Richard Dawkins displays little knowledge of Christian theology. However, he is spot-on when he summarizes, “Pantheism is sexed-up atheism. Deism is watered-down theism.”

It’s interesting that the pioneers of early modern science were orthodox Christians who were especially allergic to occult forces within nature itself. God created the world out of nothing, but it is in its physical constitution—atoms moving freely in space, colliding to form particular things. God created and governs it all, just as he redeemed it in Christ, but the laws of nature are not grounded in the Bible but rather in the book of nature. Greeks and Romans confused God with nature. So did Renaissance humanists.

The soil for the Scientific Revolution was prepared mostly by natural philosophers and experimental scientists from the churches of the Reformation. This preponderance is documented so widely that I need not defend it here. And the most pantheistic of Radical Enlightenment thinkers, Benedict Spinoza, was condemnatory of experimental science as relying too much on bodily senses instead of the “clear and distinct ideas” in the mind. In other words, Spinoza wanted to turn science into metaphysics. The best friend of science is Christian theology, but not if scientists pretend that they are qualified philosophers and theologians pretend that they are experts in physics.

It’s amazing today how many scientists and engineers in the AI space revert to ideas that go back to the esoteric lore of early western civilization: Hermes Trismegistus, Pythagoras, Plato, the Gnostics, and Descartes. These figures play important roles in the origin of modernity, and I have done my best to trace their influence in my series on the Divine Self.
Read more»

Michael S. Horton | “The Basis for Hope: Christian vs. Transhumanist Eschatology” | March 20, 2026

RESOURCES

• Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
• Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
• The Heidelblog Resource Page
• Heidelmedia Resources
• The Ecumenical Creeds
• The Reformed Confessions
• The Heidelberg Catechism
• The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025)
• Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
• Why I Am A Christian
• What Must A Christian Believe?
• Heidelblog Contributors
• Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to

Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Post authored by:

• Heidelblog

  

  The Heidelblog has been in publication since 2007. It is devoted to recovering the Reformed confession and to helping others discover Reformed theology, piety, and practice.

  More by Heidelblog ›