On the TV, radio, magazines and papers we are regularly reminded – sometimes in very subtle ways – that science disproves Christianity and that scientists are atheists.
But this is not true, there are many scientists that believe in God now and throughout history and many intellectuals who believe in god.
Not only that, there are many scientists who are Christians and believe in God’s creation record in Genesis to be factually true.
But does science believe in God or does it have to be neutral or is science anti-God?
At the moment there seems to be a science vs faith attitude in the news, on the Internet and on TV.
But this ought not to be so, science is exploring what God has created in the first place.
Major update: 11th May 2023
Table of Contents:
We tend to forget that scientists do get things wrong, even in the 21st Century.
Here’s an article looking at the Big Bang theory and other theories – none of which are complete and all are challenged by the scientific community itself.
Do scientists take for granted the scientific and physical laws of the universe?
Quite a number of scientists don’t give Genesis a serious look because they are prejudiced against having faith in a designer God.
It is strange that even when a highly respected, influential scientist mentions the possibility of God creating things, then the reaction can be extreme.
Take for example, when John C. Eccles, Nobel laureate, was concluding his lecture on brain organization at Harvard University.
Eccles admitted, “that although evolution could account for the brain, it could not, in his view, account for the mind, with its mysterious capacity for consciousness and thought: only something transcendent could account for that.”
Immediately the students hissed at him!
You would think that the views of a famous neurobiologist would be welcomed.
The hissing was not natural, it was not coming from minds that wanted to learn everything, they obviously had a narrow view which needed to fall into their scheme of things. 1
There are too many great scientists now and in history who believe in God, who were Christians to record on this page.
Here are some of them.
Many more scientists are about to be added to this list:
1. Modern scientists who believe in God 21st Century
Francis Sellers Collins ForMemRS (1950- )
He is an American physician-geneticist who discovered the genes associated with a number of diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, neurofibromatosis, multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1, and Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome.
His approach to searching for genes, which he called “positional cloning” became a powerful part of modern molecular genetics. He became a director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
He was converted sion believes that people cannot be converted to Christianity by reason and argument alone and that the final stage of conversion entails a “leap of faith”
Dr James Allan, M.Sc.Agric. M.S. B.S. Ph.D
He was a senior lecturer in the Department of Genetics, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He has researched the genetics of fruit flies, snails, chickens, dairy cattle, and fish, and taught students quantitative and population genetics in relation to the breeding of animals.
He had been a churchgoer for many years, but on changing their home church he was converted. Then one day his wife said, ‘Is there any reason why God should not have created all forms of life on the basis of a universal genetic code?’
My immediate reaction was one of annoyance. What is she on about?—absolute nonsense!
‘Jumping ship Dr Jim Allan, a geneticist, tells of his double conversion’ by Dr Don Batten and Carl Wieland. 3
What does she know about such things?
And then I got up in a state of irritation and I stalked out of the house.
As I walked, I found myself thinking, and I really believe at that stage God spoke to me. He humbled me.
I suddenly found myself thinking, you know, maybe she does have a point.
Maybe God did create all forms of life on the basis of a universal genetic code.
I mean, why should we expect God to do otherwise?”
Dr Allan now believes in a six-day creation and he admitted that when he was a Christian believing in evolution he had not thought about the death and bloodshed of the fossils formed millions of years before man sinned.
He now believes that God’s creation was perfect and there was no death in the world until Adam and Eve sinned.
John Carson Lennox M.A. MMath and PhD (1943- )
He is a Northern Irish mathematician and bioethicist.
He is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford University.
He is also an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School and a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum.
Lennox has been involved in many public debates defending the Christian faith, countering Christopher Hitchens, Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Peter Atkins, Victor Stenger, Michael Tooley, Stephen Law, and Peter Singer. 4
Either human intelligence ultimately owes its origin to mindless matter; or there is a Creator. It is strange that some people claim that it is their intelligence that leads them to prefer the first to the second.”
John Lennox 5
The video below shows the debate between John Lennox and Richard Dawkins based on ‘The God Delusion’ book by Dawkins.
