Historical Witness from Scientists-4 ????????-4

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Historical Witness from Scientists-4????????-4

• Romans 120 For the invisible things of him
  from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
  being understood by the things that are made,
  even his eternal power and Godhead so that they
  are without excuse ???????? ???????????????????
  ??????????????????????.
• Pastor Chui I am indebted to David Coppedges
  book The Worlds Greatest Creation Scientists
  from Y1K to Y2K ???????????1000??2000???????????
  ????
• http//ChristCenterGospel.org
• ckchui1_at_yahoo.com

3/11/2017
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Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662 
Blaise Pascal was home-schooled.  And although
his father did not feel mathematics was a proper
subject till age 15, young Blaise took interest
at 12, and when his father relented, math became
his best subject one of many best subjects.
Pascal went on to excel at just about everything
he tried physics, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics,
mathematics, statistics, invention, logic,
debate, philosophy, and prose.  We speak of
pascals of pressure, Pascals Principle, and a
computer language named Pascal.  Computer
scientists remember the Pascaline, an early
mechanical calculator he invented, and
mathematicians speak of Pascals triangle. 
Literary historians call Pascal the Father of
French Prose, and theologians debate Pascals
Wager while evangelists use it to reason with
sinners about the gospel.  Few, however, know
much about the personal life of this scientific
and mathematical genius.  He knew pain, he knew
conflict, and he knew Jesus Christ with a depth
and sensitivity few experience.  And he
accomplished all his discoveries without reaching
his 40th birthday.
3
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
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4
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662
Blaise Pascal was the youngest of three children,
the only boy.  His mother died when he was three
years old.  His father, Etienne, a tax collector,
took to schooling the children himself.  At age
19, Blaise started working on a mechanical
calculator to help his father with his work. 
The Pascaline was the second such invention (the
first, by Schickard, was 18 years prior). 
Pascals invention consisted of toothed wheels
which engaged each other in such a way that
rotating the first 10 steps would increment the
next by one, and so on.  Nevertheless, it was a
clever piece of work for a young man who went on
to greater things. Pascal grew in reputation as a
mathematician so that in his prime he
corresponded with other notable scientists and
philosophers Fermat, Descartes, Christopher
Wren, Leibniz, Huygens, and others.  He worked on
conic sections, projective geometry, probability,
binomial coefficients, cycloids, and many other
puzzles of the day, sometimes challenging his
famous colleagues with difficult problems which
he, of course, solved on his own.
5
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662 ?????? 1623??1662?
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ckard,?18???)???????,??????????????????????10?????
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6
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662
In physics, Pascal also excelled in both theory
and experiment.  At age 30, he had completed
a Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids, the
first systematic theory of hydrostatics.  In it
he formulated his famous law of pressure, that
states that the pressure is uniform in all
directions on all surfaces at a given depth. 
This principle is foundational to many
applications today submarines, scuba gear, and a
host of pneumatic devices.  By applying the
principle, Pascal invented the syringe and the
hydraulic press.  Blaise Pascals perceptive mind
enabled him to explain the rising liquid in a
barometer not as nature abhorring a vacuum, but
as the pressure of the air outside on the liquid
reservoir.  Observing that barometric pressure
dropped with altitude, he reasoned that a vacuum
existed above the atmosphere.  James Kiefer
writes, In presenting his results, he taunts his
enemies the Jesuits with getting their methods
backward, accusing them of relying on ancient
authority (Aristotle) in physics, while ignoring
ancient authority (the Scriptures and the
Fathers, especially Augustine) in religion.
7
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662 ?????? 1623??1662?
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8
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662
Pascals controversies with the Jesuits had begun
in his early twenties.  Two brothers from a
religious movement, while caring for Pascals
father, had a profound influence on Blaise.  He
took great interest in a movement called
Jansenism that was a kind of back to the Bible
movement within Catholicism, that stressed
salvation was the free gift of God by grace
through faith.  Pascal became one of their chief
apologists, and in writing his Provincial
Letters, also showed himself to be an exceptional
logician and writer.  His wit, irony, perception,
knowledge, and a logic honed by mathematics, made
his writing sparkle with enthusiasm and force. 
Kiefer writes, He taught his countrymen how to
write work that could be read with pleasure. And
indeed it can!  We encourage our readers to find
out by sampling his work.  Pascal is a good
source of pithy quotes, proverbs, witty sayings,
and thoughtful paragraphs.  In his thirties, he
was apparently working on an Apology Defense
of the Christian Religion, but, unfortunately,
at his death there was only found a stack of
unorganized papers that was published
as Pensées (Thoughts). 
