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Creation scientists and other specialists of interest

Scientists alive today* who accept the biblical account of creation
Discrimination against creation scientists
Scientists of the past who believed in a Creator

Scientists who are against the biblical view of creation
Other biographies and interviews of interest


Introduction and disclaimer

Many historians (of many different religious persuasions—including atheistic) have shown that modern science started to flourish only in largely Christian Europe (see The biblical roots of modern science). These historians point out that the basis of modern science depends on the assumption that the universe was made by a rational creator (see Why does science work at all?). An orderly universe makes perfect sense only if it were made by an orderly Creator. But if there is no creator, or if Zeus and his gang were in charge, why should there be any order at all? So, not only is a strong Christian belief not an obstacle to science, such a belief was its very foundation. (See also a refutation of the argument Newton was a creationist only because there was no alternative?)

However, after the rise of old-age beliefs thanks to James Hutton and Charles Lyell, some scientists caved in and ‘re-interpreted’ the Bible to fit them. For example, some claimed that the days in Genesis 1 were really ages, and that Noah’s Flood was one of many catastrophes. For proof that such ‘re-interpretations’ are fallacious, see Creation Compromises and Noah’s Flood Covered the Whole Earth.

They may have meant well, but their faulty model was an easy target for Darwin. For example, Darwin pointed out that the fashionable theory taught by Lyell, of fixity of species—that each species had been independently created in their current location—made little sense of his observations that island species were often similar to those of the nearest continent. But his observations fit perfectly with the true biblical view that there was a global Flood, and that animals migrated from Ararat to the islands via the neighbouring mainland.

This should be a lesson for those today who teach that Christians should compromise the plain meaning of the Bible to fit with ‘science’. Aside from placing fallible human opinion as an authority above the infallible Word of God, it just doesn’t work and paves the way for more departure from Scripture.

*As far as we know, the scientists of the past listed here believed in a literal Genesis unless otherwise stated. The ones who did not are nevertheless included in the list below, because of their general belief in the creator God of the Bible and opposition to evolution. But because the idea that the earth is ‘millions of years’ old has been disastrous in the long run, no present day ‘long-agers’ are included intentionally, because they should know better.


Scientists alive today* who accept the biblical account of creation

Note: Individuals on this list must possess a doctorate in a science-related field.

Discrimination against creation scientists

Scientists of the past believed in a Creator

Note: These scientists are sorted by birth year.

Medieval

The Medieval period or Middle Ages has been dismissed as the ‘Dark Ages’ by the historically ignorant. In reality, this period saw the birth of modern experimental science. Logical thought patterns of the medieval Scholastic philosophers of the Church led to challenges to the received wisdom about nature from Aristotelian dogma. Universities sprang up over Europe, where learning was passed on and debate encouraged. Extensive inventiveness and mechanical ingenuity developed in the monasteries, where optics was researched and spectacles invented. There was an industrial revolution thanks to the development of water and wind power and superior agriculture that supported a population boom. The blast furnace and mechanical clock began in this period. The great Gothic cathedrals were works of architectural genius, with innovations such as the flying buttress to support the walls from outside, enabling a huge spacious interior were worshippers were bathed in light and colour through intricate stained glass windows. In astronomy, medieval scholars knew perfectly well that the earth was a globe and a tiny speck compared to the vastness of the universe. Many scientists of this period were clergymen in good standing. This period also saw the basic ideas of the geokinetic universe and thought-challenges to absolute geocentrism. The cathedrals were also used as gigantic solar observatories, called meridiane, and the research which the Church supported later lent support to the developing Keplerian astronomy.

