Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was a renowned British scientist famous for his contributions to electromagnetism. Of him Enstein said that among all peoples, Faraday ‘had made the greatest change in our conception of reality.’ Son of a blacksmith, and with no formal education, he discovered many fundamental laws of physics and chemistry.

He had an inherent faith in the order of the world and the law-governance of nature. In one of his lectures, he said: “God has been pleased to work in his material creation by laws and the Creator governs his material works by definite laws resulting from the forces impressed on matter. The beauty of electricity….is that it is under law.” Though he could not establish a relation between gravity and electricity in his experiments, he wrote in his diary, “God’s world was coherent, ruled by law. In such a world relationships between forces had to exist.”

As a member of Royal Society, his task included delivering public lectures. In his lectures, he never alluded to religion. But spiritual insights were explicit in his lectures. For instance, of the wonders of magnetism, he said, ‘What its great purpose is, seems to be looming in the distance before us….and I cannot doubt that a glorious discovery in natural knowledge, and of the wisdom and power of God in the creation, is awaiting our age.” He had strong faith in a creator God, but did not consider Bible to be a source of scientific information.  Faraday considered the world and the scripture to be the two books authored by the same God. “The natural works of God can never by any possibility come into contradiction with the higher things that belong to our future existence.”

He remained as a humble Christian throughout his life. He declined the nomination as the president of the Royal Society. Cantor remarks: “As a Christian, Faraday felt that no God-given moment should be wasted. His time had to be strictly controlled. He pursued both his science and his religion with total dedication.” At the end of his famous Christmas series titled, ‘The Chemical History of a Candle’ he said: “Indeed, all I can say to you at the end of these lectures … is to express a wish that you may, in your generation, be fit to compare to a candle; that, in all your actions, you may justify the beauty of the taper by making your deeds honourable and effectual in the discharge of your duty to your fellow-men.”