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Dr Jack W. Cuozzo D.D.S. (1937–2017)
An orthodontist who studied biology at Georgetown University, and has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (D.D.S.) and Loyola University / Chicago Graduate School of Dentistry (M.S., Oral Biology; Certificate of Specialty in Orthodontics).
In 1979 he studied Neanderthal fossils with Dr Wilton Krogman, a noted anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
His palaeontology studies were conducted at the laboratories in the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, the British Museum in England under Christopher Stringer, the University of Liege in Belgium, the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, the Museum of Prehistory in East Berlin, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Field Museum in Chicago, the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, and the palaeontology collection of Southern Methodist University.
He studied the Paleolithic caves in Southern France. which included taking the first cephalometric (orthodontic) radiographs of the Neanderthal fossils (1979–1991).
He served as an adjunct Professor of Biology at the former King’s College (Briarcliff Manor, NY) lecturing on the development of ancient man, the fossil record, cave research, and the philosophical basis of evolution. 6
Charles Hard Townes B.S. & B.A. M.A. PhD (1915–2015)
He was an American physicist, he invented and worked on the theory and application of the maser [an acronym for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation] and laser devices.
He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics and became an adviser to the United States Government, and he directed the US government’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the Apollo lunar landing program, etc.
Townes, a committed Christian, believed that science and religion are quite parallel and similar and must converge in the future.
He wrote: “Science tries to understand what our universe is like and how it works, including us humans. Religion is aimed at understanding the purpose and meaning of our universe, including our own lives. If the universe has a purpose or meaning, this must be reflected in its structure and functioning, and hence in science.” 7
Thomas G. Barnes M.S. (1911–2001)
He was an American Physicist and was the head of the Schellenger Research Laboratories at Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso), experimenting with electricity and magnetism, from 1938 until he retired in 1981. 8
His scientific work covered many fields, ranging from medicine to geophysics.
His research led to patents on electronic sound-ranging devices, such as the Dodar (the forerunner of sonar), directional microphones, and magnetic sensing, electrochemical extraction and seismic energy devices.
He also worked on the vector cardiograph, which was the first three-dimensional computer display to study the heart.
He was a Christian creationist, who believed in a young earth and that the Earth’s magnetic field was consistently decaying at an exponential rate, which could show that the Earth could not be more than about 10,000 years old.
He also put proposed that the half-life of the earth’s magnetic field was roughly 1400 years. 9
2. Modern scientists who believe in God late 20th Century
John Eccles AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAA 1903 – 1997
He was an Australian neurophysiologist and philosopher who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse.
He demonstrated that one nerve cell communicates with a neighbouring cell by releasing chemicals into the synapse (the narrow cleft, or gap, between the two cells). 10
He did not believe in evolution and wrote:
… no other explanation is tenable; neither the genetic uniqueness with its fantastically impossible lottery, nor the environmental differentiations which do not determine one’s uniqueness, but merely modify it.
Eccles, J., ‘Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Self’ 11
This conclusion is of inestimable theological significance.
It strongly reinforces our belief in the miraculous origin… a Divine creation.
There is recognition not only of the Transcendent God, the Creator of the Cosmos … also of the loving God to whom we owe our being.”
Dr Larry Butler (1933–1996)
He was a Biochemist, a Professor of Biochemistry at Purdue University, and a visiting Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oregon and in 1991 he received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Sorghum Utilisation of the National Grain Sorghum Producers Association.
He was Chairman of the Natural Science department of the Los Angeles Baptist College and a Staley Distinguished Scientist Lecturer at Grand Rapids Baptist College.
Ernest Walton PhD (1903–1995)
He with John Cockcroft constructed one of the earliest types of particle accelerator, at Cambridge University in the early 1930s, and became the first to use a particle beam to transform one element into another.
He was strongly committed to the Christian faith and he believed that science was a way to know more about God. He said:
One way to learn the mind of the Creator is to study His creation.
V. J. McBrierty (2003) ‘Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton’, p58. The Irish Scientist, 1903-1995, 12
We must pay God the compliment of studying His work of art and this should apply to all realms of human thought.
