God so difficult is a mystery to me. And yet I am equally baffled that so many faithful Christians find it hard to appreciate the "sacred depths of nature."