9
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662 ?????? 1623??1662?
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Pensées(??)??????
10
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
Nevertheless, enough was written to give
believers and unbelievers alike a great deal of
food for thought on the nature of man, sin,
suffering, unbelief, philosophy, false religion,
Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, heaven and hell,
and much more.  Much has been made of Pascals
Wager, a philosophical challenge usually
unfairly oversimplified as follows If you choose
Christianity and it is false, you lose nothing. 
If you reject Christianity and it is true, you
lose everything.  Skeptics (and many Christians)
feel this is a weak argument to become a
Christian.  It is, but it is not what Pascal
meant.  James Kiefer explains that the Wager is
an educated choice, not a flip of the coin. 
Having decided that the evidence for Christianity
is strong, and having decided that union with
Christ is a worthy goal in life, it is the best
bet to train for it like an athlete would train
for the highest prize, even though the athlete
cannot be sure he will win or the contest will
even occur. 
11
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
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12
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662
Kiefer says, Obviously, if Christ is an
illusion, then nothing will move me closer to
Him, and it does not matter what I do.  But if He
is not an illusion, then obviously seeking to
love Him, trust Him, and obey Him is more likely
to get me into a right relation with Him than the
opposite strategy.  And so it will be the one I
take.  Understanding this, the Wager is not a
blind hope that Ill find myself on the right
side after I die it is a positive choice that
will order my life and give me peace, joy, and
purpose in the present.  To avoid misrepresenting
Pascals Wager, we encourage readers to read the
argument in his own inimitable words in
the Pensées.  When used properly, its still a
powerful argument for accepting Christ. Pascals
last writings are all the more poignant when we
remember he wrote much of them while suffering
intensely.  A contemporary wrote, He lived most
of his adult life in great pain.  He had always
been in delicate health, suffering even in his
youth from migraine ...  Pascal died at age 39
in intense pain from stomach cancer.  After his
death, a servant found a surprise in the lining
of Pascals coat.
13
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
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14
Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662 
At age 31, Pascal had a spiritual experience that
was so overpowering, he wrote it down so that he
would never forget it.  Somehow, after a sweet
hour of prayer or worship service he never
mentioned what it was to anyone he felt so
close to God, so overjoyed with His grace and
salvation, so convinced of the urgency of
trusting Him, that he took hasty notes of his
feelings and sewed them into the lining of his
coat, to be near his heart forever.  Here are
those words.  Consider the brilliant scientist
and mathematician, the logical thinker and
debater, the inventor and writer and genius that
got this close to the heart of God Memorial In
the year of grace, 1654, On Monday, 23rd of
November, Feast of St Clement, Pope and Martyr,
and others in the Martyrology, Vigil of St
Chrysogonus, Martyr, and others, From about half
past ten in the evening until about half past
twelve, Fire! God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God
of Jacob, (Ex 36 Mt 2232) not of the
philosophers and scholars.
15
Blaise Pascal     1623 1662??? 1623??1662? 
31?,?????????????,?????,????????,
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Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy.Peace. God of
Jesus Christ. Thy God and my God. (Jn
2017)Forgetfulness of the world and of
everything, except God.He is to be found only in
the ways taught in the Gospel.Greatness of the
Human Soul.Righteous Father, the world hath not
known Thee, but I have known Thee. (Jn
1725)Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. I have
separated myself from Him.  They have forsaken
Me, the fountain of living waters. (Jr 213) 
My God, wilt Thou leave me? (Mt 2746)Let me
not be separated from Him eternally.  This is
the eternal life, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and the one whom Thou hast sent,
Jesus Christ. (Jn 173)  Jesus Christ.
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Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
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, ??????? ??????????????????????
(?173)??????
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Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
Jesus Christ I have separated myself from HimI
have fled from Him,denied Him,crucified
Him.Let me never be separated from Him.We keep
hold of Him only by the ways taught in the
Gospel.Renunciation, total and sweet.Total
submission to Jesus Christ and to my
director.Eternally in joy for a days training
on earth.I will not forget thy words. (Ps
11916) Amen. Blaise Pascal took the wager, and
won.
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Blaise Pascal     1623 - 1662  ??? 1623??1662?