A refusal to use our intelligence honestly is an act of contempt for Him who gave us that intelligence”
Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977)
He was a German and American aerospace engineer, and designer of the German V-2 rocket, the intermediate-range ballistic missile program, the rockets that powered the United States’ first space satellite Explorer 1 in 1958 and the Saturn V rocket that carried the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. 13
He converted to Christianity in 1946 and he recorded:
One day in Fort Bliss, a neighbor called and asked if I would like to go to church with him.
Neufeld, Michael J. (2007) ‘Wernher von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War’. 14
I accepted because I wanted to see if the American church was just a country club as I’d been led to expect.
Instead, I found a small, white frame building… in the hot Texas sun on a browned-grass lot…
Together, these people make a live, vibrant community.
This was the first time I really understood that religion was not a cathedral inherited from the past, or a quick prayer at the last minute.
To be effective, a religion has to be backed up by discipline and effort.”
On the subject of space flight, he once wrote;
An outlook through this peephole at the vast mysteries of the universe should only confirm our belief in the certainty of its Creator”
‘Men of Science, Men of God: Great Scientists Who Believed the Bible’ by Henry Morris. p55.
Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976)
A German theoretical physicist and the main pioneer of the theory of quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle.
He with Born and Jordan researched matrix formulation of quantum mechanics. He was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics ‘for the creation of quantum mechanics.’
He contributed to the hydrodynamics of turbulent flows, the atomic nucleus, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and subatomic particles, and was involved in the German nuclear weapons program of WW2 and the first West German nuclear reactor. 15
Heisenberg said
the first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, But at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”
‘Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased: Psychological, Scientific, and Theological Perspectives.’ 16
He was a devout Christian and he wrote:
In the history of science, ever since the famous trial of Galileo, it has repeatedly been claimed that scientific truth cannot be reconciled with the religious interpretation of the world.
Werner Heisenberg 1970 17
Although I am now convinced that scientific truth is unassailable in its own field, I have never found it possible to dismiss the content of religious thinking as simply part of an outmoded phase in the consciousness of mankind, a part we shall have to give up from now on.
Thus in the course of my life I have repeatedly been compelled to ponder on the relationship of these two regions of thought, for I have never been able to doubt the reality of that to which they point.”
Arthur Compton PhD (1892-1962)
An American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for his ‘Compton effect’ which demonstrated the particle nature of light (the wave nature of light had already been proven), he was one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project, an author, etc.
He was a Christian and his father was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Compton lectured on a “Man’s Place in God’s World” at Yale University, Western Theological Seminary and the University of Michigan in 1934-35.
He set Jesus as the centre of his faith in God’s eternal plan. 18
Lewis Merson Davies FRSE RGS (c.1883–1955)
He was a geologist, palaeontologist and author. he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He specialised in the fauna of the area then known as the North-West Frontier of India, now Pakistan.
In 1932 he co-founded the Evolution Protest Movement.
He believed in the ‘Gap theory’ which is an unknown amount of time between verses one and two in Genesis chapter one and this is followed by six days of Creation.
3. Scientists that believe in God early 20th Century
John Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945)
An English electrical engineer and physicist who designed the world’s first large radio transmitter in 1901 with which the first transatlantic radio transmission was made, then the first thermionic vacuum tube or vacuum tube and the two-electrode diode.
He contributed to photometry, electronics, radar and electrical measurements.
A devout Christian, he once preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London on evidence for the resurrection, he was a Christian creationist who argued against evolution. 19
Charles Glover Barkla (1877–1944)
He was a British physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917. He developed and refined the laws of X-ray scattering, X-ray spectroscopy, etc.
He was a committed Christian belonging to the Methodist Church and he considered his scientific work to be “part of the quest for God, the Creator.” 20
George Washington Carver (c. 1864–1943)
He was an American agricultural scientist and inventor. He developed techniques to improve types of soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton and promoted alternative crops.
He was a believer in Jesus and when he was forty-two years old he held weekly Bible studies. 21
Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856–1940)
He was a British physicist credited with the discovery of the electron and finding the first evidence for isotopes of a stable, non-radioactive, element, etc.
He was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases.
Thomson was a devout Anglican.