  • John Philoponus (c. 490 – c. 570) Physics; he showed that heavy objects fall at almost the same speed as light bodies, and proposed the concept of impetus, long before Galileo
  • Bede, ‘The Venerable’ (672/673 – 26 May 735) Astronomy; Bede showed that tides are mainly caused by the moon, and declared that the earth was a “globe … not circular like a shield but rather like a ball”
  • Gerbert of Aurillac aka Pope Sylvester II (c. 946–1003) Astronomy, mathematics (introduced Arabic numerals to the west), musical science, mechanical clock
  • Eilmer of Malmesbury, 11th-century English Benedictine monk, gliding flight
  • Robert Grosseteste (1175–1253) Astronomy, Optics
  • Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195 – c. 1256) Astronomy; taught a spherical earth in his astronomy textbook De sphaera mundi, giving several reasons
  • Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280) Biology, Mineralogy, Logic
  • Roger Bacon (c. 1214 – 1292) Optics
  • John Peckham (c. 1230 – 1292, Archbishop of Canterbury) Optics, Astronomy
  • Dietrich von Freiberg (c. 1250 – c. 1310) Optics; discovered that rainbows are caused by both refraction and reflection
  • Friar William Ockham (1285–1347) Ockham’s (or Occam’s) Razor.
  • Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1290 – 26 August 1349) Physics, Logic, Mathematics; used what would later be called logarithms, one of the Oxford Calculators, and his solution to semantic paradoxes influenced Buridan; chaplain to King Edward III.
  • Richard of Wallingford (1292–1336) Physics; Astronomy; Inventor of the albion, an astronomical calculator; builder of one of the first mechanical clocks using an escapement; and Abbot of St Albans monastery.
  • Jean (John) Buridan (c. 1300 – after 1358) Physics, Astronomy, Logic; his concept of impetus was a forerunner of Galileo’s concept of inertia and Newton’s First Law of Motion, he proposed geokinetic ideas as a working hypothesis, and his work on solving semantic paradoxes influenced modern logicians A.N. Prior (1914–1969) and G.E. Hughes (1919–1994)
  • Guy de Chauliac (c. 1300–1368) Medicine, dentistry; pioneer of human dissection and anatomy, survivor of the plague (his published analysis of his ow symptoms informs much of what we know about the disease), advised against drinking cold liquids soon after hot liquids because it could cause cracks in teeth
  • John of Dumbleton (ca.1310 – ca. 1349) Physics, Natural Philosophy, Logic; one of the Oxford Calculators
  • William of Heytesbury (c. 1313–1372/1373) Physics, Mathematics; one of the Oxford Calculators; proved the Mean Speed Theorem long before Galileo
  • Richard Swineshead (fl. c. 1340–1354) Mathematics, Logic, Natural Philosophy; one of the Oxford Calculators who proved the Mean Speed Theorem long before Galileo
  • Albert of Saxony (c. 1316–1390) Physics; first diagram of a curved trajectory, discovered centre of gravity
  • Nicole Oresme (c. 1320 – J382, bishop) Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics; proposed geokinetic ideas as a working hypothesis and answered most objections that would be raised against Galileo, and represented motion with graphs long before Descartes; bishop of Lisieux
  • Paul of Venice (or Paulus Venetus) (1369–1429) Medicine, pharmacology; applied mathematical techniques of the Merton Calculators to calculate effects of combined drugs
  • Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464, Cardinal) Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, Botany; proposed geokinetic ideas, anticipated the idea of reference frames by Galileo and Einstein, invented bathometer and hygrometer, may have proposed concave lenses to correct myopia