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Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Robert Boyle not only can be considered a pillar
of modern science and one of its most eminent
practitioners but he also left the world a
profound legacy of rich literature explaining the
Christian foundation for science.  The title of
one of his many books was The Christian
Virtuoso (i.e., Bible-believing scientist), and
to historians, he was one of the best
examples. Boyles life and adventures make for a
good story, but lets consider first some of the
impacts he made on the practice of science (1)
An emphasis on experiment instead of reason. (2)
Publication of experimental results. (3)
Popularization of scientific discoveries. (4)
Collaboration of scientists in professional
societies. (5) Mathematical formulations of
laws.  (6) Putting all claims about nature, no
matter the reputation of the authority, to the
test of experiment. Of course, no one works in a
vacuum (no pun intended, as we will see) Boyle
was not the only one to advance these ideals.  He
was influenced by Bacon, Galileo and Kepler
before him, and there were contemporaries who
also practiced one or more of these principles. 
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Robert Boyle     1627 1691 ??? 1627-1691
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22
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
But among his peers, Boyle was an eminent leader
in all of them.  He took the initiative where
others stuck to old habits, and he led by
example.  He is the considered the father of
chemistry and a law was named in his honor.  The
worlds first and oldest professional scientific
society with the longest record of continuous
publication is due largely to Robert Boyle and
the colleagues he attracted with his energy,
drive, and enthusiasm for science.  That
enthusiasm came directly out of his Christian
faith.  To Boyle, love of God came first, and
everything else second.  Science was a means to a
higher end loving God with all ones heart,
soul, strength, and mind. Despite being born with
a silver spoon in his mouth, the privileged son
of a rich and prestigious landowner and friend of
the king, Robert Boyle would know before long the
meaning of hardship.  As the 14th of 15 children
in the family of the great Earl of Cork in
Ireland, young Robyn had no lack of any material
thing.  Yet his wise father knew the values of
self-discipline, education and hard work, and
ensured his children were not idle but given the
best training for honorable life. 
23
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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24
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Robyn himself was sent for his first five years
to be raised by a peasant family rather than live
in his fathers rich estate.  Sadly, many of the
children grew up to be profligate and wild, but
not Robyn or his older sister Katherine. In the
schools of the time, Aristotle still held sway
over almost every field of natural knowledge. 
Education consisted largely of memorizing what
authorities had said.  Some schools actually
prohibited original thinking.  If Aristotle said
a vacuum cannot exist, then that was that
memorize it and regurgitate it on the test.  But
early in his education, Robyn learned to question
the opinions of mere men.  He was introduced by a
teacher to the new experimental method of
learning.  Young Boyle also had a bright mind
that asked questions, that was unsatisfied by
rote answers from experts.  He wanted to know how
the authorities knew what they claimed, and why
it was necessary to follow them.  After all, who
had been their authorities?
25
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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26
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
At age 17 Boyles life took a dramatic turn. 
Though certainly not a spoiled rich child, he was
suddenly transferred to the school of hard
knocks.  While on an extended, all-expense-paid
educational tour of Europe with his brother Frank
and a tutor, war broke out in Ireland.  Oblivious
to the crisis at home, Robert visited leading
scientists.  He almost got to see Galileo,
missing the opportunity by a few months due to
the great astronomers death.  Paris, Rome, the
great centers of learning had been on their
itinerary when the word reached them from their
desperate father that the war had hit home.  King
Charles, occupied with other conflicts, had been
unable to aid the Irish landowners against the
popular uprising, and the Earl of Cork had to
spend every resource to protect his estate.  In
dire straits, his father wrote to the sons that
no more money could be forthcoming.  To the boys
tutor, he wrote, For with inward grief of soul I
write this truth unto you that I am no longer
able to supply them beyond this last payment. 
But if they serve God and be careful and discreet
in their carriage i.e., lifestyle, God will
bless them and provide for them as hitherto He
has done for me.
27
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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28
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Frank rushed back home to help, but Robyn had
been too ill to be of military assistance, and
remained back in Geneva with the tutor.  It was
no use.  Lewis, a brother, died in battle.  Lord
Barrymore, the Great Earls favorite son-in-law,
died in battle and the grief-stricken father
died the day the truce was signed not only had
the rebels destroyed his property and foundries,
scattered his family and stolen all his
possessions, but as part of the peace treaty, the
king sacrificed all the Earls land to the
rebels.  Now orphaned, Robyn stayed two years in
Geneva with the tutor, until he could no longer
bear burdening his host.  Selling the last
remaining valuables, he boarded a ship for
London.  He was 17 years old.  Tiner describes
the setting Robyn had begun his travels from
this city.  When he left hed enjoyed every
possible advantage.  His future seemed secure. 
He could look forward to wealth, an estate in the
country, and perhaps a family with Lady Ann
Howard as his wife.  Now, five years later, Robyn
walked the streets of London penniless and alone.
29
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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30
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
A famous gospel preacher once said, The test of
a mans character is what it takes to stop him. 