William Thompson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
He was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer, and Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and developed the scale of absolute temperatures and the first and second laws of thermodynamics.
He was a devout believer in Christianity, daily attending a chapel.
He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work.
Kelvin believed that science affirmed the reality of Creation which stretched out over millions of years, yet he disagreed with Darwinism which was many millions of years. 22
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839 – 1903)
He was an American scientist who contributed to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. He created statistical mechanics, invented modern vector calculus, etc.
He was a member of Yale’s College Church, a Congregational church for all of his life. A former student of Gibbs wrote about Gibbs’s personal character:
Unassuming in manner, genial and kindly in his intercourse with his fellow-men, never showing impatience or irritation, devoid of personal ambition of the baser sort or of the slightest desire to exalt himself, he went far toward realizing the ideal of the unselfish, Christian gentleman. In the minds of those who knew him, the greatness of his intellectual achievements will never overshadow the beauty and dignity of his life.
H. A. Bumstead, 1903 23
4. Famous scientists that believe in God 19th Century
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
He was a French chemist and microbiologist who experimented with vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which was named after him. He did a lot of work on the causes and prevention of diseases and laid the foundation for hygiene, public health and modern medicine. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern bacteriology and is now known as the “father of bacteriology” and the “father of microbiology”.
He stood up for a belief in biblical Creation. 24
Absolute faith in God and in Eternity, and a conviction that the power for good given to us in this world will be continued beyond it, were feelings which pervaded his whole life; the virtues of the gospel had ever been present to him.”
‘The Life Of Pasteur’ by Vallery-Radot, Rene. 25
Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of modern materialistic philosophers.
The Literary Digest of 18 October 1902.
The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.
I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory.”
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879)
He was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, where magnetism and light are different manifestations of the same phenomenon and that electric and magnetic fields move through space as waves at the speed of light.
Maxwell is seen as the founder of electrical engineering.
He developed the kinetic theory of gases, made the first durable colour photograph, etc.
Maxwell was an evangelical Presbyterian being converted at the age of twenty-two. A minister who regularly visited him when he was dying from abdominal cancer commented:
… his illness drew out the whole heart and soul and spirit of the man:
‘James Clerk Maxwell’ Wikipedia. ‘26
his firm and undoubting faith in the Incarnation and all its results;
in the full sufficiency of the Atonement;
in the work of the Holy Spirit.
He had gauged and fathomed all the schemes and systems of philosophy, and had found them utterly empty and unsatisfying—’unworkable’ was his own word about them—and he turned with simple faith to the Gospel of the Saviour.”
Samuel Morse (1791-1872)
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American inventor and painter.
He contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system – which was simpler to implement -based on European telegraphs and co-developed the Morse code and promoted the commercial use of telegraphy.
He also worked on a 3D marble-cutting machine. 27
He was rather a bullish man who held the view that people taken as slaves from barbarous situations and given good provisions and conditions, protection and guidance, would create cheerful obedience, affection and confidence for the slaves. 28
Morse wrote shortly before he died:
The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God’s remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illumined with hope and joy.”
‘Men of Science, Men of God: Great Scientists Who Believed the Bible’ by Henry Morris. 29
Charles Babbage (1791–1871)
A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer.
He invented the concept of the digital programmable computer and some say that he was the ‘father of the computer’.
He invented the first mechanical computer from which came more complex electronic designs.
He believed that God can impress upon someone’s mind by direct revelation. He wrote:
In the works of the Creator ever open to our examination, we possess a firm basis on which to raise the superstructure of an enlightened creed.
‘Passages from the Life of a Philosopher’ Chapter XXX by Charles Babbage. 30
The more man inquires into the laws which regulate the material universe, the more he is convinced that all its varied forms arise from the action of a few simple principles.
These principles themselves converge, with accelerating force, towards some still more comprehensive law to which all matter seems to be submitted. Simple as that law may possibly be, it must be remembered that it is only one amongst an infinite number of simple laws: that each of these laws has consequences at least as extensive as the existing one, and therefore that the Creator who selected the present law must have foreseen the consequences of all other laws.
The works of the Creator, ever present to our senses, give a living and perpetual testimony of his power and goodness far surpassing any evidence transmitted through human testimony.
