Objection · Case 08 · Science
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?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
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.
About this exhibit
This objection is to C.S. Lewis on why early scientists expected order.
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.”
Under Claim 06: Many of the founders of modern science were devout Christians who expected an orderly universe because they believed a rational God made it.