Young Robert Boyles character now faced the acid
test.  Coming from such a large family, he did
have siblings.  Robert moved in with his sister
Katherine, 13 years older, who was a widow after
surviving a very unhappy arranged marriage to a
churlish alcoholic named Viscount Ranelagh
(fortunately for her, he died young).  Katherine
and Robert were alike in that they both loved
learning and were not rebellious like many of the
other Boyle children.  It would take years for
Robert to regain control of his share of his
fathers assets, and he considered his situation
unworthy of the marriage that had been arranged
for him.  Nevertheless, with Lady Ranelaghs help
and some remaining properties, he was not
destitute.  Another productive influence she
provided him were her social contacts.  Katherine
had many friends who were scientists and
intellectuals.  A group of Oxford scholars under
John Wilkins had formed a loosely-knit science
club they dubbed the Invisible College, because
it had no formal organization or meeting place. 
31
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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32
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Though a mere teenager to these intellectuals,
Robert impressed them with his aptitude and
knowledge.  His mind continued to flourish within
this non-traditional university
program. Politically, it was a tense time these
were the days leading up to the Cromwell
revolution, when Parliament and King Charles were
at odds and tensions ran high.  Boyle took refuge
in a family manor in Dorset and kept a low
profile.  He devoted himself to his three loves
reading, writing, and dabbling in science. 
During this period some profound works came from
his pen on theology and personal Christian
living, including Style of the Scriptures,
Occasional Reflections, Ethics, and Some Motives
and Incentives to the Love of God.  Katherine
distributed copies of some of these to her
friends.  As a result, Roberts reputation as a
writer began to grow.  Robert recalled how at age
13 he had learned the fear of God.  Awakened by a
thunderstorm, the reality of Gods judgment
flowed into his mind.  He realized right then
that he was not ready to face his Maker.  He knew
his good works were not enough he needed
salvation, and cried out to God for forgiveness. 
33
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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?,?????????,??????????????,????????????????????,
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34
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
He kept his promise to live as a true Christian,
not just going to church and being good, but
sincerely trusting in the gift of God through
Jesus Christ and following Him as his Lord and
Savior.  Now at Stalbridge Manor, the young man
was writing about how to see Gods providence in
all things. During this period of his 20's, Boyle
read voraciously and also tried scientific
experiments, inspired by Galileos writings and
his contacts from the Invisible College.  Bad
experiences with doctors medicines (carelessly
prescribed without standards or quality control
in those days) also motivated him to learn
chemistry Robert was frail in health much of his
life and took great interest in finding effective
medicines as well as avoiding bad ones.  After
ten years at Stalbridge, at age 27 he was invited
to come to Oxford, the leading intellectual
center in England in those times. This move
launched his scientific career.  Now with greater
insight and maturity from his reading and
experiments, Boyle was again in touch with the
Invisible College, made up of doctors, scientists
and theologians who for the most part were devout
Christians. 
35
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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36
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Robert was excited about the prospects of the
new learning and experimental philosophy
inspired by the works of Francis Bacon and
Galileo.  Committed to the principle that science
should be used not just for pride of knowing but
for the good of mankind, the College promoted
experimentation on a variety of subjects
chemistry, physics, and medicine.  During his six
years of informal association with the Invisible
College at Oxford, Boyle was largely
self-taught.  He did not earn a degree or
professorship.  Soon, however, he would be the
most eminent scientist in Britain. Robert Boyle
was a self-starter.  He did not need a graduate
adviser to point the way.  Eager to discover the
natural laws the Creator had devised, and with
financial resources sufficiently restored, Robert
built a laboratory, equipped it, and hired
assistants.  His most capable assistant was a
young man named Robert Hooke.  What Hooke lacked
in social skills he made up for engineering
acumen (the prototype nerd) the master would
tell him what he needed, and Hooke would invent
it.  Boyle had heard about interesting
preliminary experiments with vacuum pumps. 
37
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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38
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Otto von Guericke had demonstrated by 1650 the
ability to pump the air out of a wine barrel, and
then a copper globe, but the devices were clumsy
and difficult to operate, requiring the efforts
of two strong men.  Boyle was intrigued by the
idea of creating a vacuum.  Aristotle had claimed
Nature abhors a vacuum Descartes, many Jesuits
and most others never thought to question that
dogma.  To Boyle, this was a chance to show the
superiority of the experimental philosophy, so he
asked Hooke to help him make a better air pump. 