The testimony of man becomes fainter at every stage of transmission, whilst each new inquiry into the works of the Almighty gives to us more exalted views of his wisdom, his goodness, and his power.”
Babbage wrote a defence of the belief in divine miracles. 31
Michael Faraday (1791–1867)
He was an English physicist who experimented with electromagnetism and electrochemistry and discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis.
He worked on electromagnetic rotary devices which made electrical motors easily available.
Faraday was a member of the Sandemanians church who were against any government involvement, and they sought to live as disciples of Jesus Christ as in the early church. 32
He declined a knighthood for services to science because he believed that it was against the Bible to accumulate riches and pursue worldly rewards and just wanted to be known as plain Mr Faraday.
Also, he declined the offer of a burial plot in Westminster Abbey.
He also turned down a job working on chemical weapons for use in the Crimean War due to ethical reasons 33
Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866)
He was a German mathematician who explored complex analysis, the Riemann hypothesis, number theory, the Riemann integral, the Fourier series and differential geometry.
He laid the foundations of the mathematics of general relativity and is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians.
He was a dedicated Christian, the son of a Protestant minister.
His life showed commitment to his Christian faith and he believed that this was the most important aspect of his life. 34
William Whewell (1794–1866)
He was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, historian of science and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
He researched in the areas of mechanics, physics, geology, astronomy, and economics. He also composed poetry, translated the works of Goethe, and wrote sermons and theological tracts.
He created many of the words now used in science, such as scientist, physicist, linguistics, consilience, catastrophism, uniformitarianism, astigmatism, electrode, ion, dielectric, anode, and cathode.
Though Darwin used the concepts of Whewell to form his theory of evolution, Whewell did not agree with Darwin’s theory. 35
Whewell also famously opposed the idea of evolution. First he published a new book, Indications of the Creator, 1845, composed of extracts from his earlier works to counteract the popular anonymous evolutionary work Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Later Whewell opposed Darwin’s theories of evolution.”
van Wyhe, John. ‘William Whewell (1794-1866) Gentleman of Science’. 36
Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864)
He was an early American chemist and science educator, a science tutor at Yale, becoming a professor of chemistry and natural history. He allowed young women into his lectures, but Yale didn’t officially open its doors to female students until over 100 years later.
He did a chemical analysis of a meteorite that fell in 1807 near Weston in Connecticut and was the first American to use the process of fractional distillation.
He founded the American Journal of Science.
He was an outspoken Christian and was an old-earth creationist and openly rejected materialism.
He saw slavery as an ‘enormous evil’. 37
Lars Levi Laestadius (1800–1861)
He was a noted botanist and an author. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences used him in Swedish botany scientific work. He was an internationally recognized botanist and a member of the Edinburgh Botanical Society and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala.
He was a Swedish Sami (Lapland) pastor and administrator of the Swedish state Lutheran church in Lapland and he founded the Laestadian pietist revival movement to help Sami communities being ravaged by alcoholism.
When Laestadius met Milla Clementsdotter, also known as Lapp Mary, he had a spiritual experience of living faith and he saw the path that leads to eternal life. His life and sermons took on a greater reality and many turned to God. 38
Marshall Hall (1790–1857)
He was an English physician, physiologist and early neurologist. He is known for his work on the spinal cord and independent reflex arcs, a method of resuscitation of drowned people, and showed that the capillaries are intermediate channels between the arteries and the veins.
In 1836 he wrote his ‘Observations on Blood-letting Founded on Researches on the Morbid and Curative Effects of Loss of Blood’ which spoke out against the widespread practice of bloodletting.
Hall was a devout Christian and he wrote:
To meditate on Him who is my Saviour – to be, to live in Him – is to me the supreme good. In such a place would I accomplish my projected work, and await His coming!”
