Robert Boyle

Boyle did not commit suicide. Instead, he determined to investigate truth in a new way, banishing the obscurity of the alchemist’s laboratory. As a result, he improved the scientific method, writing the first papers in the modern scientific style, listing hypotheses, conditions, equipment and results. His careful experiments soon relegated alchemy to the dust bin. (See my article on alchemy.) In response to a bit of Aristotalian reasoning by Hobbes regarding vacuum, Boyle developed the law of gases which bears his name. He also was a founding member of the Royal Society.

If more scientists would set out to resolve their crises of faith in Boyle’s spirit, starting from the premise that Christ as the agent of creation is responsible for both biblical revelation and natural truth, we’d have better science.