What followed was groundbreaking science, methods
that set standards for empirical work that
survive to this day. Hookes ingenuity provided
Boyle with an easily-operated air pump with a
glass receiver, into which the duo inserted a
variety of items that could be easily observed as
the air was pumped out.  They put a ticking clock
in and noticed the sound drop to silence as air
was removed.  They observed that sound, but not
light, was affected by the vacuum.  They watched
a candle go out.  Each observation was
meticulously recorded, but beyond the mere
collection of facts, Boyle had the insight to
interpret the results and formulate hypotheses
that could be tested.
39
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
1650????????????,??????????,?????,????????,????,??
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40
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
 A suite of cleverly-contrived experiments
provided Boyle and Hooke with many exciting
results, some that contradicted common sense, and
many that contradicted Aristotle. Then, Boyle set
two other important precedents he published his
results in lively English, leading to the
tradition of popularizing science, and he
carefully described his apparatus so that others
could try to reproduce the experiments, leading
to the principle of repeatability.  He was even
brutally honest about failures and errors,
feeling these were necessary parts of the
learning process.  All this was almost unheard of
in the practice of science.  His first paper in
1660,New Experiments Physico-Mechanical Touching
the Spring of the Air, and its Effects, created
no small stir.  Some critics thought it unwise to
question the great master Aristotle.  Others
thought science should be published only in
Latin. Most, however, read his work with great
eagerness.  Boyle, in effect, showed that science
belonged to every man, and that it had very
practical effects.  It led to principles that
could be tested and repeated by anyone (though
few could hope to exceed the precision and
thoroughness of his experiments). 
41
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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???????????????????????,??????????,??????????,???
??????????,?????????????????????,?????????????????
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(?????????????????????)?
42
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Marie Boas Hall, writing for Scientific
American (1967), judged one of Boyles most novel
creations the idea that one could prove a
scientific theory by experiment an idea we take
for granted today, but nearly the reverse of the
Aristotelian/deductive approach to science of his
time. Boyle and Hookes lab teamwork led to many
discoveries.  Air, he proved, acted much like a
spring it acted like a mechanical substance
(i.e., one subject to laws, not spirits or
essences).  Air contained ingredients essential
to life and combustion.  Advancing the earlier
work of Torricelli, they showed air had weight
and pressure.  They experimented with colors,
optics, and chemical analysis, including the
first crude litmus test for acids and bases.  By
testing combinations of substances, Boyle deduced
that complex chemicals could be classified into
simpler elements (but not the Aristotelian view
of elements such as earth, air, fire and water,
of which everything was supposed to contain
proportions).  In his best-known experiment, he
poured mercury into a J-shaped tube and observed
the size of the air column trapped as he added
more fluid. 
43
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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??????- ????,???????????,????????/???????????????
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44
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
With fastidious measurements, he discovered that
doubling the pressure cut the volume in half P
k/V, a relationship later named Boyles Law in
his honor.  This was on the cutting edge of the
concept that there existed laws of nature that
were discoverable by experiment. Well into his
senior years, Boyle continued his experiments,
discoveries and publications.  His work
contributed to the understanding of phosphorus,
acids and bases, salts, precipitates and chemical
elements.  His achievements in chemistry, both
practical and theoretical, began to steer it from
the mystical and secretive arts of the
alchemists, leading many historians to consider
him the Father of Chemistry.  Notice how
Aristotles statement Nature abhors a vacuum
implied a kind of animistic character to the
world Boyles approach began to steer science
away from a personified nature, and view it as a
machine created by God and operating according to
laws.  Though Boyle was not alone in this
approach, he showed originality and creative
insight.  Marie Hall Boas explains
45
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
???????,?????????????????P k/V,???????????,?
???? ????????????,?????????,????????????????,??
?,?,???????????????????,???????,??????????????????
?,??????????????????, ????????,?????????????????
??????????????????? ?????????????,
?????????????????, ?????????????
46
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
The English scientists were much influenced by
Descartes careful formulation of his mechanical
philosophy, toward which they were further
predisposed by their adherence to similar ideas
of Bacons. ... She describes the influence also
of Gassendi and Epicurus.   By the middle 1650s
Boyle had worked out his own version of the
mechanical philosophythe corpuscular
philosophy, as he called itin which he drew on
both the Cartesian and the atomic views but
wholly accepted neither.  He believed those two
grand and most Catholic i.e., universal
principles, matter and motion, sufficed to
explain all the properties of matter as we
experience it. As we experience it indicates that
Boyle understood the limitations of science.  His
other writings, additionally, make it clear he
believed in the immanence of God, that the
Creator is active in his creation.  Boyle was not
a mechanist in the sense of denying the
possibility of miracles.  He believed only that
in the normal workings of Nature, Gods
providence operated through uniform mechanical
principles accessible to observation.  Hall
describes Boyles disagreements with Descartes,
Spinoza, and Huygens who felt that the ultimate
test of a theory was the appeal to reason. 
