Scientists of the Christian Faith: A Presentation of the Pioneers, Practitioners and Supporters of Modern Science
Compiled by W. R. Miller and J. P. Holding
Is Christianity based upon fabrication, fables and falsehoods? If one believes the eyewitness accounts of the Bible, does that make one ignorant, irrational, even insane?
Anti-theists seem to think so.
"All thinking men are atheists."
Ernest Hemingway, American author (1899-1961).
"For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain."
Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek (1921-1991).
"I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious-unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force."
Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain", American author and humorist (1835-1910).
"The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one."
David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (1711-1776).
When asked, "Do you support religious freedom," she responded, "Oh, absolutely! I feel that everyone has a right to be insane."
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American atheist activist (1923-1995). Interview in Freedom Writer magazine, March 1989.
"Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror."
Francois Marie Arouet "Voltaire", French author and playwright.
"Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a better place to live in, instead of the sort of place the churches in all these centuries have made it."
"Why
I am Not a Christian", by Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) ,
"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. . . . A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill."
And
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration-courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth."
Henry Louis "H.L." Mencken, American editor and critic (1880-1956).
As we shall see, these notable skeptics have failed to do their homework, as have skeptics who propogate these quotes on their websites. History itself reveals that mankind's greatest minds - scholars, mathematicians, doctors, lawyers, historians, engineers, and yes, scientists and inventors - have been, and continue to be Christians.
David F. Coppedge at THE WORLD'S GREATEST CREATION SCIENTISTS From Y1K to Y2K points out that
Read more about these claims in Appendix 1.
This colletion presents hundreds of mini-biographies of scientists of the Christian faith-including scholars, mathematicians, and theologians who advanced the cause of science. These Christians pioneered disciplines ranging from oceanography to astronomy, geology to biology, rocket science to genetics. The mini-biographies are presented in alphabetical order. Links to online websites are provided for those wishing to research a particular scientist. Researchers are invited to order the biographies by clicking on the hypertext, as well as check out the biographies published by Gale.
First assembled in 2004, this collection has been updated in 2022-2024. Many links that have expired from the earlier time have been replaced with archive links from the Wayback Machine Internet archive database, though sadly, some of the original links were not preserved by the Wayback Machine and have been instead deleted from the list. However, new links have also been added to replace those that were lost or to provide further documentation. Entries have not, however, always been updated to reflect current status of those featured; for example, the entries may refer to persons as being in a certain position "present tense" even though they are deceased.
I initally relied upon the lists of Henry Morris (Men of Science, Men of God (ISBN 0-890510-80-6), Mike Poole (the booklet God and the Scientists, ISBN 1-901796-02-7), Eric C. Barrett and David Fisher (Scientists Who Believe: 21 Tell Their Own Stories, ISBN 0-8024-7634-1), Paul M. Anderson (Professors Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of Christian Faculty, ISBN 0-8308-1599-6), Henry Schaefer III (website at https://web.archive.org/web/20201126031529/https://www.ccqc.uga.edu/people/member_page.php?id=6/ and http://leaderu.com/offices/schaefer/docs/scientists.html), Dan Graves (Scientists of Faith: 48 Biographies of Historic Scientists and Their Christian Faith, ISBN 0-8254-2724-X and Doctors Who Followed Christ: Thirty-Two Biographies of Eminent Physicians and Their Christian Faith, ISBN 0-8254-2734-7, website http://www.rae.org/influsci.html), the NAHSTE Project (here), the School_of_Mathematics_and_Statistics University_of_St_Andrews,_Scotland (http://www-maths.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/), Colin Webster's essay at https://web.archive.org/web/20050226012934/http://www.cornerstoneuk.org.uk/q1_sci2.html, Dr. Don DeYoung's "Men and Women of Mathematics and of God," at https://web.archive.org/web/20140315152256/http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/98/cm9811.html, a small list of English scientists by P.S.Williams (BA - Cardiff, MA - Sheffield), from "Thinking Through. . . Jesus - Divine and Human?" at https://web.archive.org/web/20050228234021/http://www.peter-s-williams.co.uk/The%20Real%20Jesus/Jesus.doc plus the databases at the online Gale Biography Resource Center, which include Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Notable Women Scientists, Contemporary Black Biography, Explorers and Discoverers of the World, Marquis Who's Who TM and Contemporary Authors Online.
