Francis Bacon was the founder of the modern scientific method. The
focus on the new scientific method is on orderly experimentation. For Bacon,
experiments that produce results are important. Bacon pointed out the need
for clear and accurate thinking, showing that any mastery of the world in
which man lives was dependent upon careful understanding. This understanding
is based solely yyon the facts of this world and not as the ancients held it
in ancient philosophy. This new modern science provides the foundation for
modern political science. Bacon's political science completely separated
religion and philosophy. For Bacon, nothing exists in the universe except
individual bodies. Although he did not offer a complete theory of the nature
of the universe, he pointed the way that science, as a new civil religion,
might take in developing such a theory.
Bacon divided theology into the natural and the revealed. Natural
theology is the knowledge of God which we can get from the study of nature and
the creatures of God. Convincing proof is given of the existance of God but
nothing more. Anything else must come from revealed theology. SCience and
philosophy have felt the need to justify themselves to laymen. The belieft
that nature is something to be vexed and tortured to the compliance of man
will not satisfy man nor laymen. Natural science finds its proper method when
the 'scientist' puts Nature to the question, tortures her by experiment and
wrings from her answers to his questions. The House of Solomon is directly
related to these thoughts. "It is dedicated to the study of Works and the
Creatures of God" (Bacon, 436). Wonder at religious questions was natural,
but, permitted free reign, would destroy science by absorbing the minds and
concerns of men. The singular advantage of Christianity is its irrationality.
The divine soul was a matter for religion to handle. The irrational soul was
open to study and understanding...
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