Science and Labor

Science: —  God governs the world invisibly, and He has commanded us to worship Him and no other god. – Sir Isaac Newton

It should be said before we start that for centuries the Church was heavily influenced by Aristotle.  The church accepted his view that knowledge could only be arrived at through deductive logic and that inductive logic was evil.  Aristotle also taught that the universe was intertwined with God and His spiritual realm, so the church saw demons and spirits in everything. 

Because the church believed these ideas, inductive science, for the most part, was rejected.  Science is based on experimentation and inductive logic, extrapolating conclusions from observations, in this case.  When the early proponents of what would become the scientific method presented their ideas, the church rejected them out of hand.  When Robert Gosseteste (1168-1253), a Franciscan bishop and first chancellor of Oxford University, first proposed the inductive experimental method, it was not well received.  Soon, though, Roger Bacon, William of Occam, and others like them joined the fray and stood by a new idea that the universe is separate from God and can be examined reasonably.

Since God is a rational Being and created other rational beings (man), these men thought, not only should the universe be rationally designed, but it should be open to rational examination.  The Catholic Church fought this idea for centuries due to its acceptance of Aristotelian views.  Acceptance would only come with the Reformation.  The Protestants embraced the idea though the Catholic Church continued to fight it.  It was, in fact, a group of Lutherans who were to fund and publish Copernicus’ work on the heliocentric universe.

I don’t mean to badmouth the Catholic Church.  We Protestants share the same history with them during much of this time and up until the Reformation.  The Catholics were unwilling to change in the face of facts, though.  It was only later that the Protestants came along with new views of their own and the willingness to embrace other unconventional ideas.

The great names who built the foundations of today’s science were Christians who were seeking to better understand God and his creation.  Men like da Vinci, Newton, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Mendel were all believers.  It was the Catholic Church early on which helped to create the divide between faith and science.  But, it was the work of believers trying to understand the universe their God had created that brought about much of the science we recognize today.

Science has since changed to a naturalistic worldview, that all that exists can only be explained by natural forces and matter.  They have rejected the motives of their founding giants and have decided to remove God from their work.  As a result we hear the question, “Can you prove God scientifically?”  Since science has rejected all but the natural world, the question makes as much sense as asking someone to prove gravity through metaphysical means.  It’s a category error.

Science has lost a lot.  Through their rejection of God, they have rejected an entire area of research.  The Intelligent Design movement of the past few decades has tried to correct that, but, unlike the founders of modern science, most scientists today continue to reject even the possibility of a Grand Designer.

Labor:  — Luke 3:14 2 Thessalonians 3:12 (ESV) ¹²  Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

In the Greco Roman world, work was seen as demeaning and to be done only by slaves and people of low social standing.

With the arrival of Christ, this view changed.  Jesus Himself was an example of someone who worked hard through His youth until He began His ministry, taught that a worker was worthy of his wages (Luke 10:7) and that employees should be happy with their pay (Luke 3:14).  So, He addressed both the employer and employee’s position.  The Apostle Paul worked as a tentmaker during his missionary journey and taught if someone doesn’t work, they shouldn’t eat (2 Thess. 3:10).  So, work was beginning to be seen as honorable and necessary with the spread of Christianity.  No longer was it okay to have others do your work unless you paid them.  Jesus’ statement that workers deserved wages turned many slave masters into Christian employers, slaves to employees.

The Dark Ages were a large exception to all of this.  Once the Roman Empire was no more, the Catholic Church fell into an Aristotelian worldview that work was for the lower classes.  Western Europe stayed poor and ignorant.  Yet, even during the Dark Ages, laziness (sloth) was seen as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Certainly, slavery continued and even flourished at times, but it as we saw in an earlier blog, it was the Christians who were at the forefront of abolitionist movements.

Protestantism added money lending to the acceptance of labor as honorable and dignified.  Lending with fair interest helped finance businesses, it helped create a more prosperous culture now that more risk could be taken, more opportunities could be sought, additional employees could be hired.  The Industrial Revolution would never have taken place without banks that were willing to lend and invest.  Earning a fair wage also lifted great numbers out of poverty and created a thriving middle class.

So, without the Christian influence on science and labor, our world would be a very different place today.