A large number of the scientists have biographies posted at The Galileo Project, a source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the scientists of his time. The project, whose homepage is here is supported by the Office of the Vice President of Computing at Rice University. The initial stages were made possible by a grant from the Council on Library Resources to Fondren Library. Contributors to the Project are noted here. Albert Van Helden, Lynette Autrey Professor of History at Rice University, is responsible for the written text in the Project (except where otherwise noted). The Project features a Catalog of the Scientific Community of the 16th and 17th Centuries. http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/catalog.html. This is a searchable database of detailed histories of over 600 individuals who made significant contributions to Western science. These histories have been compiled by Richard S. Westfall, Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University. From this I've compiled a list of 522 Galileo-era scientists known to be Christians, with links to biographies at The Galileo Project. For quick and easy reference, researchers can access this list here. Another helpful source for the early version of this collection was the MacTutor Index, as well as a few general information sources like the Free Dictionary, Fact Index, the Catholic Encyclopedia, Christian Answers, Who Named It, and many more.
In the interim as well, some websites used as sources have disappeared, though we have attempted to recover the material with links to the Internet Archive when possible. One such example was the collection of Jesuit biographies put together by a professor at Fairfield University. This collection, which we first used in 2004, vanished from its server just in the past year (2023), which illustrates well the transient nature of online sources! Another major loss was the website which hosted the 1911 Encyclopedia.
For the update in 2024, many more new sources for biographical information were discovered, including the following:
The reader will note that we have been broad (yet orthodox) in our approach to who is on the list. We have included Young Earth Creationists, Old Earthers, and theistic evolutionists. We have included Protestants, Catholics, and Seventh-Day Adventists. (However, we have excluded those who are part of groups considered outside the Christian mainstream, such as the Moonies.) That is because the goal here is not to argue for any particular scientific or denominational approach. It is rather to show that (contrary to those quoted above) it is hardly impossible for someone to be a believer in the Lordship of Christ while also being a trained scientist.
Alphabetical Index
Appendix 1: Christian Pioneers of Modern Science
Appendix 2: Links to websites featuring Christian scientists
Appendix 3: Christian Academics
Appendix 4: God and Mathematics
Database information can be found at this location, and at a library that subscribes to the Gale Biography service. "Not in Gale" simply means the scientist has no extensive biography in the online Gale databases; however, their bios may be found in the print editions. A separate section lists an additional 35 science practitioners who are probable Christians, though I have been unable to confirm this through online research.
This listing is by no means definitive, or complete. There are/have been literally thousands of Christians involved in the sciences. See Appendix 2 for the various Christian organizations devoted to science.
Dr. Francis S. Collins is Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He currently leads the Human Genome Project, directed at mapping and sequencing all of human DNA, and determining aspects of its function. His previous research has identified the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease and Hutchison-Gilford progeria syndrome. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. For the rest of his credentials, click on the link here. Collins spoke with Bob Abernethy of PBS, posted online at this location, in which he summaries the compatability of fact and faith thusly:
"I think there's a common assumption that you cannot both be a rigorous, show-me-the-data scientist and a person who believes in a personal God. I would like to say that from my perspective that assumption is incorrect; that, in fact, these two areas are entirely compatible and not only can exist within the same person, but can exist in a very synthetic way, and not in a compartmentalized way. I have no reason to see a discordance between what I know as a scientist who spends all day studying the genome of humans and what I believe as somebody who pays a lot of attention to what the Bible has taught me about God and about Jesus Christ. Those are entirely compatible views.
"Science is the way -- a powerful way, indeed -- to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective -- in fact, it's rather ineffective -- in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other. And it is a great joy to be in a position of being able to bring both of those points of view to bear in any given day of the week. The notion that you have to sort of choose one or the other is a terrible myth that has been put forward, and which many people have bought into without really having a chance to examine the evidence. I came to my faith not, actually, in a circumstance where it was drummed into me as a child, which people tend to assume of any scientist who still has a personal faith in God; but actually by a series of compelling, logical arguments, many of them put forward by C. S. Lewis, that got me to the precipice of saying, 'Faith is actually plausible.' You still have to make that step. You will still have to decide for yourself whether to believe. But you can get very close to that by intellect alone."
