Science Was Born from Faith: The Christian Geniuses Who Built the Modern World

A Monk, a Priest, a Friar and a Pioneer of Genetics

Gregor Mendel, the founder of genetics, was an Augustinian friar who did his famous pea experiments in the garden of his monastery. Georges Lemaître, who first proposed what became the Big Bang theory, was a Catholic priest and a trained physicist. Nicolaus Copernicus, who put the Sun at the center of the planetary system, was a canon of a cathedral. Robert Boyle, one of the founders of modern chemistry, wrote and funded works defending Christianity. Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, who laid the foundations of electromagnetism, were both committed Christians.

The list could go on for pages, and it raises a question that serious historians have discussed for generations: did Christianity merely coexist with the rise of modern science, or did it help to make it possible?

This article’s thesis is that Christianity was a major part of the world in which modern science was born, that many of the pioneers saw their work as an act of devotion, and that a number of respected scholars argue the Christian outlook actively encouraged the scientific enterprise. That is a defensible, widely held claim. The sections below make the case with names and dates.