Scientists don’t always welcome new scientific theories, especially if those theories lend support to the existence of God. In fact, some scientists can be downright hostile, declaring the theories to be unscientific.
One instance in which this seemed to be the case occurred in 1938. The German physicist, Carl F. von Weizsäcker, delivered a lecture in which he presented a relatively new idea. He proposed that the universe began to exist, which implied that it had been created by God. Listening to Weizsäcker deliver his lecture was a renowned physical chemist named Walther Nernst who became quite upset. He stated that “the view that there might be an age of the universe was not science.” Nernst added that “the infinite duration of time was a basic element of all scientific thought, and to deny this would mean to betray the very foundations of science.” Weizsäcker was quite surprised to hear this and responded that there was nothing unscientific about forming a hypothesis based on evidence. But Nernst would have none of it and responded that no scientific hypothesis could contradict “the very foundations of science.”
Despite Nernst’s deep protestations, this new idea became known as the Big Bang theory and has become accepted by the vast majority of scientists.
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Reference
Carl F. von Weizsäcker, The Relevance of Science (London Collins, 1964), 151–153.
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