Scientists of the Christian Faith: A Presentation of the Pioneers, Practitioners and Supporters of Modern Science
Compiled by W. R. Miller
Is Christianity based upon fabrication, fables and falsehoods? If one believes the eyewitness accounts of the Bible, does that make one ignorant, irrational, even insane?
Anti-theists seem to think so.
"All thinking men are atheists."
Ernest Hemingway, American author (1899-1961).
"For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain."
Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek (1921-1991).
"I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious-unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force."
Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain", American author and humorist (1835-1910).
"The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one."
David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (1711-1776).
When asked, "Do you support religious freedom," she responded, "Oh, absolutely! I feel that everyone has a right to be insane."
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American atheist activist (1923-1995). Interview in Freedom Writer magazine, March 1989.
"Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror."
Francois Marie Arouet "Voltaire", French author and playwright.
"Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a better place to live in, instead of the sort of place the churches in all these centuries have made it."
"Why
I am Not a Christian", by Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) ,
"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. . . . A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill."
And
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration-courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth."
Henry Louis "H.L." Mencken, American editor and critic (1880-1956).
As we shall see, these notable skeptics have failed to do their homework, as have skeptics who propogate these quotes on their websites. History itself reveals that mankind's greatest minds - scholars, mathematicians, doctors, lawyers, historians, engineers, and yes, scientists and inventors - have been, and continue to be Christians.
David F. Coppedge at THE WORLD'S GREATEST CREATION SCIENTISTS From Y1K to Y2K points out that
Read more about these claims in Appendix 1.
This colletion presents hundreds of mini-biographies of scientists of the Christian faith-including scholars, mathematicians, and theologians who advanced the cause of science. These Christians pioneered disciplines ranging from oceanography to astronomy, geology to biology, rocket science to genetics. The mini-biographies are presented in alphabetical order. Links to online websites are provided for those wishing to research a particular scientist. Researchers are invited to order the biographies by clicking on the hypertext, as well as check out the biographies published by Gale.
First assembled in 2004, this collection has been updated in 2022-2024. Many links that have expired from the earlier time have been replaced with archive links from the Wayback Machine Internet archive database, though sadly, some of the original links were not preserved by the Wayback Machine and have been instead deleted from the list. However, new links have also been added to replace those that were lost or to provide further documentation. Entries have not, however, always been updated to reflect current status of those featured; for example, the entries may refer to persons as being in a certain position "present tense" even though they are deceased.
I initally relied upon the lists of Henry Morris (Men of Science, Men of God (ISBN 0-890510-80-6), Mike Poole (the booklet God and the Scientists, ISBN 1-901796-02-7), Eric C. Barrett and David Fisher (Scientists Who Believe: 21 Tell Their Own Stories, ISBN 0-8024-7634-1), Paul M. Anderson (Professors Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of Christian Faculty, ISBN 0-8308-1599-6), Henry Schaefer III (website at https://web.archive.org/web/20201126031529/https://www.ccqc.uga.edu/people/member_page.php?id=6/ and http://leaderu.com/offices/schaefer/docs/scientists.html), Dan Graves (Scientists of Faith: 48 Biographies of Historic Scientists and Their Christian Faith, ISBN 0-8254-2724-X and Doctors Who Followed Christ: Thirty-Two Biographies of Eminent Physicians and Their Christian Faith, ISBN 0-8254-2734-7, website http://www.rae.org/influsci.html), the NAHSTE Project (here), the School_of_Mathematics_and_Statistics University_of_St_Andrews,_Scotland (http://www-maths.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/), Colin Webster's essay at https://web.archive.org/web/20050226012934/http://www.cornerstoneuk.org.uk/q1_sci2.html, Dr. Don DeYoung's "Men and Women of Mathematics and of God," at https://web.archive.org/web/20140315152256/http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/98/cm9811.html, a small list of English scientists by P.S.Williams (BA - Cardiff, MA - Sheffield), from "Thinking Through. . . Jesus - Divine and Human?" at https://web.archive.org/web/20050228234021/http://www.peter-s-williams.co.uk/The%20Real%20Jesus/Jesus.doc plus the databases at the online Gale Biography Resource Center, which include Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Notable Women Scientists, Contemporary Black Biography, Explorers and Discoverers of the World, Marquis Who's Who TM and Contemporary Authors Online.