Renaissance

The Age of Newton

  • Isaac Newton (1642–1727) (WOH) Dynamics; Calculus; Gravitation law; Reflecting telescope; Spectrum of light (wrote more about the Bible than science, and emphatically affirmed a Creator. Some have accused him of Arianism, but it’s likely he held to a heterodox form of the Trinity—See Pfizenmaier, T.C., Was Isaac Newton an Arian? Journal of the History of Ideas 68(1):57–80, 1997; Herd, Van Alan, The theology of Sir Isaac Newton, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 2008; gradworks.umi.com/3304232.pdf)
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646–1716) Mathematician, co-inventor of calculus
  • John Flamsteed (1646–1719) Greenwich Observatory Founder; Astronomy
  • William Derham (1657–1735) Ecology
  • Cotton Mather (1662–1727) Physician, relative risk study of variolation vs. smallpox
  • John Harris (1666–1719) Mathematician
  • John Woodward (1665–1728) Paleontology
  • William Whiston (1667–1752) Physics, Geology
  • John Hutchinson (1674–1737) Paleontology
  • Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Best known as a leading theologian, but also Physics, Meteorology, Immunology
  • Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Cartography, Topology
  • Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778) Taxonomy; Biological classification system, refined Celsius temperature scale
  • Jean Deluc (1727–1817) Geology
  • Richard Kirwan (1733–1812) Mineralogy
  • William Herschel (1738–1822) Galactic astronomy; Uranus (probably believed in an old-earth)
  • Edward Jenner (1749–1823) Father of vaccination, smallpox conquered. Oxford.
  • James Parkinson (1755–1824) Physician (old-earth compromiser*)
  • John Dalton (1766–1844) Atomic theory; Gas law
  • Thomas Young (1773–1829) Double slit experiment with light, read the Bible by age 4
  • John Kidd, M.D. (1775–1851) Chemical synthetics (old-earth compromiser*)

Just Before Darwin

  • The 19th Century Scriptural Geologists, by Dr Terry Mortenson
  • Timothy Dwight (1752–1817) Educator
  • William Kirby (1759–1850) Entomologist
  • Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826) Geographer
  • Benjamin Barton (1766–1815) Botanist; Zoologist
  • John Dalton (1766–1844) Father of the Modern Atomic Theory; Chemistry
  • Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) Comparative anatomy, paleontology (old-earth compromiser*)
  • Samuel Miller (1770–1840) Clergy
  • Charles Bell (1774–1842) Anatomist
  • John Kidd (1775–1851) Chemistry
  • Humphrey Davy (1778–1829) Thermokinetics; Safety lamp
  • Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864) Mineralogist (old-earth compromiser*)
  • Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869) Physician; Physiologist
  • Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) Professor (old-earth compromiser* who invented the gap theory)
  • David Brewster (1781–1868) Optical mineralogy, Kaleidoscope (probably believed in an old-earth)
  • William Buckland (1784–1856) Geologist (old-earth compromiser*)
  • William Prout (1785–1850) Food chemistry (probably believed in an old-earth)
  • Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873) Geology (old-earth compromiser*)
  • Michael Faraday (1791–1867) (WOH) Electromagnetism; Field theory, Generator. However, see also Michael Faraday—God’s power and electric power
  • Samuel F.B. Morse (1791–1872) Telegraph
  • John Herschel (1792–1871) Astronomy (old-earth compromiser*)
  • Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864) Geology (old-earth compromiser*)
  • William Whewell (1794–1866) Anemometer (old-earth compromiser*)
  • Joseph Henry (1797–1878) Electric motor; Galvanometer

