ABSTRACT
In the ‘scientific revolution’ of the sixteenth century early scientists like Francis Bacon saw no conflict between science and religion, and were prepared for science to be subordinated to theology. In the seventeenth century, Newton and Boyle thought that the laws that they were discovering, such as the law of gravity, were God’s laws, that they were celebrating God’s craftsmanship in designing the universe. They looked on the universe as a giant clockwork system which had been wound up by God; Newton thought that God was still actively sustaining the natural world. These scientists were religious men themselves, and their work was welcomed by theologians.