Hall, Charlotte; Hall, Marshall (1861). ‘Memoirs of Marshall Hall, by his widow’. 39
In his paper ‘On the Diseases and Derangements of the Nervous System’ (1841), he spoke about the design of the body: “In all this, I admire the hand of Him who fashioneth all things after His own will; in all this, I see design, power, creation! As one mighty principle pervades, and rules throughout the wide universe”
He believed that slavery was a sin against God and denied the Christian faith. 40
John Abercrombie (1780–1844)
He was a Scottish physician, author, philosopher and philanthropist, President of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. he was also elected Rector of Marischal College and University at Aberdeen and appointed Physician to the King in Scotland.
He was an elder of the Church of Scotland, and he wrote ‘The Man of Faith: or the Harmony of Christian Faith and Christian Character’, he provided free medical care for the poor in the locality of Edinburgh and he sent considerable medical aid to foreign countries, which became the ‘Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society’. 41
Alessandro Volta (1745 – 1827)
He was an Italian physicist and chemist who did experiments with electricity and power and invented the electric battery and discovered methane.
He proved through his invention of the voltaic pile that electricity could be generated chemically.
The electrical unit is measured in volts in honour of him.
Volta remained true to his Catholic upbringing. 42 He wrote:
but through the special mercy of God, I have never, as far as I know, wavered in my faith… In this faith I recognise a pure gift of God, a supernatural grace; but I have not neglected those human means which confirm belief, and overthrow the doubts which at times arise.
‘Epistolario’ Volume 5. Alessandro Volta. 1955. Zanichelli. p. 29
I studied attentively the grounds and basis of religion, the works of apologists and assailants, the reasons for and against, and I can say that the result of such study is to clothe religion with such a degree of probability, even for the merely natural reason, that every spirit unperverted by sin and passion, every naturally noble spirit must love and accept it.”
Isaac Milner (1750–1820)
He was a mathematician, chemist, and inventor, known for the chemical production of nitrous acid.
He was the President of Queens’ College, Cambridge and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics also at Cambridge, where in 1777 he became a priest and college tutor and was largely responsible for an evangelical revival at Cambridge.
He was instrumental in William Wilberforce’s conversion in 1785 and greatly supported the abolitionists’ campaign against the slave trade. 43
5. Scientists who believe in God 18th Century
Leonhard Euler (1707–1783)
He was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics such as analytic number theory, complex analysis, and infinitesimal calculus.
‘Leonhard Euler’ Wikipedia. 44
He introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and notation, including the notion of a mathematical function.
He is also known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy and music theory.
Euler is held to be one of the greatest mathematicians in history and the greatest of the 18th century.”
Euler believed that knowledge is founded in part upon the universe being governed by precise quantitative laws.
He was a devout Christian who believed the Bible to be inspired.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
An English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, author and a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment.
He formulated the Law of Gravity, the three laws of universal motion, etc.
He wrote against atheism and promoted the Christian faith.
He believed in the recent creation of the universe, the Bibles dates, and the biblical flood. 45
Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723)
He was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist known as “the Father of Microbiology”. With his hand-made microscope, he saw ‘dierkens’ which means “small animals”, which were microbes. He also documented microscopic observations of muscle fibres, bacteria, spermatozoa, red blood cells, crystals in gouty tophi, and blood flow in capillaries.
“Dutch Reformed” Calvinist.[49] He often referred with reverence to the wonders God designed in making creatures great and small and believed that his discoveries were merely further proof of the wonder of creation. 46
John Ray or John Wray (1627–1705)
He was an English naturalist publishing important works on botany, zoology, and natural theology. His great ‘Historia generalis plantarum’ was in 3 volumes and his classification of plants was an important step towards modern taxonomy.
He was among the first to attempt a biological definition for the concept of species, as “a group of morphologically similar organisms arising from a common ancestor”
At Trinity College, Cambridge, he was able to lecture on Greek, then mathematics, etc. He preached in his college chapel and then became a priest in 1660.
He wrote many naturalist books and books on theology, the most popular being ‘The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation’ (1691), which gives evidence for all nature and space are God’s creation as written in the Bible. 47
6. Famous scientists who believe in God 17th Century
Robert Boyle (1627 – 1691)
He turned chemistry away from secretive alchemy and mysticism to defining set experiments and publishing those results.
He experimented with vacuums and pressures and came up with what is now known as Boyle’s Law.
