Did All Important Science Come From Religion?

Christians sometimes point out that so many famous scientists were Christian, as if that implies that Christians are better at doing science than non-Christians.  Very few of the famous scientists were declared atheists.  There are a number of reasons for this, but it certainly does not mean that science is a Christian exclusive activity.

Introduction

Claims like these are made in online discussion groups:

. . . there has never been an atheist who founded a major branch of modern science EVER! . . . . this is despite the fact atheism has been around a lot longer than Christianity . . . .

. . . a majority of scientific discoveries were made by Christians

. . . the big bang theory was first proposed by a Catholic priest

. . . the discoverer of genetics (Mendel) was a Catholic monk.

This is used then to claim some kind of scientific superiority, like asking why atheists have not done so many major commitments to science.  It is also used to persuade that atheists are just just wrong about science in general, or at least the “atheist” sciences are wrong which are perceived to be against church doctrine.

It is basically true that most scientists were religious like their times.  William of Occam was a Catholic monk who said down the idea of trusting only evidence.  Descartes the father of the scientific method was a believer in God.  Issac Newton was Christian and spent half of his career on trying to find a proof of god.  Even Darwin went to theological seminary before going on his famous voyage.  These are true, but they don’t imply anything about science, but merely about the times they were living in.

Most People Belong to a Religion

In most periods of history, you belonged to the religion of the culture you were in.  In most times people never ever moved far from where they were born, and if everyone was Catholic you would be Catholic.  If everyone was Lutheran essentially all the local population would be Lutheran.  There is no real incentive to not be part of the religion since your local culture is seeped in it.

Rejecting the local religion would make you an outcast.  Some religions have heavy punishment for apostates, up to death.  If you are a simply non-believer there is absolutely no benefit in advertising this fact.  Most atheists were in the closet, and stayed that way, because publicly admitting disbelief had dire consequences.

Religion Was Often Legally Required

In many societies, if you wanted to be a professional of any sort, you were required to be part of the official religion.  Italy was Catholic, and you could not work without being Christian for most of its history.  In France the official religion was Catholic and non-Catholics were not allowed to do any significant job.  In England you were required to be part of the Anglican church, and you were not allowed to contradict their doctrine. (That is why Hume and Adam Smith moved to Scotland, but Newton and many others did not.)

The Holy Roman Empire ran most of Europe during the years of the early Enlightenment, and they would require church membership for any significant job.  Jews, for instance, were not allowed to own land, and could not work in many professions.

During the dark ages when most of the scientific discoveries were being made in the middle east, it was impossible to go to Tehran while admitting to be anything other than Muslim.  They literally would kill anyone who was not a Muslim — and most scientist enjoy being able to live.  It should not be surprising that ALL work at the time was done by Muslims.

These practices continued into the 20th century.  Einstein would not be allowed to be a professor in Prague (Holy Roman Empire) unless he professed to have some religion (he could have declared Islam or Hindu, but atheist was not allowed).   It should not be surprised that professors were part of a religion when the government required that they be so.

Atheism Was Usually Outlawed

In 16th century Italy, admitted atheists were burned at the stake.  Even today, there are 13 countries where simply admitting to be an atheist is a capital offense punishable by death.  Simply admitting to not believe in god, the police are required to arrest you and later you would be put to death. There is no country where admitting to be Christian is an automatic death sentence.

Atheists are killed every year by religious people who take things into their own hands.  In 2015 four separate individuals who professed atheism were killed by vigilantes in Bangladesh, and the police simply refused to investigate the killings.

If you are a scholar hoping to work on important scientific work, and to go on living, it was imperative that you don’t admit to being atheist.  So almost none every did.

Most Schools Were Religious

If you wanted be a scholar and get an advanced degree in any topic, you would almost always have to go to a religiously aligned school.  Priests had to be educated, but schools did more than just that: they were true places of learning.  The Catholics (particularly the Franciscans and the Jesuits) deserve a lot of credit in providing places of higher learning where many important discoveries were made.  Gregor Mendel was a Catholic monk when he discovered genetics, and it was his training as a scholar that allowed him to write about his observations.

Religion and Science Are Not Opposed

Both religion and science are efforts to understand the world.  Originally religion was the only source for answers of how we came to be here, starting the story of Genesis which was originally thought to be literal truth.  Only in the recent few hundred years we have figured that Genesis is a fable, the best we could do at the time, but we have much better understanding today.

The Pope has set forth the principle of “one world”.  If science discovers that the world is different from your theology, then you don’t understand your theology correctly.  There can be no contradiction between science (observations of the world) and theology (understanding of the world).  Today we often split the world into natural and supernatural.  Stephen Jay Gould famously claimed that science and religion each represent different areas of inquiry.

Some Credit Due to Religion

I do think that some religions do deserve some credit for allowing scientists to think freely and to make important discoveries.  Part of the reason Europe was successful in advancing technology beyond the rest of the world was in part due to the Christian desire to really know the truth.  Catholics did not need to oppose science for the most part — there was that incident with Galileo, and others, but most scientists could find a way to work.

It was not perfect, and that is why many people came to America to flee the oppressive religions, and the USA was the first country founded on Enlightenment principles.  It is faint praise to say that at some times certain religions allowed science to proceed, but it is a fact that science proceeded only at time that religion allowed it.

It Was the Times

Most scientific fields were founded under monarchies.  That does not mean that a monarchy is the right government to have to create good science.  It means only that most (if not all) governments at that time were monarchies.  Lots of good science was done under communism, but that does not mean that communism was the best form of government for doing science.

While it is true that most science during the enlightenment was done by Christians, that does not mean that Christianity was somehow better suited for doing science.  It means only during the enlightenment, people were overwhelmingly Christian.  In many cases, scholars were legally required to be part of the religion of that state.  The science happened in the people who happened to be there at the time.