Episode 36 - A Sacred Spark Igniting the Flame of Reason

Could the very foundations of modern science be deeply rooted in Christian thought? Prepare to have your perspective broadened as we journey through the profound interplay between faith and reason, with a spotlight on Robert Boyle—one of the intellectual titans of the Royal Society.

This episode peels back the layers of history to reveal a time when Christianity was not merely a backdrop but the heartbeat of scientific advancement. We discuss the fascinating transition of rationalism within Puritanism and its influence on the scientific community, guided by the insights from Klaus Scholder's seminal work "The Birth of Modern Critical Theology."

Witness the intellectual seismic shift of the Enlightenment, where autonomous reason began its ascent, overshadowing Christ as the cornerstone of human thought. This chapter in history marks a pivotal moment where the divine gift of reason, once celebrated as a reflection of the Creator, found itself redefined as an entity unto itself.

We reflect on this profound transformation and its implications for the Christian tradition. The episode concludes by challenging the popular narrative that depicts the modern age as the peak of reason, instead proposing that we may be experiencing its unraveling.

Join us in exploring the indispensable role of Christian faith in the pioneering days of scientific discovery, and consider how those early scientists saw their quest for knowledge as an act of worship, intimately connected to comprehending the divine.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Well, welcome to episode 36 of the Christ-Centered Cosmic Civilization as we continue to look at the foundations and history of science. We concluded the last episode looking at the profoundly Christian founders of the modern scientific movement, particularly looking at the Royal Society. Before we move on from that, I wanted to share two quotations from Robert Boyle, the father of modern chemistry, because he has so much great Christian stuff. Here's a quotation from 1665, from his occasional reflections upon several subjects he says May themselves prove feasts for the worms tomorrow. A great warning, there isn't it Never. You never know how far death is away and never live as if it's far away. And this one more quick one, from his observations, thoughts and collections of 1647. He says he whose faith never doubted made justly doubt of his faith. So that's a kind of deep one, that authentic faith has trouble doubts, and if you have no doubt at all it's probably because you're not really part of the faith. Now we ended then last episode seeing the incredible success that came from building on the foundation of Christ and this, that first generation or two of the founders of the Royal Society were amazingly productive, fertile in building in and so confident in scientific inquiry and theorizing and experimenting and the extraordinary new frontiers they pushed into, because they were building on the foundation of Christ, self consciously so, and they were doing that in science and culture. But the ex, that very success, such extraordinary success, and maybe raised a new possibility. Well, no, it didn't in itself raise the new possibility. But we've said that the overwhelming majority of these pioneers were not just a little bit Christian, not just culturally Christian, what, but were like really deep down, wholeheartedly followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there was a few that were not, and already, particularly in the 17th century, not so much those who are still like Francis Bacon in the 16th century, who is just thoroughly Christian, deep down, right down the way he understands and lives.

Speaker 1: 4:38

But as the 17th century goes on, the problem of rationalism starts to raise its head, and it does so because a weakness of not all Puritans, puritan, I'll just say this that Puritanism, puritanism, it's easy to see that there's like two kinds of Puritan, at least two kinds of Puritan. There's one that is kind of let's call them affectionate and for them and these are, in my view, the best of them, the best way to go affectionate. So for them, you know, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and your neighbour, as yourself, and for them it's the key to it all is this affection of the heart, and then that can overspill into this deeply confident rational thinking. But the rational thinking is always the servant of worship and love. But there's another kind of Puritan that started to really allow reason to be cut, to get into the driving seat and that becomes for them the thing. And then scripture, then even scripture. So for the affectionate Puritans, scripture, the revelation of God, the relationship with Him in Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit, that is what it's, that's the thing itself. And scripture is the venue, the tool, the is, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's. They read the Bible very relationally as an opportunity for encounter with Jesus by the power of the Spirit and to meet the Father and so on.