47
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
??????????,????????,?????????????1650?????????????
????,?????????,?????????????????????,?????,?????
,?????,?????????????????????,????????????????????,
????,?????????,?????????????????????????????????
??????????????, ???????????????,????,???????,??,?
????????????
48
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
On the contrary, Boyle believed it was possible
to prove a theory by experiment.  This was a
novel idea, not universally accepted at the time,
Hall claims, and she feels it is evidence for
the originality of Boyles approach to
scientific proofand to chemistry.  Obviously,
the scientific world followed Boyles lead.  This
establishes his importance not only as an
experimenter, but as a pioneering philosopher of
science.  The wealth of his experimental work
demonstrates that he walked his talk. Robert
Boyle was one of the 12 charter members of a new
organization founded in 1662, The Royal Society
for the Improving of Natural Knowledge.  Its
charter was to promote the experimental
philosophy for the common good.  In clear
contradistinction to the Aristotelians, they made
their motto Nothing by mere authority in other
words, submit all claims about nature to the test
of experiment.  The founders and early members
were predominantly Christians, especially
Puritans. Henry Oldenberg, Boyles literary
assistant, was secretary.  The charter issue of
their publication, the Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society reflects the Christian and
humanitarian ideals.
49
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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?????????????????????????????????????,???????????
????????????,???????????12???????1662?????,???????
??????????????????????????????????,???????????,???
?????????????????,?????????????,????????,?????????
?????????????????
50
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Though Boyle refused the presidency of the Royal
Society because of scruples about taking an oath,
he was its most influential and esteemed member,
especially at the time young Isaac Newton was
just becoming a rising star.  There had been
academies and scientific clubs before, like the
Academy of the Lynx to which Galileo belonged,
but the Royal Society was the first true formal
institution dedicated to experimental science,
and its Philosophical Transactions is the
longest-running scientific journal in the world. 
As the number of fellows grew and meetings
shared the latest experimental demonstrations at
Gresham College in London, the fledgling
organization became the cheerleader for the
scientific revolution. Why is the Royal Society
the quintessential naturalist-Darwinist-atheist
organization it is today?  Surely Boyle, John
Wilkins, Henry Oldenberg and the other founders
would be appalled to see their journals filled
with absurd evolutionary speculations on every
subject, propounding atheism as science
and ridiculing belief in the Bible and creation,
as do most other scientific societies in our
post-Darwinist world.  What happened? 
51
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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??????????????????,?????,??????,??????????????????
,???????,?????????????????????????????????????,?
????????????????????????????????????,??????,??????
???????,??????,?????????????????????????????????,?
???????????????????,??????????????????????????????
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52
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
In an article in Christian History magazine
(issue 76 - November 2002, pp. 39-40), Chris
Armstrong argues that the charter members
defended religion but laid the groundwork for
irreligion through compromise.  The Royal Society
was a curious blend of Puritan and Anglican,
those who put all authority in the Bible and
those who valued tradition.  They thought they
could ignore their religious differences and
unite around the new experimental philosophy,
because all of them agreed that natures
admirable contrivance and accurate order and
symmetry glorified the Creator, His power and
glory.  It does, of course, but this
lowest-common-denominator approach glosses over
deeper issues does the authority of the word of
God extend to science?  Is fallen man capable of
discerning truth apart from the spirit of God? 
For both pragmatic and pious reasons, Armstrong
writes, some members of the Royal Society were
influenced by the rationalist approach to
religion urged by the Cambridge Platonists.  In
their public discourse they gravitated toward an
essential Christianity that affirmed only the
existence of God, the souls immortality, and
each persons ethical obligation to others.
53
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
????????(2002?11?,?39-40?)???,??????????,????????,
???????????,?????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????,?????????,??????
???,????????????????????????,???????,?????????
?????????????, ??????????????????????,???????,
?????????????????????????????????????,????????????
??????,?????,????????????
54
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
That is why their meetings were soon obsessed
with microscopic images of fly eyes and plant
seeds and euphoria about all the possible
benefits of science, but lost its focus on the
Creator till the temple was filled with
syncretistic idols, and like Ezekiel describes,
the spirit of God, by stages, departed.  Why
didnt the deeply religious members see this
coming?  Sadly, their compromise put them on the
defensive.  They faced charges of irreligion
themselves, Armstrong notes, and Hall adds,
they were denounced from the pulpit, and its
Fellows came to be touchy about any accusation of
godlessness.  They answered these charges,
Armstrong alleges, by insisting that the
evidences of lawfulness and design in the fabric
of things pointed not away from by toward God. 
