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The Reformation & the Scientific Age

The Reformation brought robust Christian worldview to the West, and one of the important Christian worldview insights that protestants (particularly, Calvinists) brought to the table was that the physical creation is orderly and subject to natural laws (the natural order God set for it).

Instead of looking to magic, superstition, or divine miracles to explain natural phenomenon—and therefore dismissing curiosity about the creation as something beyond our ability to understand—men began instead trying to understand the creation, as it says in the Proverbs, The glory of God is to conceal a thing secret: but the King’s honor is to search out a thing.

The Reformation brought a radical transformation to the world in many respects, and one of the biggest was the idea that we could understand the things that happen in nature, and that it is good and honorable to seek to!

Science Class & Classical Education

Thus, formal classes in Natural Philosophy are a new addition to the Christian, classical curriculum, but a welcome and God-honoring one!! John Quincy Adams, George Washington, and Jonathan Edwards never took a Chemistry class. But I suppose (putō) that if it had been an option, they would have.

So (sīc) our Christian Trivium Education adds formal Natural Philosophy classes, in the Understanding and Wisdom years.  It adds more work than the Christian, classical education of old included… but our studies in history, Latin, Greek, logic, and philosophy don’t quite reach their level, so I think we can make time for it. 😉

The important Christian, classical thing to remember is how we approach science classes.  Do we call them “science”, which is Latin for knowing, or knowledge?  Do we approach science classes as if they teach universal Truth?  Do we consider science to be the beginning of knowledge, and that it is the Most Important subject we must make sure we teach our children in our modern times?

You see the problem plainly, just from the way I worded these questions.  We were taught that science class is Very Important, and that it teaches Truth.

But while studying God’s creation is absolutely worthwhile, and God-honoring, and delightful, and helpful…  It is just a nice add-on.

First, our children must understand God’s Word.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  (Proverbs 1:7)

Second, and really part of the first thing, we must teach our children language—grammar, vocabulary, comprehension—because they can’t understand God’s word rightly without it.

Third, and still really part of the first thing, we must teach our children logic—right reasoning in our inquiries after truth.  With a little Bible and no logic, we have the cults.  And, boy, do we have a big problem with cults today.  The Bible’s a hard book.  Don’t raise up kids who think the Bible’s important, but can’t actually understand it.

Fourth, and this is where we start going above and beyond, we teach our children to communicate well, so they can share the good things they understand with others, to help other people understand the gospel and true biblical worldview better!

Science comes after all of those others.

That will seem like anathema to most parents today, but it’s the truth.  Christian, classical education, which we had for 1,500 years, and really mastered in the post-Reformation times of the Puritans and founding fathers of America, looks at understanidng the natural world as a wonderful, profitable field of study, but less important than the Bible, grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Whom to Honor?

The other thing to keep in mind when we study science is whom we are honoring when we study it.  Modern science study gives all of the honor to atheists, and that is a real problem.

First of all, in every single bit of science we study, we should be thinking of our favorite science proverb: The glory of God is to conceal a thing secret: but the King’s honor is to search out a thing.  (Proverbs 25:2)

What are we doing when we do science?  We are searching out the mind of God!  We are discovering what things He made!  We are looking into how He made things!!  Every bit of discovery should cause us to say, Wow, the Lord is so wonderful!!!!!

Second, as far as earthly pioneers of science go, we should recognize that we have the vast majority of our scientific understanding today due to Christians.  We had some good advances from the ancient pagan Greeks, and apparently the Mohammedans brought the so-called “Arabic” numeral system to us from pagan India, and some serious advances were made in the Christian West before the Reformation.  But our modern so-called Scientific Age is almost entirely due to the work of Protestant Christians coming out of the Reformation.  (The many, many Creation Scientist of the Month biographies on crev.info is a wonderful resource, if you’d like to learn more about that!)

It is sad that that field of science has been filled with so many atheists, pagans, and apostates today, but they are merely building on the foundations built by Christians who loved God and wanted to know more about Him through His works.  We must give credit to whom credit is due.

So let’s teach our kids formal natural philosophy (or science) study!  But let’s keep it in its place.

How have you kept God first as you teach your children science?  Leave us a comment below!

Thanks for dropping by; please keep us in prayer!