Just After Darwin

  • William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) Photography
  • Richard Owen (1804–1892) Zoology; Paleontology (old-earth compromiser*)
  • Matthew Maury (1806–1873) Oceanography, Hydrography (probably believed in an old-earth*)
  • Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) Glaciology, Ichthyology (old-earth compromiser, polygenist*)
  • Henry Rogers (1808–1866) Geology
  • James Glaisher (1809–1903) Meteorology
  • Philip H. Gosse (1810–1888) Ornithologist; Zoology
  • Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810–1895) Archaeologist
  • James Simpson (1811–1870) Gynecology, Anesthesiology
  • James Dana (1813–1895) Geology (old-earth compromiser*)
  • Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert (1817–1901) Agricultural Chemist
  • James Joule (1818–1889) Thermodynamics
  • Thomas Anderson (1819–1874) Chemist
  • Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900) Astronomy
  • George Stokes (1819–1903) Fluid Mechanics
  • John William Dawson (1820–1899) Geology (probably believed in an old-earth*)
  • Rudolph Virchow (1821–1902) Pathology (old-earth compromiser, polygenist*)
  • Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) (WOH) Genetics: no friend of evolution.
  • Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) (WOH) Chemical chirality, Bacteriology, Biochemistry; Sterilization; Immunization
  • Henri Fabre (1823–1915) Entomology of living insects
  • William Thompson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) Energetics; Absolute temperatures; Atlantic cable (believed in an older earth than the Bible indicates, but far younger than the evolutionists wanted*)
  • William Huggins (1824–1910) Astral spectrometry
  • Ferdinand von Mueller (1825–1896) the most prominent Australian botanist of the 19th century
  • Joseph Lister (1827–1912) Antiseptic surgery
  • Balfour Stewart (1828–1887) Ionospheric electricity
  • James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) (WOH) Electrodynamics; Statistical thermodynamics
  • P.G. Tait (1831–1901) Vector analysis
  • John Bell Pettigrew (1834–1908) Anatomist; Physiologist
  • John Strutt, Lord Rayleigh (1842–1919) Similitude; Model Analysis; Inert Gases
  • Sir William Abney (1843–1920) Astronomy
  • Alexander MacAlister (1844–1919) Anatomy
  • A.H. Sayce (1845–1933) Archaeologist
  • John Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945) Electronics; Electron tube; Thermionic valve

The Modern Period

  • Dr Thomas Barnes (1911–2001) Physicist
  • Dr Clifford Burdick (1919–2005) Geologist
  • Dr Larry Butler, Biochemist
  • George Washington Carver (1864–1943) Inventor
  • Dr David Catchpoole (1959–2022) Plant Physiologist (read his testimony)
  • Dr Jack W. Cuozzo (1937–2017) Dentist
  • L. Merson Davies (1890–1960) Geology; Paleontology
  • Douglas Dewar (1875–1957) Ornithologist
  • Dr Duane Gish (1921–2013) Biochemist
  • Howard A. Kelly (1858–1943) Gynecology
  • Dr John W. Klotz (1918–1996) Biologist
  • Dr Wolfgang Kuhn (1928–2001) Biologist
  • Paul Lemoine (1878–1940) Geology
  • Dr Frank Marsh (1899–1992) Biology, Baraminology founder
  • Dr John Mann, Agriculturist, biological control pioneer
  • Edward H. Maunder (1851–1928) Astronomy
  • Dr Albert Mills, Reproductive Physiologist, Embryologist
  • William Mitchell Ramsay (1851–1939) Archaeologist
  • Dr Henry M. Morris (1918–2006) Hydrologist
  • Dr Len Morris, Physiologist
  • Prof. Richard Porter (1935–2005)
  • William Ramsay (1852–1916) Isotopic chemistry, Element transmutation
  • Dr Joachim Scheven Palaeontologist
  • Prof. J. Rendle-Short (1919–2010) Pediatrics
  • Dr Harold Slusher (b. 1934) Geophysicist
  • Charles Stine (1882–1954) Organic Chemist
  • Dr Arthur Rendle-Short (1885–1955) Surgeon
  • Dr Charles Taylor (c. 1915–2009) Linguistics
  • Dr Joachim Vetter (d. 1996) Medical doctor, Biologist
  • Sir Cecil P. G. Wakeley (1892–1979) Surgeon
  • Prof. Verna Wright (1928–1998) Rheumatologist
  • Arthur E. Wilder-Smith (1915–1995) Three science doctorates; a creation science pioneer
  • Dr Clifford Wilson (1923–2012) Psycholinguist and archaeologist

Scientists who are against the biblical view of creation

Other relevant persons of interest

* Or recently deceased

Helpful Resources

Busting Myths
by J Sarfati & G Bates, edited
US $10.00
Soft cover