He was elected President of the Royal Society but refused to accept because his devout religious beliefs prevented him from swearing the presidential oath.
[’34 Great Scientists Who Were Committed Christians’ Famous Scientists] 48
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
He was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and writer.
The father of the science of hydrostatics demonstrated a vacuum and experimented with pressure, etc.
Pascal believed that the only reasonable choice in life was to live for God.
He believed that humans are, “born into a duplicitous** world that shapes us into duplicitous subjects and so we find it easy to reject God continually and deceive ourselves about our own sinfulness”.
[duplicitous** means to mislead people, saying one thing but doing something else.] 49
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
He was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer of music. He was a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution.
He is best known for his laws of planetary motion, and celestial mechanics, and for being one of the founders of physical astronomy.
Kepler believed the world was created about 7,000 years ago and that scientists must be wary of glorifying their own minds instead of giving God the glory.
Kepler believed that God created the cosmos in an orderly fashion therefore he wanted to discover and comprehend the laws that govern the natural world and especially in astronomy.
He worked for tolerance among Christian denominations. 50
Frances Bacon (1561-1626)
Also known as Lord Verulam, he was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England.
He argued that scientific knowledge should be based only upon mathematical reasoning and careful observation of events in nature with the aim of avoiding being misled.
He was primarily associated with the ‘scientific method’ in science and his works remained influential even into the late stages of the Scientific Revolution.
He believed that God gave us two ‘books’ to study; one being the Bible and the other being nature.
He believed that God’s attributes (such as nature, action, and purposes) can only come from special revelation. 51
For a huge list of historic scientists who believed in a Creator God see Creation Ministries International. 52
Here are eight famous scientists who are Christian. 53
Evolutionists often push the certainty and proven things that make evolution unquestionable in their eyes, but reality shows a lot of false assumptions.
7. There are hundreds of scientists now, who do not believe in Darwin’s theory of Evolution.
There is an organisation, the Creation Research Society 54 whose members have to be scientists (who have earned a postgraduate degree in a recognised area of science) and who believe among other things, that the Bible is:
historically and scientifically true in the original autographs…. the account of origins in Genesis is a factual presentation of simple historical truths.”
Creation Research Society
When I checked in February (2012) there were 700 scientists (Voting) members, each of whom would stand up for these things, as being acceptable to them as scientists.
Some years back, the list of these scientists was available on their website, but due to data protection, it is no longer freely available.
Yes, there are scientists who believe in God and the Genesis creation account.
The Creation Research Society website says (as of 5/9/2020):
the category of voting member was established with the additional qualification that the person hold an earned post-graduate degree in a recognized area of science.”
Creation Research Society
The Creation Research Society’s Statement of Belief
All voting Scientist members must agree to the following statement of belief:
- The Bible is the written Word of God, and because it is inspired throughout, all its assertions are historically and scientifically true in the original autographs.
To the student of nature, this means that the account of origins in Genesis is a factual presentation of simple historical truths. - All basic types of living things, including man, were made by direct creative acts of God during the Creation Week described in Genesis.
Whatever biological changes have occurred since Creation Week have accomplished only changes within the original created kinds. - The great flood described in Genesis, commonly referred to as the Noachian Flood was an historic event worldwide in its extent and effect.
- We are an organisation of Christian men and women of science who accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
The account of the special creation of Adam and Eve as one man and one woman and their subsequent fall into sin is the basis for our belief in the necessity of a Saviour for all mankind.
Therefore, salvation can come only through accepting Jesus Christ as our Saviour.
With the many varieties of dog breeds it is said that this proves evolution, but all it proves is that animals can change within their ‘kind’, but a dog breeder can’t create a cat from a dog.
It is often said that the horse is proof of evolution, but it is well known among the experts that the fossil horse record is a mess and doesn’t prove evolution.
We are constantly told that evolution is totally proven, so how does that make Christians feel about the truth of the Bible?
Genetics is now showing some surprising results regarding the three significant groups of humanity and tracing all humans back to one woman.
Evolution has no answer for how sexual reproduction came about.
Why hasn’t human childbirth evolved into being pain-free?
8. Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Does science believe in God?
