Francis
Bacon (1561-1626)
Francis Bacon has
been called the major prophet of the scientific revolution. At the age
of twelve Bacon went to study at Trinity College of Cambridge, later
acquired an education in law, and eventually was admitted to the bar as
a barrister. He next embarked on a political career in the hope that it
would allow him to advance his emerging ideas for the advancement of
science. In time he acquired a seat in the House of Commons, was
knighted, held the position of Lord Chancellor and Baron Verulam, and
Viscount St. Albans. He gained fame as a speaker in Parliament and as a
lawyer in some famous trials in which he was considered an expert on
English constitutional law. An outstanding thinker, Bacon was motivated
to write in areas as far reaching as science and civil government in a
battle against the old order of scholasticism with its slavish
dependence on accepted authorities. He advocated the view that whatever
the "mind seizes and dwells upon with parculiar satisfaction is to be
held in suspicion" (1, p. 56). His passion for the advancement of
natural philosophy was rooted in his belief that science was dependent
on and the key to technological progress. Much of his greatest
philosophical effort was applied to the Novum Organum in which
he described the inductive method of reasoning for the interpretation
of nature.
Bacon was very critical of those in the scholastic tradition who jumped
from a few particular observations, to remote axioms, and then deduced
intermediate axioms through syllogistic demonstration. He also took a
dim view of the empiricists who were side-tracked by experiments done
in depth, without reference to related phenomena, and who then went on
to make unjustifiably broad generalizations. According to Bacon there
were four categories of false knowledge, or idols, that had captured
the mind of man of his day. They are paraphrased as follows (1, pp. 48,
49):
- Idols of the
tribe: False notions due to the human nature and common to all men.
An example would be geocentricity which was due to the limits of human
insight.
- Idols of the
cave: Personal interpretations due to individual makeup or
disposition. An example would be Gilbert's "magnetic world view."
- Idols of the
market-place: The problem of language and the confusion of words
and terms. An example of this relates to the problem with definitions
of words which likewise depend upon words.
- Idols of the
theatre: The dogmas of philosophies that are received from wrong
"laws of demonstration." This involves the results of the Aristotelian
method of syllogistic argumentation.
In contrast to these
Bacon said that science progressed "in a just scale of ascent, and by
successive steps not interrupted or broken, we rise from particulars to
lesser axioms; and then to middle axioms, one above the other; and last
of all to the most general" (1, p. 98). In short, his method required
(1) accumulating a store of particular empirical observations, (2) from
these inductively inferring lesser axioms, (3) from these inductively
inferring middle axioms, (4) and then proposing the most general of
notions, each in progressive steps. If we read modern meaning into the
language used by Bacon we might see a foreshadowing of the idea of a
hypothesis in a "lesser axiom" and a theory in the "middle axiom." This
would make his method agree with the conception of science in use
today, however the context indicates that his ideas were really not so
fully developed. Bacon also argued that this inductive method "must be
used not only to discover axioms, but also notions," which may
correspond to the concept of a paradigm, but again, may be reading
modern meaning into the text. In any case, it is clear that Bacon's
view of the scientific method is progressive and cumulative.
The radical commitment to empiricism advocated by Bacon may imply for
some that he did not accept any knowledge that was not received by
personal observation. This is a mistakenly narrow interpretation of
Bacon's view of natural philosophy which he believed was given as the
"most faithful handmaid" of religion (1, p. 88). Bacon actually saw his
new way of acquiring knowledge as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy
concerning the last days, "Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased" (1, p. 920, (Daniel 12:4)). Further, he saw the
technological advancement of science as a restoration of the "dominion
mandate" (Genesis 1:28), and thus he wrote, "man by the fall fell at
the same time from his state of innocency and from his dominion over
creation. Both of these losses however can even in this life be in some
parts repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by the
arts and sciences" (1, p. 267). There was, however, reason to believe
that Bacon's views would eventually play into the hands of humanistic
concerns since he also came to write in unjustifiably general terms
that his inductive method would "extend more widely the limits, of the
power and greatness of man," and one day "embrace everything" (1, pp.
106, 116). For those who later advocated a "scientific world view" this
was claimed to have been fulfilled.
Analysis:
Aphorism LXXXIX
The spectre of the
so-called "war between science and religion" is finally addressed in
this important aphorism. Recollection of the formula for the use of
metaphors is instructive at this point; If the character of the
interchange between science and religion were anything like that which
arises between major political groups it would in this case be like a
war. This war metaphor is maintained throughout this section and at
times brings to mind the picture of a cold war, at others guerilla
warfare, and at still others an all-out asault on the respective
territories. It is also interesting that the conflict described appears
very contemporary having the same tenor and tone as some modern
conflicts with which we are familiar. As for example that of
creationism versus evolutionism.