Little did they realize, he argues, that the
broadly-shared, lowest common denominator
principle of design would become, in the next
century, a substitute for the Christ-centered
teachings of the historic church.  There was a
God, all would agree, but like Lewis Carrolls
Cheshire Cat, He would slowly vanish till just
the grin was left. 
55
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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?????????,???????????????????????????????????,????
?????????????????????,????,????????,???????????
????,??????????????????,??????,????????????????
???????????????????????????,???????????,??????,?
????????
56
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
The distant clockmaker God of the deist would
displace the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, because there was no need of that
hypothesis.  Is history repeating itself?  Those
in the intelligent design movement, who think
Muslims and Jews and Christians and even atheists
can rally around the banner of design would do
well to study the history of the Royal Society. 
Its not that design arguments are unsound or
unconvincing but unless men are brought all the
way to the gospel of Christ and their minds are
renewed by the Holy Spirit, the demon is not
dislodged he returns with seven more, till the
last situation is worse than the first. This
parenthesis was necessary before turning to the
philosophical works of Robert Boyle.  There is no
question of his commitment to historic
Christianity and the authority of the Bible. 
Mulfinger writes that he was strictly orthodox in
his Christian beliefs, and was intolerant of
preachers who spiritualized or allegorized
important truths of the Bible rather than
accepting them at face value. 
57
Robert Boyle     1627 1691??? 1627-1691
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??????????,???????????????????????????????????????
??????????,???????????????????????????????????????
?????,????,???????,???????????????????????????????
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58
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Though he remained within the Anglican church, he
was a Puritan at heart, supportive of the
nonconformists who had left the state church he
even supported some financially and had many
Puritan friends.  Boyle studied the Scriptures in
the original languages and accepted the Genesis
accounts as literal, historical truth.  His faith
was well reasoned and not traditional, refined in
the furnace of dealing with intellectual doubt,
as was surely a trial any must face in an
intellectual climate.  But he knew even as a
young man that doubt was a refining fire He
whose Faith never doubted, he stated in 1647,
may justly doubt his faith.  That his faith
passed the refinement crucible to the point of
reasoned commitment was made clear when he said,
I am not a Christian, because it is the religion
of my country, and my friends, when I chuse to
travel in the beaten road, it is not, because I
find it is the road, but because I judge it is
the way. Perhaps in hindsight the Puritan
members could have taken stronger steps to steer
the Royal Society away from compromise.  They did
oppose the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, and most
of its members were godly men John Wilkins, the
first secretary, was similarly convinced of the
authority of Scripture, and over half were
Puritans. 
59
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Nevertheless, its purpose was to promote
experimental science, not theology.  The
unintended consequence of any institution that
seeks to uncover truth apart from a prior
commitment to Christian revelation is that it
will never be content to stay within the bounds
of observable and repeatable phenomena.  It will
want to explain everything, even First Causes, by
natural means.  Eventually, it becomes a
substitute religion, arrogating to itself the
right to explain all that is, was and ever will
be. The Royal Society charter, God-fearing as it
is, makes the hidden assumption that unregenerate
men are perfectly capable of discerning truth,
without having a commitment to the One who is the
way, the Truth, and the Life.  It presumes an
incomplete Fall, treating the mind as
unaffected.  Given those assumptions, human pride
resulting from sin will generate a science that
refuses to accept its limitations and moral
flaws.  It gives Satan a handle to turn an
honorable thing into a tool of skepticism.  The
end result is seen in papers published in todays
Philosophical Transactions that seek to explain
the evolution of morals and the origin of the
universe from nothing.  It leads to arrogant
addresses by its officers that science is
superior to Christian faith.
60
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
In those first decades, however, the Royal
Society was blessed by the virtuous Christian
testimony and reasoned faith of Robert Boyle. 
His integrity was impeccable.  Throughout his
life, Boyle was humble, gracious, prayerful, and
peace-loving.  He was conscientious to a fault,
even stopping to pause respectfully before
mentioning the name of God.  He was adamantly
intolerant of swearing.  Never physically robust,
it is remarkable how productive he was.  His
secret powerhouse was passionate love of God and
fascination with creation.  Boyles pastor
described him in these words His great thoughts
of God, and his contemplation of his works, were
to him sources of continual joy, which never
could be exhausted.  Apparently this is part of
the reason he never married, along with his
distaste for the abuse of marriage that was
prevalent among men of his day.  Instead, he
devoted himself wholeheartedly to his work. 
