Daniel 1 – Men of Science

The book of Daniel records what happened to some from among the children of Israel who had been taken captive from Jerusalem to Babylon (a thousand mile trek) by King Nebuchadnezzar. During the twenty-five years of that extended conflict, the Babylonians transported four groups of captives from Israel to Persia, and the young man Daniel, in his early teens, along with other young men had been taken in the first group very early in the conflict.

Chapter 1 describes Daniel and his peers as being “children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science” (vv. 3-4). Throughout the remainder of the book Daniel manifested those particular skills, including his cunning in knowledge and understanding of science. Significantly, Daniel represents something that history repeatedly affirms: the greatest leaders in science have overwhelmingly been God-fearing Biblically-oriented people.

The Founders saw this fact repeatedly demonstrated across the pages of history, and so signer of the Declaration John Witherspoon (a noted scholar and the president of Princeton) therefore affirmed:

It is certain, I think, that human science and religion have kept company together and greatly assisted each other’s progress in the world. ^[1]

Consider some historical examples. For example, Thomas Jefferson, himself a noted scientist, declared that “Bacon, Newton and Locke . . . [are] my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced.” [2] Consider the remarkable accomplishments of these three famous scientists, and especially their strong Christian faith.

Francis Bacon, called the “Father of Modern Science,” is known for developing the process of inductive thinking and creating the scientific method. Historians have declared that “The intellect of Bacon was one of the most powerful and searching ever possessed by man.” [3] In his most famous work, De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium (1603), he declared that his three-fold goal was to discover truth, serve his country, and serve the church.

The second of Jefferson’s triumvirate was Isaac Newton, credited with birthing modern calculus and discovering the laws of universal gravitation. He also did extensive work in physics, astronomy, and optics, and was the first scientist to be knighted for his work. But strikingly:

He [Newton] spent more time on theology than on science; indeed, he wrote about 1.3 million words on Biblical subjects. . . . Newton’s understanding of God came primarily from the Bible, which he studied for days and weeks at a time. . . . Newton did not consider [theology] to be sacred and [science] secular. . . . Newton’s theology profoundly influenced his scientific method. [4] The third in Jefferson’s triad was English philosopher and political theorist John Locke, a primary figure in developing empiricism, a key to scientific discovery. But Locke also wrote a verse-by-verse commentary on Paul’s Epistles and compiled a topical Bible (called a Common Place-Book to the Holy Bible) that listed verses in the Bible subject-by-subject for easy study reference. When anti-religionists attacked Christianity, Locke defended it in his book, The Reasonableness of Christianity as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695). Still being attacked, Locke responded with A Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), and then with A Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity (1697). Furthermore, in his Two Treatises of Government (1689) – the work specifically relied upon by Jefferson and the other Founders when drafting the Declaration – Locke invoked the Bible in 1,349 references in the first treatise, and 157 times in the second.

Seeing this oft-repeated pattern of Christian thinkers making great scientific advances is perhaps why Jefferson succinctly declared: [T]he Christian religion . . . is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind. [5] Other noted scientists who were also openly professing Christians included Copernicus (the heliocentric solar system), Galileo (the science of dynamics and a sun-centered solar system), Johannes Kepler (light, force, and planetary motion), William Harvey (discovered the circulation of blood), Blaine Pascal (projective geometry and conic sections), Robert Boyle (the scientific law of gasses), Antony van Leeuwenhoek (“The Father of Microbiology”), Carl Linnaeus (“The Father of Taxonomy”), William Herschel (“The Father of Stellar Astronomy”), Michael Faraday (electricity and magnetism), Samuel F. B. Morse (telegraphic communications), Charles Babbage (artificial intelligence and a programmable computer), and Joseph Henry (electromagnetism). By the way, each of these remarkable scientists had been born in the 1700s or earlier – imagine how far ahead of their time each of their discoveries had been! And consider how many additional scientific discoveries were made after the 1700s, the overwhelming majority of which also came from scientists who were dedicated Christians.

But this trend would not have surprised Founding Father Thomas Paine, who affirmed: [A]ll the principles of science are of Divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles; he can only discover them. And he ought to look through the discovery to the Author. [6] Reflective of this same truth, Founding Father Benjamin Rush observed: [I]t is a fact worthy of notice that the most enlightened parts of the world in [the realms of] general and useful science are those in which the doctrines of the Christian religion are taught and believed. [7] And Rabbi Daniel Lapin (considered one of America’s most influential rabbis today), conducted extensive modern research into this topic, concluding:

Well over 90 percent of all the scientific discoveries of the past thousand years have been made in nations where Christianity is the prevailing religion. Virtually every major discovery in physics, medicine, chemistry, mathematics, electricity, nuclear physics, mechanics and just about everything else has taken place in Christian countries. [8] Consider what the world with be like without the discoveries and contributions of Bible-minded scientists. Yet today there are concentrated efforts to separate science from the Bible, with loud assertions that science is a secular subject; but efforts to secularize science and make it anti-God are nothing new. As Founding Father Benjamin Rush long ago observed:

It is peculiar to man to divide what was intended by the Author of Nature to be indivisible: religion and morals, government and liberty, nay, even reason and the senses, so happily paired by the Creator of the world. . . . They are necessarily united and it is only by preserving and cultivating their union that our science can be made to convey extensive and lasting blessings to mankind. [9] Dr. Rush is right – and as the list above affirms, when science is combined with the Bible, the result has been “to convey extensive and lasting blessings to mankind.” In 1 Timothy 6:20, the Apostle Paul warns Timothy to “avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called.” Significantly, that part of “science” which attacks and berates God and the Bible is actually “false” science – it is trying to separate that which is “so happily paired by the Creator of the world.”

Christians need to reject efforts to secularize science. God is the Father of all science. His children are the ones who can best learn from Him and make discoveries that benefit the world (as one example, see the commentary accompanying Psalms 8:8). Christians should once again become like Daniel: “skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science.”