The rise of natural science called for a new relationship between science and religion

The foundations of the new scientific era were laid by Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo (1564-1642). Their demonstration that the sun was the center around which the planets revolved implied that humanity and earth were not the center of creation. Sir Isaac Newton (1641-1727) argued that the laws of motion and gravity keep sun and moon, stars and planets in their places. Deeply religious, Newton assumed that God was involved in the created order. Others, however, concluded that there was no need for God to sustain nature or intervene in it. If, as John Locke insisted, true knowledge comes from experience rather than revelation, scientific and philosophical inquiries were no longer under the authority of the church. This in turn called for a new relationship between science and religion. One approach was to subordinate religion to science. This Deism attempted, by reducing Christianity to a rational, moral system. A second approach was to show that religion and science are complementary. This Joseph Butler (1692-1752) did by relying on the concept of design: God was the designer of natural and moral systems--of science and religion, and new discoveries confirmed that an all-powerful, all-wise God had made the world. Design came under assault in the nineteenth century when Darwinism postulated development from below, or "evolution," rather than design from above, to explain the origin of species.