Evidence · Case 08 · Science
C.S. Lewis on why early scientists expected order
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Lewis argued that the early scientists searched for laws in nature because they believed a lawgiver stood behind it. In his words, they expected “Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.”
Sources
C. S. Lewis, “Miracles: A Preliminary Study” (1947)
Objections & responses
- Lewis was a literature professor, not a historian of science. Isn’t citing him for a historical thesis about the origins of science citing a popularizer?
Fair, and Lewis is stating an interpretive thesis, not reporting research. The thesis itself, that belief in a rational lawgiver encouraged the search for natural laws, is defended in scholarly form by historians such as Peter Harrison and, in stronger form, by Stanley Jaki and Rodney Stark; it is also criticized. Lewis supplies the memorable phrasing. If you want the argument with footnotes, Harrison is the place to go.