Furthermore, he was strong supporter of foreign
missions For years, he financially supported
Christian missionaries and Bible translations to
the far east, to the Irish (those who had robbed
his fathers lands), and to the Indians across
the sea in the thriving American colonies.  He
lived frugally, but gave profligately.
61
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
His zeal for spreading the good news of Jesus
Christ was matched by his zeal against atheism. 
To him, science never rated even a close second
to Christian faith in importance.  He said, For
I, that had much rather have men not philosophers
than not Christians, should be better content to
see you ignore the mysteries of nature, than deny
the author of it.  (By atheism, Boyle did not
mean just philosophical denial of God, which was
less common in his day, but the practical atheism
that makes even a believer live as if there was
no God.)  In his will, he established a fund for
a series of eight lectures, to be given once a
year, for the defense of the historic Christian
faith against atheism, and the demonstration of
the superior reasonableness of Biblical
Christianity against any philosophy or arguments
of critics and skeptics.  The Boyle Lectures,
as they came to be known, continued for many
years. In his writings, Robert Boyle advanced the
study of the relationship between the
Christianity and science.  His words are
well-reasoned, profound and enlightening.  He did
not fall into the trap of relegating the Bible to
matters of morals and faith alone without
qualification, he applied II Tim. 316 All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God to the
entire Bible, including Genesis. 
62
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Furthermore, he believed in verbal inspiration,
meaning that Gods revelation was contained in
the very words, not just the meaning, of the text
(the latter view opening the door to unlimited
human paraphrasing.)  This drove him to study the
ancient languages to understand the primitive
sense of the original words, especially for
passages that, in English translation, presented
difficulties. In approaching difficulties, Boyle
recognized that the Bibles purpose was not to
provide quantitative scientific descriptions of
the natural world like a textbook.  Using this
interpretive framework, he dealt forthrightly
with issues of when to evaluate a passage as
poetry or narrative, and when it should be
treated as descriptive vs. prescriptive.  He
followed Calvins teaching on accommodation, that
the Holy Spirit used language appropriate to the
common man, not specialists.  The Bible contains
easily-understood phrases such as the rising and
setting of the sun, using the language of
appearance instead of quantitative, technical
description. 
63
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Thus, passages that seemed to teach geocentricity
could be understood as figures of speech without
sacrificing verbal inspiration.  As such, Boyle
is a good model for todays Christian virtuosi
who desire to advance science without sacrificing
Biblical authority.  Michael Hunter, a Boyle
historian and compiler of his voluminous output,
is impressed with the depth and breadth of his
thinking on these subjects Boyles major
preoccupation was the relationship between Gods
power, the created realm, and mans perception of
it, a topic on which he wrote extensively. ...
Boyle laid stress on the extent to which Gods
omniscience transcended the limited bounds of
human reason, taking a position that contrasted
with the rather complacent rationalism of
contemporary divines ....  He also reflected at
length on the proper understanding of final
causes, and in conjunction with this provided one
of the most sophisticated expositions of the
design argument in his period.  Boyles
significance for the history of science depends
almost as much on the profound views on difficult
issues put forward in these philosophical
writings as it does on his experimental
treatises.
64
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Hunter goes on to describe the intense hostility
Boyle expressed against any views of nature that
he saw as detracting from a proper appreciation
of Gods power in his creation.  These included
lengthy published arguments against
Aristotelianism and the materialism of Thomas
Hobbes, despite his professed disinclination to
involve himself in philosophical disputes.  On
the positive side, the titles of some of Boyles
books hint at their rich contents Some
Considerations touching the Usefulness of
Experimental Natural Philosophy Free Enquiry
into the Vulgarly Receivd Notion of Nature The
Excellency of Theology, Compard with Natural
Philosophy, Discourse of Things Above Reason,
Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural
Things, and especially, The Christian Virtuoso. 
In these, Hunter writes, Boyle made a profound
contribution to an understanding of what he saw
as the proper relationship between God and the
natural world, and mans potential for
comprehending this.It is enriching to read
Boyles own words on the relation of science and
Scripture. 
65
Robert Boyle     1627 - 1691
Among the wealth of words we could quote in
closing, perhaps the most succinct is the best. 
It states clearly and simply the reason a
Christian should be a virtuoso, which in his time
meant a lover of knowledge (a synonym for natural
philosopher or scientist).  It echoes a familiar
theme, a motivation stated by many science-loving
Christians from the early middle ages on into the
21st century.  Boyle encapsulates it in only ten
words From a knowledge of His work, we shall
know Him.