Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 41:1 (Mar 1998)
Article: The Design Argument In Scientific Discourse: Historical-Theological Perspective From The Seventeenth Century
Author: John C. Hutchison

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JETS 41:1 (March 1998) p. 85

The Design Argument In Scientific Discourse: Historical-Theological Perspective
From The Seventeenth Century

John C. Hutchison*

* John Hutchison is associate professor of Bible exposition at Talbot School of Theology, 13800 Biola Avenue, La Mirada, CA 90639–0001.

When one considers the revolutionary changes brought about through Darwinian and neo-Darwinian science he is ultimately led to an important question: How could modern science have undergone such a dramatic philosophical drift from its earliest theological moorings? From the journals and published writings of the seventeenth-century virtuosi1 one can scarcely find an example of scientific investigation that is not in some way grounded in a theistic purpose. Yet when Charles Darwin proposed his alternative naturalistic explanation in the field of biology2 his theory not only challenged existing theistic explanations but also was enthusiastically embraced by the majority of scientists by the end of the nineteenth century.3 God-fearing scientists of Darwin’s era were incapable of answering naturalism as a philosophical system because their theological base of authority had long since been eroded. They had received from the forefathers of science a weak, and sometimes erroneous, theology of nature. Ironically the origin of this faulty theological foundation can be traced to the seventeenth-century virtuosi themselves, whose piety and doxological aspirations for science could scarcely be questioned. Their skill and enthusiasm as scientists and philosophers, however, sometimes exceeded their discernment as theologians.

The natural theology of the seventeenth-century fathers of modern science, which permeated the philosophical fabric of science for two hundred years, contained subtle and significant compromises when compared with

JETS 41:1 (March 1998) p. 86

the truth of Scripture. The far-reaching effects of these concessions were not clearly seen in the seventeenth century by the virtuosi themselves but are later brought to their fruition in the deism of eighteenth-century science and the agnosticism and atheism following Darwin’s revolution.

The present paper will focus on the natural theology of three prominent seventeenth-century scientists in England: Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton. Their theological views are surveyed not only because they shaped science in this period but also because they chronologically span the entire seventeenth century. The theology of these three men shows a steady progression from the devout Christianity of the early 1600s to the deis...

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