From a Christian perspective, this war is not really between science
and religion at all, but rather between man and God and beginning in
the Garden of Eden. The problem in the garden, even as it is now,
hinges on the human desire to acquire knowledge of the universe without
submission to the Creator of that universe. When told by the serpent
that the acquisition of such knowledge would lead to personal autonomy
and power, Eve "saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and
pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, [and] she
took some and ate it." This conflict has been properly called The
Long War Against God in the book by Henry M. Morris who chronicles
the ideological battle that courses through all human history (2).
Bacon urges us to not forget the battle between Natural Philosophy,
superstition, and a "blind and immoderate zeal of religion" (1, p.87).
By Natural Philosophy we understand Bacon to make reference to the then
popular synthesis between Aristoteliain typopology and certain
Christian beliefs. This philosophy attacted many orthodox Christians
and Deists to the study of the natural world for at least two centuries
(1650-1850) through its appologetic for intelligent design. Bacon
appears to lean toward the orthodox side of these two camps, however it
is important to note the places at which his views play into the hands
of humanistic concerns through a quest for human power. In any case,
Bacon has already offered an appologetic for the superiority and broad
scope of Natural Philosophy which he equates to his own method for
investigation of the natural world.
In contrast to his approach is superstition for which Bacon gives the
example of the Greeks who relied on gods and demi-gods as explanations
for storms and thunder which were later recognized as natural
phenomena. And for them the error was doubly compounded because they
were not only guilty of scientific ignorance, but also of impiety
toward a higher Truth. In reference to the latter we could assume that
Bacon was thinking of the judgement of the idolatrous Greek culture by
Biblical Christianity as seen in the words of the Apostle Paul, "In the
past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people
everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
Next Bacon turns to some of the ancient fathers of the
Christian church. These, he said, did not show much forbearance toward
those who believed that the earth was round and had poles. The history
of the flat-earth myth is interesting and complex, but the fact is that
part of the myth is that the majority of the church fathers ever did
beleive that the earth was flat. Today evolutionists often accuse
Biblical creationists of believing in a flat earth. But neither history
nor modern scholarship may be used to claim that Christians ever widely
believed that the earth was flat.
The earliest advocate of a flat-earth was the African Lactantius (AD
245-325), a professional rhetorician who converted to Christianity
mid-life. Lactantius rejected all the Greek philosophers, and in doing
so also rejected a spherical earth. His views were actually considered
heresy by the church fathers because of his reliance on a wide range of
pagan sources as the basis of his work which was ignored until the
Renaissance when it was revived because of his mastery of Latin. Next
was the sixth century Eastern Greek Christian, Cosmas Indicopleustes,
who claimed that the earth was flat and lay beneath the heavens
(consisting of a rectangular vaulted arch). His work was likewise
ignored and, or, rejected by the church fathers. Further, the
well-known argument at the Council of Salamanca was concerned with the
incorrect calculations of Columbus about the distance between Europe
and Japan and had nothing to do with the shape of the earth (3).
In the end, the reason that the orthodox church did not teach that the
earth was flat is that the Bible does not teach any such thing. Rather,
the Bible simply describes the earth in reference to the transcendent
God who "sits enthroned above the circle of the earth" (Isaiah 40:22),
"spreads out the northern skies over empty space; ... [and] suspends
the earth over nothing" (Job 26:7). While the background for this one
particular observation of Bacon may not be clear, it could be that the
publication of the Novum Organum in 1620 was in close enough
proximity to the censure of Gallileo in 1616 that these comments
reflect his overall concern about ecclesiastical cosmology.
The next concern raised by Bacon relates to the theological school of
thought known as Scholasticism. This tradition was largely dominant in
the High Middle Ages and was based on the authority of the Latin Church
Fathers and of Aristotle. Thomas Aquinas brought this school of thought
to its zenith in 1273 with his Suma Theologica which
systematically, and as though "fashioned it into the shape of an art,"
advanced this method into what later came to be known as "Thomism." As
a theological method it is associated with organized textbook
theological and philosophical method.
It is no wonder that Bacon came to hold such a tradition in contempt
since it appeared to give credence to the of the Aristotelian method of
syllogistic argumentation by its aplication to Biblical hermenuetics.
