The Mechanists' Conception of God
The mechanistic philosophy characterized God’s Creation as a realm accessible through measurement, described by the language of mathematics, and operating through rational causes. In this detail from a 17th century painting by Riccioli, God forms the world out of number [numerus], measurement [mensura[, and weight [pondus], the slogan of the mechanist philosophers:
For English mechanists, Robert Boyle showed the way to be deeply religious and yet accepting of a mechanistic emphasis. Boyle’s God was revealed in His creation, and what was revealed in nature was the wisdom, power, and beneficence of a mighty engineer. Here, from The Christian Virtuoso (1690) is Boyle discussing the value of his philosophy over Scholasticism, and revealing his new imagery of God:
“We may confidently say that the Experimental Philosophy has a great advantage of the Scholastic. For in the Peripatetic Schools, where things are wont to be ascribed to certain substantial forms and real qualities (the former of which are acknowledged to be very abstruse and mysterious things, and the latter are many of them confessedly occult), the accounts of nature’s works may be easily given in a few words that are general enough to be applicable to almost all occasions. But these uninstructive terms do neither oblige nor conduct a man to deeper searches into the structure of things, nor their manner of being produced, and of operating upon one another; and consequently are very insufficient to disclose the exquisite wisdom, which the omniscient Maker has expressed in the peculiar fabrics of bodies, and the skilfully regulated motions of them or of their constituent parts. From the discernment of which things there is produced in the mind of an intelligent contemplator a strong conviction of the being of a divine Opificer [workman, or artificer], and a just acknowledgment of His admirable wisdom.”
Thus nature is to be studied for a recognition and awe, made greater by scientific study and understanding, of “the contrivance of the organ and the skill of the Artificer.” You might call him an enthusiast, but this is a religious rationalism over emotionalism.
As John Ray wrote in 1792, “There is for a free man no occupation more worthy and delightful than to contemplate the beauteous works of nature and honour the infinite wisdom and goodness of God.” Natural Theology is this religious sentiment of tying nature to the properties of God the Creator. It encouraged the reading of moral lessons from nature, for Nature was interpreted to be revealing not only of His awesome skill as a maker, but also of His wisdom and benevolence. The purpose of this grand construction was ultimately for humanity.
The “argument from design,” the intellectual bulwark of this religious use of nature, posited that the complexity and orderly purpose of nature could arise by no known law or mechanism from nature itself: it required [and thus proved] the existence of a divine creative Mind. Nature proved His existence and provided a clue to His benevolent qualities; and thus science could be called upon to provide intellectual justification for faith. It was an encouragement to careful scientific studies of the parts and operations of the natural world.
The comfortable wedding of scientific and religious impulses flourished particularly in Britain, from the late 1600s to the mid-1800s. Notable popular natural religion treatises included the naturalist John Ray’s The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation (1692) and William Derham’s Physico-Theology(1713). Specialized examples were common, such as Astro-Theology and Lesser’s Insecto-Theology (1740). An ecological emphasis, on the intertwining connections in nature, appeared in Linnaeus’ OEconomia naturae (1749) and Politia naturae (1760). The grand masterpiece that gave voice to the design argument, studies of complex parts of nature, and the interconnections was the Rev. William Paley’s Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature (1802). The lessons also found expression in more conventional natural histories, such as Gilbert White’s highly popular The Natural History of Selbourne (1788) and the more specialized Introduction to Entomology (1815) of the Rev. William Kirby and William Spence. The widest expression of natural religion was in innumerable sermons, lectures, pamphlets, circulars, and theodicies.