Hossein Jorjani
First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30
In modern science, references to God or Scripture are absent from scientific discourse. This reflects the principle of methodological naturalism, in which science explains phenomena solely in terms of natural causes and observable evidence. While individual scientists may hold personal religious beliefs, such beliefs are not treated as part of scientific method or as sources of scientific authority. This marks a clear departure from Bacon’s early seventeenth-century context, in which Scripture was still regarded by many as the highest and final source of truth across all fields of knowledge.
Bacon belonged to a period in which Scripture was still widely regarded as the highest authority in all branches of knowledge. Yet his insistence that the study of nature should proceed through observation and experiment rather than through appeals to authority contributed to a gradual redefinition of the relationship between theology and natural philosophy. Over the following centuries, this methodological separation became increasingly pronounced. By the twentieth century, the natural sciences had largely come to operate according to methodological naturalism, treating empirical observation, experiment, and measurement as their sole scientific authorities, while religion and theology continued to address questions outside the scope of empirical investigation.
Hossein Jorjani 