It was this synthesis that Bacon considered to be the worst enemy of
Natural Philosophy. One of the central problems with such a system was
that many came to believe that they were justified in placing human
philosophy on the same level as divine revelation. This was illustrated
at the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent, where "the works of
Aquinas lay open on the high altar along with the Bible as works of
reference" (4, p. 886). Bacon seems to be alluding to those who had
taken the authority of Aristotle as the starting point and then went on
to "demonstrate" many absurd, but logical conclusions. When such a
system of authority was taken to it logical end, then the condemnation
of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo was inevitable. Unfortunately for
the advance of science, because the "contentious and thorny philosophy
of Aristotle" (geocentricity) was incorporated "with the body of
religion," the only logical conclusion was that heliocentricity was a
heresy. By way of contrast, it is interesting to note that while
Aquinas used the "doctrine of analogy" to explain how we may understand
God (4, p. 61), Bacon used literay analogy to explain how we may
understand nature.
At the next juncture Bacon seems to take a big step in the direction of
Christian Orthodoxy. Here, he disapproves of those who would drag the
scriptures down to the philosopher's level. These, he says, imagine
that they have the power "to deduce the truth of the Christian religion
from principles of philosophers." Such arguments would be erroneously
assumed to be "first principles arguments" even though no person could
possibly have been present at the beginning to acquire the neccessary
maxims. Yet these philosopher-theologians were not concerned with their
lack of genuine authority since all they sought for confirmation are
the conclusions of those with which they began. Bacon seems to feel
that such circular reasoning is a characteristic of the pompous
philosopher-theologian. The Apostle Paul sumarized this type of
reasoning in this way, "When they measure themselves by themselves and
compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise" (2 Corinthians
10:12).
Bacon then brings before us the picture of an unlawful marriage which
is first arranged and later legitimized by the originating parties. In
this, Bacon depicts the pompous philosopher-theologian as one who
imagines that he can also deduce from his philosophical first
principles, the transcendant truths of the Christian religion. With
such power to reconstruct divine things, he expects that a little more
exertion in the empirical realm is all that is required to deductively
leap to the universals of natural philosophy. And so, for Bacon, the
marriage of sensory empiricism to revelational faith is an illegitimate
union based on pride. Such arranged marriages only beget unnatural
children who may appear to grow like others, but who are actually an
unhealthy mingling of the sacred with the corrupt. At this point, Bacon
appears to affirm what we would properly expect to come only from the
orthodox. He has argued that divine revelation comes from God alone and
must not be adulterated by human wisdom. He says that to attempt any
such mixture will eventually cause one to disparage "things divine."
This is just as revealed in the scriptures:
"For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the
LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8,9)
After developing the
noble concerns about mingling the sacred with the corrupt, Bacon moves
on to his central point. He rightly asserts that such dogmatic
philosophy is not progressive, and therefore, only the "received
doctrines of philosophy are included, while new ones, albeit changes
for the better, are all but expelled and exterminated." If we take
Bacon at face value he has correctly argued against the elevation of
short-lived philosophies constructed by men to the same level as the
eternal truths revealed by God. And if this is true, then he has also
diagnosed the problem that led to the censure of Galileo. In that case
there was an unholy mingling of the "received" Aristotelian doctrine of
a geocentric universe with the revealed truth that the Creator of the
universe is minful of man (Psalm 8). Bacon says it is this "blind and
immoderate zeal of religion" which is the most "troublesome adversary"
of science.
Lastly, Bacon turns his attention to the "simpleness of certain
divines" for which "access to any philosophy, however pure, is well
nigh closed." This particular species of theologian is a cowardly sort
who secretly fears that if he turns over the wrong rock he may overturn
his own faith. For this reason these divines misinterpret scripture to
say that we must not delve too deeply into any sort of mystery since
God may take it for presumption. But where did these divines find
scriptural support for thier idea? One potential area is the recurrent
Biblical contrast between the limitless knowledge of God and the finite
knowledge of man. Yet in practice, this sort of "sobermindedness"
should only lead us to humbly consider our own wisdom. Another commom
complaint from the skeptic relates to the original restriction of
access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, while the
God of the Bible has clearly warned man about the consequences
associated with knowledge acquired by disobedient experience of
good and evil (Genesis 2:17), he does not barr access to knowledge about
good or evil (Matthew 10:16) if it is exposed to the light of
his truth (5). Bacon seems to also see in the scriptures a questionable
teaching that there are "sacred mysteries" which men may know exist,
but from which they are barred. Yet the pattern of the scriptures is
not to bait us with mysteries witheld, but rather to celebrate what
were once mysteries and now revealed (Colossians 2;2,3). There are, of
course, notable cases where beleivers are promised greater revelation
in the future, but this is contingent on a change in capacity receive
that new knowledge (1 John 3:2). Nevertheless, the cowardly divines
have lifted the scriptural teachings from their proper context and
added a questionable one to support their fear that investigation of
the natural world will end in disbelief. Clearly, these spiritual
cowards are not excercisng faith when they ignore the open invitation
to investigate nature since "the heavens declare the glory of God"
(Psalm 19:1).
