I was reading the book 'He is There and He is not Silent' by the late Christian philosopher Dr. Francis Schaeffer last week when something he wrote stopped me in my mental tracks. Schaeffer argued that it is a great irony that modern science would not exist in the west had it not been for the influence of the Christian world view.The vast majority of modern scientists believe in an impersonal beginning in a closed system. Christian scientists believe in a personal beginning in an open system...in other words, the universe was created by a rational God who still intercedes in the world today.
Schaeffer holds that since the early scientists of the Scientific Revolution (i.e. Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton) were Christians they believed that the universe was created by a rational God and therefore could be understood by man in rational terms. These are the men who created the scientific method and processes which created modern science.
Only the monotheistic cultures of Christianity and Islam created a philosophical framework for scientfic study. The pluralistic cultures of India and East Asia never created such a framework.
If the early western scientists had begun with the pre-supposition of creation's irrationality and impersonality that modern science holds today...then modern science would not have developed to the extent it has today. This is a supreme irony. Christianity is the mother that gave birth to modern science.