Speaker 1: 7:03

But there's another kind of Puritanism which to begin with is is is great, still got so many great things to it, but it, the dangers of the, even from earlier in the 17th century, were, scripture is handled already like in a rationalist way. And it's that's where you kind of already know what the Bible must say, should say, because you're so confident of your own rational system and that you start to get documents in which there's a kind of sense of it, the. The answer to you know something, must be either this or this. And therefore I'm confidently concluding this and in it's like you might say, yeah, no, that's good to sort of draw necessary conclusions from thinking about the Bible Already. Actually, with that language, I'm nervous because what we, our minds, are so damaged, our logic is so warped in so many ways and I'm so, so nervous of saying thing, of believing that I've discovered necessary rational conclusions from scripture. There's things that I might say this is a possible, this is possibly an implication of the Bible, but to have this kind of inappropriately confident belief in, well, it's not rationality as such, it's our capacity for rationality. That's the problem. But there is that coming in even from earlier in the 17th century, starting to come in, and you notice it with who they think are the biggest problems.

Speaker 1: 9:13

There's a book called the Birth of. Is it modern critical? I'm just looking at modern, the birth of the. Is it the modern critical theology? That's it the birth of modern critical theology origins and problems of biblical criticism in the 17th century. And it's by Clow Sholder.

Speaker 1: 9:38

This really is, I'd say, in my top. It's definitely in my top 10 books. I've ever read it tremendously important book to me. It's not a big book, but what he shows is I remember reading this I don't know at least 20, no, it's 30 years ago just the way in which the problem of rationalism arose, not from the, not from outside Christianity, but sort of from inside Christianity.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Because there was this the Puritans and Continental, similar people in Continental Europe had this overconfidence in reason. And so when the critics of Christianity, the rationalist critics of Christianity, began to emerge, there are tiny, tiny group, and yet there's this enormous concern about them because there's this feeling no, no, we, we are the, we are the rationalist people, we reason, that's what our confidence is in. So someone attacking, attacking Christianity with reason, was considered to be so, so like bad, because that was the confidence that some of these, some of these 17th century Christians had begun to have. So you notice it, certainly at the beginning of the 17th century, but by the later 17th century it's really strong. It's really strong and that's when, well, puritanism, as we tend to think about it, is really withering by then, and I think because of this. So what this means.

Speaker 1: 11:49

I don't want to get too far off. I've already wondered a bit here. I'm sorry to regular listeners, I've already wondered a little bit there. But why I need to, though, is because the problem of rationalism is we've seen that science because Christ is the guarantee of reason, the Logos that holds everything together, the Logos that's written into our own hearts and minds Because of that. So reason is like thinking reasonably and having confidence in the capacities of rationality and seeing that the universe is real, rational, reliable and so on. That's deeply part of life in Christ.

Speaker 1: 12:40

But when that starts to become disconnected from Christ and instead of being seen as this overflowing gift from Christ, but rather is seen as something that's almost autonomous and then you get people doing theology you get you certainly get this in the 17th century where the idea is reason validates the Christian faith. So reason is seen to have a kind of autonomy with respect to the Christian faith and that you can appeal to reason to get credibility to be validated by reason, as if reason is this almost outside authority. That definitely is hitting in the 17th century, and you've got Roman Catholic scholastics who are doing that and the sort of what they call re acquiring the Aristotelian methods because they're like oh, aristotle's so good at reason and if reason is this autonomous court of appeal that validates Christian doctrine. And the Protestants are doing it. In the 17th century, the Protestants, scholastics, are starting to emerge and this idea of appealing to reason as a, as a autonomous authority rather than as an outflowing of Christ himself, really it starts to be showing, or, yeah, getting, credibility and authenticity and validity from reason as a kind of autonomously, and they actually do believe. You mean that you can't be, you can't think of Aristotle as, or Greek philosophy or the other methods of that. You can't seriously. You can't think seriously like that.