Bacon then explains a closely related error which was the idea that if
we remain in ignorance of the "second causes" of the natural world then
these will "more readily be referred to the divine hand and rod."
Essentially the lie that Bacon refuses to tolerate is this: Ignorance
of the creation will glorify the Creator since we are left with no
better explanation but that "God did it." Of course such reasoning is
flawed on many counts. First of all is the fact that the God of the
Bible is contiuously calling every reasonable person to look the
natural order to see that the "heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm
19:1). Second is the fact that Chriatains are called to have a
"Biblical world view" such as was generally true of Bacon and who was
properly called the "major prophet of the scientific revolution." In
point of fact it was the Biblical world view that was the motivating
cause of the rise of the modern scientific method. In the words of
Joseph Needham, "in order to believe in the intelligibility of Nature,
the Western mind had to presuppose ... the existence of a Supreme Being
who, himself rational, had put it there" (6). And thus the Biblical
view of Nature, with its foundation based on the existence of a Creator
God, was the ground in which modern science arose.
Today we know through modern scinece that the "second causes" in the
natural world demand a "first cause" explanation outside of the natural
world--which is, by definition, the supernatural Creator God
(7). This fact does not prevent those who are determined to hide from
the Creator from speculating about the only alternative to supernatural
design, which is naturalist evolutionism. Another fact of our day is
that while there has never been more empirical evidence for intelligent
design of the universe there is still a very large proportion of the
world that believes that the evidence is in favor of evolutionism.
Today the problem is not so much that Christians are seeking to glorify
God with the "lie" of ignorance, but rather that the majority of the
non-Christian world is ignorant of the evidence for intelligent design
and thus, come to beleive "the lie" (Romans 1:25). In any case,
Bacon has persausively argued that Christians do not honor God by
choosing to remain in ignorance of the natural world, but rather, we
come to know him better as we investigate the creation to see how it
was designed to glorify him. The words of Johann Kepler as just as true
today as they were in his, "I had the intention of becoming a
theologian... but now I see how God is, by my endeavours, also
glorified in astronomy, for 'the heavens declare the glory of God" (8).
The final concern raised by Bacon relates to the historical pattern of
Christian appologetics. Because Biblical faith is, by definition,
non-progressive since it is based on eternal turths given by
revelation, it is often under attack from new philosophies that arise
from time to time. Science, on the other hand should be, by definition,
progressive since it is based on limited empirical evidence which is
used to test tentative theories with limited scope. The "past examples"
alluded to by Bacon would probably include the early thirtheenth
century where theologians were "caught in a new wave of thought as they
were forced to cope with the influx of vast philosophic and scientific
literature, including the advanced work of Aristotle translated from
Arabic and Greek" (4, p.885). It is ironic, that it was Thomas Aquinas
who was most successful in abating a move away from the Biblical
revelation through systematic organization of "Christian thought"
according to Aristotelian categories. As noted before, Bacon seems to
be calling for a complete overthrow of such concessions to temporal
philosophies by recognition of the limited scope of natural philosophy
and the higher status of special revelation. To do otherwise is to
"savour utterly carnal wisdom"
Footnotes:
1.
Fulton H. Anderson (ed.), The New Organon. (New York:
Macmillan Publishing, 1960).
2. Henry
M. Morris, The Long War Against God. (Grand Rapids: Michigan:
Baker Book House, 1989).
3. Jeffrey B. Russell, Inventing
the Flat Earth, (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997).
4. The
New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, J. D.
Douglas, ed. (Grand Rapids: Michigan, 1978).
5. There are obviously Biblical warnings
against secret evil thoughts, but the scriptural answer is to prudently
expose these to the light. ''For it is shameful even to mention what
the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light
becomes visible" (Ephesians 5:12,13). The progressive plan of the God
of the Bible is to reveal all myseries. (Ephesians 1:9; 3:2-6, 1
Corithians 13:12)
6. Joseph Needham, The Grand Titration, (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1969.), p. 325.
7. The two most fundamental laws of nature are
the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics. They can be stated as
follows: (1) In nature there is now nothing being created or destroyed,
and (2) all things in nature proceed from high energy to low energy,
from order to disorder. Therefore, since the universe is not now dead
and disordered, there must have been a beginning, and the energizing
source of organization in the universe must exist outside of
nature--that is, the supernatural Creator God.
8. Johannes Kepler, quoted in: J. H. Tiner, Johannes
Kepler-Giant of Faith and Science, (Milford, Michigan: Mott Media,
1977), p. 197.
Tim
Nordgren, 9-20-97
Home
|
