Augustine Pamplany CST
The emerging complementarity between science and religion is not a recent development. Although the Galileo episode of the 17th Century is considered as an instance of the rift between science and religion, there were scientists in the 17th Century itself who vigorously advocated the complementarity between religion and science. Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of the founders of Modern Chemistry, is one such scientist. Boyle is known to every student of science as the author of Boyle’s Law. Boyle was an Anglo-Irish scientist. He is considered to be a pioneer modern chemist who employed the typical scientific method.
As a devout Anglican, he wrote extensively in theology as well. In Boyle’s time, natural science was identical with philosophy and when he referred to philosophy he meant sciences of his time. His works on theology are Some Considerations Touching the Style of the Holy Scriptures (1661) The Excellency of Theology, Compared with Natural Philosophy (1674), and The Christian Virtuoso (1690).
Boyle is very articulate about the complementary relationship between science and religion: He wrote: “If we lay aside all the irrational opinions, that are unreasonably fathered on the Christian religion, and all erroneous conceits repugnant to Christianity, which have been groundlessly fathered upon Philosophy, the seeming contradictions between Divinity (theology) and true Philosophy (science), will be but few, and the real ones none at all.”
Boyle’s annual lecture series that are still conducted at the Wren Church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside in the City of London is managed with the fund allocated by Boyle himself in his will. The objective of these lectures, as stated by Boyle was “for proving the Christian Religion against notorious Infidels.”
His mystical blend of mind and the poetic perception of cosmic mysteries is evident in his words: “When with bold telescopes I survey the old and newly discovered stars and planets, when with excellent microscopes I discern the unimitable subtlety of nature’s curious workmanship; and when, in a word, by the help of anatomical knives, and the light of chemical furnaces, I study the book of nature, I find myself often times reduced to exclaim with the Psalmist, ‘How manifold are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made them all!’”
Boyle’s The Excellency of Theology carried the following words: “The vastness, beauty, orderliness of heavenly bodies, the excellent structure of animals and plants, and other phenomena of nature justly induce an intelligent, unprejudiced observer to conclude a supreme, powerful, just, and good Author.” If the opinions of scientists carry some authority, Boyle is someone whose views deserve a serious consideration even today.