Speaker 1: 14:38

These are pagan thinkers who are not thinking in the footsteps of Christ or anything like that. But in that context they're like oh well, it doesn't matter that they are pagan thinkers, we're looking to them in terms of just the brilliance of their minds, and that's got nothing to do with whether they're Christian or not. And so you can see that there's problems here. And so, as we get into the by the end of the 17th century, this problem is is well, well on the table, and so that incredible success that science was enjoying, building on the foundation of Christ, raises in that context were rationalism. So it's not just reason, but rationalism is where reason has become the thing you trust in, not Christ, but, but reason itself is the thing that is the center of attention. And so then the idea then is can't we just build science and the scientific project with this confidence on the foundation of reason, without acknowledging Christ as the true, the true foundation?

Speaker 1: 16:14

Why don't we rejoice in reason, in truth and beauty too, in a way, without really seeking or acknowledging the one who gives these blessings, who makes this possible, who holds it all together?

Speaker 1: 16:33

Why don't we treat reason as as its own foundation, as if the universe just is rational without need of any further explanation? And yeah, why not treat reason as its own foundation? And beauty as, simply, in the eye of the beholder, beauty is what we perceive to be beautiful, and there is no actual beauty outside of us. And you know, why don't we find, why not make? Why don't we ourselves become, instead of Christ being the one who has thought and expressed all truth for us in the universe, and so we? His mind, his perspective, is the standard and entrance into wisdom and understanding? Instead of that, why? Why, if truth is autonomous and there just is a rational universe without any foundation under it, nothing to hold it all together.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Then our own minds, and also our own minds. Then you also have to believe that human, human minds are constructed, just happen to be constructed in such a way that they happen to come, exercise the very same rationality that just exists across the entire cosmos, and so on. But why not just believe that? And then our own minds become the standard of truth. Our thinking, our rationality becomes the. In a way, the highest consciousness of reason and truth is the human consciousness of reason and truth. If we do that, why not trust? So the problem in the 17th century becomes the 18th to 17th century, and by the time you're hitting into the 18th century, this is absolutely the dominant problem of Europe. Why not trust in logic without worshiping the Logos? Why not worship truth without worshiping the truth? So such was the newfound confidence in the rationality of the world and the human mind that a new godless approach arose, trying to build on the true foundation of science, but without acknowledging Christ.

Speaker 1: 19:32

In fact, the cry of what was called the enlightenment and just again I often flag it up, the title enlightenment is itself telling you the problem. The idea is, what came before was darkness, the dark ages of Christian thought and culture that gave rise to the scientific method, freedom, what we think of as European civilization, all of that is that Christian project. And then what the enlightenment does is saying we've tried to reacquire true rationality from ancient pagans and we are enlightened because we've escaped from Christian foundations of thought. The cry of the enlightenment? Just a word remember every time we ever use that word, always remember. It's a deeply offensive thing to say as a Christian. It's a way of say it's denouncing Christ as darkness. So I always shudder when I use the word. But we have to use it because it's the word that describes this movement of the 18th century. But it's a horrible word, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 21:03

But the cry of the enlightenment was to reject the foundation of Christ and his church and instead to, as they put it, dir, to trust in human reason alone. So quote dir to trust your own understanding. That was the motto or a motto of the age, if not the great motto of the age. The rationality of the universe and the rationality of the human mind are so secure and strong. They really are, though, as we've seen. That is this foundational gift that the Father has given to us, through the Son in the power of the Spirit, the rationality of the universe and the rationality of the human mind, but the so secure and strong that thinkers imagined that they could dig away the underlying foundation of the great High Priest, jesus Christ, and treat a rational universe and a rational human mind as ultimate foundations, as foundations that needed no further explanation.

Speaker 1: 22:34

And that is this extraordinary thing where, so if we say, sometimes an atheist will say to the Christian what's your explanation for the universe? And we'll say, ah, it is the father sending the son in the power of the spirit. And they'll say, but what's the explanation of that? And then we'll say, no, that is the, there is no explanation of that. And sometimes they put it in that silly way where they'll say who made God? And when we say, well, no one made God, like God is the from everlasting to everlasting, the father has been begetting the son and breathing out the spirit and they've shared this exuberant life together for endless ages they're like ah, I see, you haven't got a proper explanation, you're just going to that.

