Board index ‹ Science and the Bible

[Dracula]

Is Belphegor evidence that the church has traditionally been anti-science ?

Is the character of belphegor who is a demon associated with scientific inventions, evidence that the church has always traditionally been anti-science ?

[jimwalton]

No. Belphegor is just some traditional weirdness. Some of the most brilliant scientists of history—Copernicus, Kepler, Pascal, Newton, and Bacon, to name a few—were all Christians. Even today, Francis Collins (head of the NIH, leader of the human genome project), and Jennifer Wiseman (the astrophysicist in charge of the Hubble telescope) are devoted Christians. Aside from a few glitches throughout history, the Church has not traditionally been anti-science, and I don't observe that most Christians are anti-science today (just some YEC segments). The website http://www.biologos.org is a gathering of Christian scientists who believe in evolution.

Science was born because of Christianity in Europe. It was Christianity that provided the recipe and the oven for science to come about: matter is real, the universe is orderly and purposeful, the universe has consistency, regularity, and predictability—these are all ideas born out of Christian theology (for instance, as opposed to Hindu theology that says matter is an illusion).