Linnaeus, the founder of the flora and fauna taxonomy, exclaimed: «I watched animated creatures follow each other in a continuous chain, adjacent to the vegetable kingdom, plants linked to the mineral kingdom, going into the interior of the globe, while this globe is whirling in the stable order around the Sun, giving it life. Finally, I saw the Sun and all other luminaries, the entire star system, infinite, uncountable in its infinity, moving in space, being hung in the middle of eternal void by the First Incomprehensible Mover, the Being of the Beings, the Cause of the causes, the Leader and Keeper of the Universe, the Lord and Worker of all things in the world! So, it is fair to believe that there is God, the Great and Eternal one, not born of any being that has created these universal things and established the order». According to C. Linnaeus, «We have as many species as the Infinite Being first created… these forms, according to the laws of reproduction, have produced many others, but always similar to themselves».
Similar thoughts were expressed by Claude Bernard, one of the founders of experimental medicine and endocrinology: «No matter how far experimental science goes forward in the progressive course in its development and no matter how great its successes and discoveries are, it’s never able to answer about the primary cause of everything, about the origin of matter and life, and about the ultimate fate of the universe and man without crossing its own limits. Trying to answer these questions, I enter the field of metaphysics and cease to be a naturalist, exploring nature and learning the truth through observation, my opinions and views in this case no longer hold the authority of accurate and positive knowledge, since I am already outside the areas of competence of physical and physiological sciences here. «Jean-Baptiste Lamarck wrote: «The Supreme Creator of everything that exists is the direct creator of matter and nature and only indirectly is the creator of all products of this latter». Further, developing the idea of evolution, he argued: «The Higher Power has created matter, laid the foundation for the existence of its various species… Therefore, the duration of the matter’s existence will entirely depend on the will of its Creator, and nature with all its power can neither diminish nor add the slightest particles to the amount of what has been created».
Georges Cuvier, who rejected Lamarck’s theory of evolution, was convinced that «the Creator of all creatures, while creating them, could have been guided by only one law − the necessity to give each of his creations, which should continue life, means to sustain existence». Jean-Henri Fabre, the French entomologist, echoed him: «The world is ruled by an Infinite Intelligence. The more I observe, the more I discover this Intelligence, shining behind the mystery of the existing world. I know that they will laugh at me, but I care little about it; it’s easier to strip my skin off than deprive me of my faith in God». The Russian academician P. S. Pallas argued: «… A species is a constant unit, and species should be considered to be designed in the first plan of creation and assigned to form the chain of creatures that we admire not being able to explain this chain».
John Stuart Mill in his posthumously published essays «On Religion» (Th ee Essays on Religion, 1874) noted that the world order indicates the existence of an ordering intelligence. However, this does not give us any reasons to believe that God has created matter, that he is omnipotent and omniscient. God is not the Absolute Everything; a man collaborates with God in restoring the order, harmony and justice. A number of scientists in their judgments avoided the word God and used the word Creator instead. So, Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern microbiology and immunology, stated: «the more I study nature, the more I stop in awed amazement at the Creator’s affairs».
Georg Hegel believed that there is the Absolute Spirit which is the basis of everything that exists, which, because of its infinity only, can achieve true selfknowledge. It needs a manifestation for selfknowledge. Self-disclosure of the Absolute Spirit in space is nature; and self-disclosure in time − history. The mission of world-historical personalities was to be agents of a universal spirit.
William Whewell argued that «…it is impossible to practice biology without the objective purposes in nature’s assumption and ultimate cause». In his view, the common feature of «palaiologina Sciences» (historical casualty sciences) is the inability to explain the origins of the modern state of things through a natural way from some «initial state» without the assumption of supernatural intervention». Being a principled evolutionism opponent, he believed that «a creative power manifested» itself at the beginning of each new geological period. He did not admit trasnformism in biology, saying that «admission of the new species’ as a natural phenomenon in nature, without pointing at the same time on the real facts confirming such an assumption, therefore, stands for the completely unfounded rejection of the creation hypothesis». This statement is not an object of faith, but a scientific axiom. Its essence is reduced to the cosmological argument («History and science», 1894, Russian translation, 1900).
Johann Goethe, the German poet, thinker and natural scientist, the founder of the plants metamorphosis’s doctrine, drifting towards the idea of evolution, believed that it can only occur within certain limits under the guidance of the Creator. He wrote: «All parts are formed according to the eternal laws, and the rarest form is secretly similar to the original image».
Voltaire said: «One needs to be blind, so as not to be blinded by this picture, one needs to be a fool to reject its Creator, one needs to be crazy not to bow before Him».
K. E. Tsiolkovsky noted in his scientific paper «Unknown Intelligent Powers»: «The will of man and all other beings – both higher and lower ones − is only a manifestation of the Universe’s will. The voice of a man, his thoughts, discoveries, concepts, truths and delusions − is only the voice of the Universe».
Pierre-Simon de Laplace addressed Napoleon Bonaparte with the following statement: «My religion is simple: I look at the Universe and I am convinced that it could not be a matter of blind chance, but was created by some unknown and almighty being that is as much exceeds a man as far the Universe exceeds our best machines». His answer to Napoleon’s question whether God was offered a place in the world’s system proposed by Laplace was as follows: «I did not need such a hypothesis».
Justus Liebig, the German chemist, exclaimed: «Do not forget that with all our knowledge and researches we remain short-sighted people whose strength is rooted in the fact that we have support in the person of the higher Creature».
Jöns Jakob Berzelius, the Swedish chemist, wrote: «All organic nature gives evidences of the wise goal’s existence and is a product of a higher intelligence… Thus, a person’s mission is to consider his higher ability − the ability to think» in accordance with the Creature to which he owes his existence».
A whole series of statements dedicated to the Supreme Intelligence belongs to famous physicists. Isaac Newton, one of the greatest geniuses of mankind, who introduced his own version of biblical chronology, left after himself a significant number of manuscripts on these issues. In his Principia Philosophiae, he wrote: «The Heavenly Sovereign rules the whole world as the ruler of the Universe. We marvel at Him because of His perfection, worship Him and bow to Him because of His infinite power. From a blind physical necessity, which is always and everywhere the same, no variety could have occurred, and all the variety of created objects corresponding the place and time, which constitutes the structure and life of the Universe, could have happened only by the thought and will of the Original Creature, which I call the Lord, God». «The wonderful arrangement of the space and harmony in it can only be explained by the fact that the space was created according to the plan of the omniscient and omnipotent Creature. This is my first and last word». Isaac Newton also noted: «How do bodies movements obey the will and where does animal instinct come from?… And if He did so, then philosophy should not look for other origin of the world or believe that the world could have occurred out of chaos only in accordance with the laws of nature…». The economist John Maynard Keynes, who purchased Newton’s alchemy notes, said at the jubilee of Newton’s three hundredth birthday: «He considered the Universe to be a cryptogram composed by the Almighty God».
Albert Einstein in his letter to the New York rabbi
