Many famous scientists were creationists

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Claim:

There have been many famous scientists who believed in special creation in the past. In particular, the following scientists were creationists:

  • Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) (glacial geology)
  • Charles Babbage (1792-1871) (computer science)
  • Robert Boyle (1627-1691) (gas dynamics)
  • David Brewster (1781-1868) (optical mineralogy)
  • Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) (comparative anatomy)
  • Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) (hydraulics)
  • Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) (thermokinetics)
  • Henri Fabre (1823-1915) (entomology of living insects)
  • Michael Faraday (1791-1867) (electromagnetics)
  • John Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945) (electronics)
  • William Herschel (1738-1822) (galactic astronomy)
  • James Joule (1818-1889) (reversible thermodynamics)
  • Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) (energetics)
  • Johann Kepler (1571-1630) (celestial mechanics)
  • Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) (systematic biology)
  • Joseph Lister (1827-1912) (antiseptic surgery)
  • Matthew Maury (1806-1873) (oceanography)
  • James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) (electrodynamics)
  • Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) (genetics)
  • Isaac Newton (1642-1727) (calculus)
  • Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) (hydrostatics)
  • Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) (bacteriology)
  • William Ramsay (1852-1916) (isotopic chemistry)
  • John Ray (1627-1705) (natural history)
  • Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919) (dimensional analysis)
  • Bernhard Riemann (1826- 1866) (non-Euclidean geometry)
  • James Simpson (1811-1870) (gynecology)
  • Nicholas Steno (1631-1686) (stratigraphy)
  • George Stokes (1819-1903) (fluid mechanics)
  • Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) (pathology)
  • John Woodward (1665-1728) (paleontology)

Agassiz, Pasteur, Lord Kelvin, Maxwell, Dawson, Virchow, Fabre, Fleming were strong opponents of evolution.

Source

Responses

  1. Some of these scientists, such as Johann Kepler, Carolus Linnaeus and Isaac Newton lived and died before Charles Darwin was even born. Saying that these scientists rejected Evolutionary Biology is as nonsensical as claiming that Czar Ivan Vasilyevich IV (aka "Ivan the Terrible") opposed Communism.
  2. Many of the scientists in the list above never lived to see Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution, and of those who did, many lived only during the time when it was something of a fledgling theory and less supporting evidence had been discovered. If these scientists had seen the compelling proofs for evolution, they would more than likely have been evolutionists.
  3. Even people with much knowledge and intelligence can believe things that are wrong. This follows from the fact that such people often believe things that contradict one another.
  4. Most of them weren't creationists in the modern sense. Linneaus work on taxonomy led him to accept ever greater amounts of evolution long before Darwin (Such as the fact that Carolus Linneaus believed all plants shared a common ancestor). Most of the others rejected the modern formulation of flood geology as backwards and sophomoroic. Lord Kelvin, for example, believed in multiple creation/destruction cycles to account for fossil sorting.
  5. Many famous priests were not creationists, including Pope John Paul II.
  6. The majority of these scientists listed here such as James Simpson and Lord Kelvin did not specialise in Biology.
  7. Gregor Mendel was not a creationist Gregor Mendel was actually a Theistic evolutionist.
  8. Louis Pasteur actually believed in lamarckian evolution.
  9. Belief of some famous intelligent scientist is not an argument. Hard scientific work and results that are tested by serious hard work of other scientists is an argument. Einstein didn't accept certain implications of quantum theory, but this fact is not any serious argument for denial of that theory.
  10. add more responses

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See Also

Why is Creationism not a Scientific Theory?

Acknowledgments

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