The Father of Modern Chemistry: A 17th Century Anglican Theologian

One of greatest scientists of the 17^th century, a founding member of the Royal Society of London and the “Father of Modern Chemistry”, was also a deeply religious Christian who wrote theological tracts, devotionals, and ethical essays.  It was this Christian theologian that was predominantly responsible for shifting the study of nature from a mostly speculative activity to an experimental science.  Robert Boyle was a proponent of the experimental and observational approach to studying nature and he pursued this method of scientific inquiry because, to him, it demonstrated the existence, wisdom, and attributes of God. God by his own free will chose to create the world with an order that can be observed by humans and Boyle thought it was his duty as a Christian to study it.

Through experimentation, Boyle wanted to formulate a theory of nature that allowed us to understand and marvel at the created order so that we might better appreciate the glory of God.  He thought a mechanical philosophy of nature accomplished this and he disagreed with the Aristotelian view that nature can be explained in terms of forms and qualities. He viewed this as trying to explain something by labeling it with a name (for example, water is wet due to its wetness). Boyle insisted that a theory of matter should have explanatory power and help us understand how an affect can occur; something that Aristotle’s views about nature didn’t do.

 

Another view of nature at the time was Epicureanism and the atomistic belief that the smallest piece of nature was indivisible. Boyle avoided the term “atom” partly because of the hedonistic philosophy that accompanied it and partly because he thought atoms (which he termed “corpuscles”) were not indivisible.  He thought there was no reason why matter can’t be further and infinitely divided. Corpuscles had a microstructure that determined their properties.  This is part of our current thought about atoms and is different from John Dalton’s indestructible atoms of the 19^th century that dominated scientific thought for 100 years. Boyle was over 200 years ahead of the discovery that atoms could have parts!

 

Boyle’s mechanical view of the universe included the thought that all things could be reduced to matter in motion. Included in this view was also the idea that since our orderly, organized, and purposeful world is an immense number of particles in motion, then it cannot be a result of chance. It must have been designed. God “impressed determinate motions upon the parts of matter” as well as regulates and oversees the parts. Boyle wanted to demonstrate ways in which science and religion were compatible; this mechanistic view of the universe as a clock or a machine with God as the designer and mechanic is one example.

 

Boyle was a committed Christian who believed the universe was designed and maintained by God. This commitment to religion was not a hinderance, but instead was the driving force for Robert Boyle’s study of nature.

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