Speaker 1: 23:21

And then you stop thinking once you arrive there and we're sort of like laugh really, because we're like well, we don't really stop thinking when we get to that. We're sort of overwhelmed with the wonder of thought and the energy of thought and the endless possibilities of thought when we arrive there. But what we do is so they think what we're doing is sort of not wanting to think properly and just going ah, god did it. Now we're going to think about that idea of trying to use God to fill in gaps, of thinking in it shortly. But they think that's what we're doing. We don't want to think properly, so we just invoke God, god, like that. But the funny thing is that is what they do, the atheist.

Speaker 1: 24:12

Because we're saying but what's your explanation of a rational universe? How can everything be so ordered? And who wrote the laws that govern nature? Well, how can you explain that? We happen to think that our brains are so constructed that they think in the very way that the universe runs. How is that possible? What's your explanation for all that? And they go, ah, it just is, that's just how it is. And you go, no, then that really is. That really is ridiculous. You can't just say, ah, it's just the way it is, there's no further thing to think about, we just start thinking from that position. So you're like saying, oh, so, like it's like saying I don't have to have any explanation for this house that I'm in at the moment, that has electricity, the computer I'm using, I can see a kettle, a washing machine, things like that. I don't have to have any explanation for all that. I'm going to just take it for granted that this just exists and I'll work as if that is a proper foundation to start from. We can't.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Anyway, the modern age has been described as the age of reason, but it is obviously better, in a way, to call it the end of reason, or it's certainly the beginning of the end of reason, in that what we have witnessed from the 18th century to today is the unraveling of this great culture of reason that is given by Christ through his church and become this amazing civilizational achievement to think that through and create institutions for it and this tremendous confidence in it. But and that went on for like over a thousand years, and then it's really since the 18th century it's been unraveling, so that we will certainly, for the past 50 years, have experienced this well, really it may be for a hundred years. What is postmodernism meaning? This unraveling of reason and rationality, itself right at the heart of the culture, but of course that's the case anyway. We'll come to that in a future podcast. So it's the end of reason rather than the age of reason, because without the foundation of the logos, a self-sustained human reason will eat away at itself until there is nothing left.

Speaker 1: 27:00

In truth, many of the greatest scientists were, of course, still and even now are still self-consciously building on the foundation of Christ and throughout this era 17th century, 18th century, 19th century, 20th century, so on the ability of those who were continuing the great project of this great scientific project on the proper foundations, with this affectionate self-conscious trust and joy in Christ, the Divine Logos, their ability to push the boundaries of human thought and discover deep truth, it did flow out of the profound trust in Christ as the one who designed everything and holds it all together, and they had this.

Speaker 1: 27:58

You know, something we maybe look at later is the extraordinary way that I think every branch of science was actually founded by Christians, because the confidence in Christ gives us this confidence and ability and creativity to pioneer and to question and to think outside the box and to and and with his assistance, the assistance of Christ, there's so many of the really great scientists, when they come to do the theorizing and experimenting and thinking and the great labour, pray about it and pray for the enlightenment of the spirit to help them.

Speaker 1: 28:42

And that obviously happened. It's extraordinary how many of the pioneers of the modern scientific project, who opened up the new aspects of science they are Christian. The expansion of scientific knowledge was, for them, the expansion of the understanding of the mind of Christ. Now, with this is really important and we'll come into this more in the next episode. But so I'll end with this and this is something for us to chew on for the next week. But the the idea is this the expansion of scientific knowledge was, for these Christian founders of the scientific project, this expansion of scientific knowledge was, for them, the expansion of the understanding of the mind of Christ. The more that they understood the universe, the closer they felt to the creator of the universe. For these great scientists, the work of science was an act of worship, a holy work.