A large number of the scientists have biographies posted at The Galileo Project, a source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the scientists of his time. The project, whose homepage is here is supported by the Office of the Vice President of Computing at Rice University. The initial stages were made possible by a grant from the Council on Library Resources to Fondren Library. Contributors to the Project are noted here. Albert Van Helden, Lynette Autrey Professor of History at Rice University, is responsible for the written text in the Project (except where otherwise noted). The Project features a Catalog of the Scientific Community of the 16th and 17th Centuries. http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/catalog.html. This is a searchable database of detailed histories of over 600 individuals who made significant contributions to Western science. These histories have been compiled by Richard S. Westfall, Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University. From this I've compiled a list of 522 Galileo-era scientists known to be Christians, with links to biographies at The Galileo Project. For quick and easy reference, researchers can access this list here. Another helpful source for the early version of this collection was the MacTutor Index, as well as a few general information sources like the Free Dictionary, Fact Index, the Catholic Encyclopedia, Christian Answers, Who Named It, and many more.
In the interim as well, some websites used as sources have disappeared, though we have attempted to recover the material with links to the Internet Archive when possible. One such example was the collection of Jesuit biographies put together by a professor at Fairfield University. This collection, which we first used in 2004, vanished from its server just in the past year (2023), which illustrates well the transient nature of online sources! Another major loss was the website which hosted the 1911 Encyclopedia.
For the update in 2024, many more new sources for biographical information were discovered, including the following:
The reader will note that we have been broad (yet orthodox) in our approach to who is on the list. We have included Young Earth Creationists, Old Earthers, and theistic evolutionists. We have included Protestants, Catholics, and Seventh-Day Adventists. (However, we have excluded those who are part of groups considered outside the Christian mainstream, such as the Moonies.) That is because the goal here is not to argue for any particular scientific or denominational approach. It is rather to show that (contrary to those quoted above) it is hardly impossible for someone to be a believer in the Lordship of Christ while also being a trained scientist.
Alphabetical Index
Appendix 1: Christian Pioneers of Modern Science
Appendix 2: Links to websites featuring Christian scientists
Appendix 3: Christian Academics
Appendix 4: God and Mathematics
Database information can be found at this location, and at a library that subscribes to the Gale Biography service. "Not in Gale" simply means the scientist has no extensive biography in the online Gale databases; however, their bios may be found in the print editions. A separate section lists an additional 35 science practitioners who are probable Christians, though I have been unable to confirm this through online research.
This listing is by no means definitive, or complete. There are/have been literally thousands of Christians involved in the sciences. See Appendix 2 for the various Christian organizations devoted to science.
Dr. Francis S. Collins is Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He currently leads the Human Genome Project, directed at mapping and sequencing all of human DNA, and determining aspects of its function. His previous research has identified the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease and Hutchison-Gilford progeria syndrome. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. For the rest of his credentials, click on the link here. Collins spoke with Bob Abernethy of PBS, posted online at this location, in which he summaries the compatability of fact and faith thusly:
"I think there's a common assumption that you cannot both be a rigorous, show-me-the-data scientist and a person who believes in a personal God. I would like to say that from my perspective that assumption is incorrect; that, in fact, these two areas are entirely compatible and not only can exist within the same person, but can exist in a very synthetic way, and not in a compartmentalized way. I have no reason to see a discordance between what I know as a scientist who spends all day studying the genome of humans and what I believe as somebody who pays a lot of attention to what the Bible has taught me about God and about Jesus Christ. Those are entirely compatible views.
"Science is the way -- a powerful way, indeed -- to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective -- in fact, it's rather ineffective -- in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other. And it is a great joy to be in a position of being able to bring both of those points of view to bear in any given day of the week. The notion that you have to sort of choose one or the other is a terrible myth that has been put forward, and which many people have bought into without really having a chance to examine the evidence. I came to my faith not, actually, in a circumstance where it was drummed into me as a child, which people tend to assume of any scientist who still has a personal faith in God; but actually by a series of compelling, logical arguments, many of them put forward by C. S. Lewis, that got me to the precipice of saying, 'Faith is actually plausible.' You still have to make that step. You will still have to decide for yourself whether to believe. But you can get very close to that by intellect alone."