How Faith Fueled the Scientific Revolution: A Deep Dive into the Lives of Three Scientific Leaders and Their Faith
Margaret Byle
MAJOR: Health Science
BIO: I was born at a very young age and immediately became one of the many animals on my family’s farm in Oregon. Moving to Whitworth was a big change in many ways, but it didn’t change my drive to become a better person, closer to God and able to help those around me. In fact, Whitworth helped grow and strengthen these areas. While at Whitworth I had the privilege of being a part of the Track and Field Team, making it to the NWC Conference championship every year. I have gotten the opportunity to be a member of multiple clubs-CHaos, TPUSA, NEW, Human Performance Club and many others. I have been privileged to get to hear famous speakers, attend conventions, and make connections to people that align and encourage who I want to become. When I graduate Whitworth, I will be moving, getting married, starting a new job and soon, attending PA school. I am so excited for what God has in store for me, and so grateful that He brought me to Whitworth.
Project Overview:
Last semester I had the amazing opportunity of traveling to England and studying at Cambridge. There, I was under the tutelage of world-renowned professionals in their fields of cosmology, biology, philosophy, etc., and all were talking on some aspect of the relationship between science and religion. As a Christian in the science field, these two dominant fields have always been a big part of my learning and worldview. During our time at Cambridge, we read a book by Yuval Harari titled Sapeins. In this book, Yuval Harari is attempting to tell the story of science throughout human history. I observed that in this attempt, Harari is guilty of placing science in a bubble, ignoring big changes going on in the world, specifically around the Scientific Revolution. This realization, paired with my strong passion and fascination for science and religion, led me to desire to be able to better prove that these two fields are not in conflict.
While the initial vision was a more complete history of this relationship, I ended up honing in on the Scientific Revolution and three famous men who made major shifts in their fields during this time, all of them Christians. I dug into their biographies, learning about their lives, read some of their published works, as well as the works of authors who’ve written on them. Through this research I was able to get deep into their lives, motivations and beliefs. The finished product of my project is a research argumentative paper that looks at the Scientific Revolution, the lives and work of these three men and then how their faith can be seen in their science.