Science ought to be neutral.
Science should be exploring what God has designed and created.
Unfortunately, there are a number of scientists who are openly hostile towards Christianity and religion, for example, Richard Dawkins. See the video with him in a debate on this page.
How old are the stars – they show that they are billions of years old, but the Bible says that everything was created with a history – like Adam.
Dragons are known and are recorded throughout the world, so they must be based upon real creatures of some sort.
What is God like? Seeing Jesus is like seeing God.
References – open in new tabs:
‘John C. Eccles, Nobel laureate and Darwin doubter’ By Jerry Bergman. Creation Ministries International. 7th October 2011 ↩
A Tour of the Clinical Center. Image: Public domain National Institutes of Health ↩
‘Jumping ship Dr Jim Allan, a geneticist, tells of his double conversion’ by Dr Don Batten and Carl Wieland. Creation Ministries International 27th June 1998. ↩
About John Lennox ↩
‘Dr Jack Cuozzo Cuozzo (1937–2017) Creationist D.D.S. (USA)’ Creation Ministries International. 9th February 2006. ↩
‘Thomas Barnes’ Creation Wiki. Updated 24 September 2018. ↩
‘Sir John Carew Eccles Australian physiologist’ Encyclopaedia Britannica. Updated 28th April 2023 ↩
Eccles, J., ‘Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Self’ Rutledge, New York, p. 237, 1991. ↩
V. J. McBrierty (2003) ‘Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton’, p58. The Irish Scientist, 1903-1995, Quoted in: ‘Ernest T. S. Walton’ Walton Lectures on Science and Religion. Christians in Science Ireland. ↩
‘Wernher von Braun’ Wikipedia. Updated 4th May 2023. ↩
Neufeld, Michael J. (2007) ‘Wernher von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War’. p229–230. Knoff, New York ISBN 978-0-30726-292-9 ↩
‘Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased: Psychological, Scientific, and Theological Perspectives.’Taylor & Francis. 2021. ↩
Werner Heisenberg 1970 ‘Erste Gespräche über das Verhältnis von Naturwissenschaft und Religion’ in ed. Werner Trutwin, ‘Religion-Wissenschaft-Weltbild’ Duesseldorf: Patmos Verlag, pages 23–31. ↩
‘Charles Glover Barkla’ Wikipedia. Updated 31st March 2023. ↩
‘George Washington Carver’ Wikipedia. Updated 6th May 2023. ↩
‘William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin’ Wikipedia. Updated 22nd April 2023. ↩
‘Louis Pasteur’s Views on Creation, Evolution, and the Genesis of Germs’ Answers Research Journal 1 (2008): 43–52. ↩
‘The Life Of Pasteur’ by Vallery-Radot, Rene. 1911, vol. 2, p. 240 ↩
‘Morse College’ Yale, Slavery and Abolition. ↩
‘Men of Science, Men of God: Great Scientists Who Believed the Bible’ by Henry Morris p55. ↩
‘Passages from the Life of a Philosopher’ Chapter XXX by Charles Babbage. Wikisource 13th January 2023 ↩
‘Michael Faraday.’ Famous Scientists. 24 Nov. 2014. ↩
van Wyhe, John. ‘William Whewell (1794-1866) Gentleman of Science‘. Victorian Web. Retrieved 21 September 2021. ↩
‘Lars Levi Laestadius’ Wikipedia. Updated 22nd November 2022 ↩
Hall, Charlotte; Hall, Marshall (1861). Memoirs of Marshall Hall, by his widow. London : R. Bentley. p. 204 ↩
‘Marshall Hall – physiologist’. Wikipedia. Updated 11th October 2022 ↩
‘John Abercrombie – physician’ Wikipedia. Updated 19th March 2023. ↩
’34 Great Scientists Who Were Committed Christians’ By The Doc. Famous Scientists ↩
‘Blaise Pascal’ Wikipedia. Updated 28th April 2023 ↩
‘Creation Scientists’ Creation Ministries International ↩
‘8 Famous Scientists who are Christian’ by What Christians Want To Know ↩
Student with scientific instrument takes notes. Retrieved from ARTSTOR. ↩