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Scientific and mathematical discoveries were equally marvelous.  Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), the greatest experimental scientist who ever lived, discovered how to kill bacteria in milk and in all liquids through pasteurization.  He also developed a rabies vaccine, first using it in response to a mother who begged him to save her young son, who had been just bitten by a rabid animal.  Pasteur then saved her son’s life with his new vaccine.  (After Pasteur died, the boy later served as a watchman for Pasteur’s tomb.)  Perhaps greatest of all was Pasteur’s discovery of the germ theory of disease, which more than anything has reduced illness and the spread of disease.  Pasteur explained that diseases are transmitted through germs.  Had people known this when the Black Death (bubonic plague) hit the world, far fewer would have died.   

Scientific and mathematical discoveries were equally marvelous.  Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), the greatest experimental scientist who ever lived, discovered how to kill bacteria in milk and in all liquids through pasteurization.  He also developed a rabies vaccine, first using it in response to a mother who begged him to save her young son, who had been just bitten by a rabid animal.  Pasteur then saved her son’s life with his new vaccine.  (After Pasteur died, the boy later served as a watchman for Pasteur’s tomb.)  Perhaps greatest of all was Pasteur’s discovery of the germ theory of disease, which more than anything has reduced illness and the spread of disease.  Pasteur explained that diseases are transmitted through germs.  Had people known this when the Black Death (bubonic plague) hit the world, far fewer would have died.   

Pasteur was a devout Christian, and did not see any conflict between science and Christianity, remarking that “science brings men nearer to God.”  Pasteur experienced many hardships throughout his life, including the death of three of his five children to childhood diseases, but these hardships only served to strengthen his faith and his determination to find cures.  Through it all Pasteur gave God the glory, stating that “the more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.”  Pasteur felt that if he could know everything, then he could attain the invincible faith of stay-at-home moms (homeschoolers?) in poor, northwest France: “Could I but know all I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman!”

Pasteur was a devout Christian, and did not see any conflict between science and Christianity, remarking that “science brings men nearer to God.”  Pasteur experienced many hardships throughout his life, including the death of three of his five children to childhood diseases, but these hardships only served to strengthen his faith and his determination to find cures.  Through it all Pasteur gave God the glory, stating that “the more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.”  Pasteur felt that if he could know everything, then he could attain the invincible faith of peasant women in northwest France: “Could I but know all I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman!”

Another devout Christian was the brilliant mathematician Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866), who was perhaps second only to the Greek Archimedes as the greatest mathematician of all time.  When Riemann was sent as a teenager to an advanced German school, he quickly became bored with his math class.  He went to the principal and requested more advanced material, whereupon the principal gave him the lengthy and most advanced math book known.  Riemann returned in a just few days declaring, “I have mastered it!”  He went on to create a new type of geometry that became useful in the 20th century, and he formulated the most famous unsolved hypothesis that remains in mathematics today.

Another devout Christian was the brilliant mathematician Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866), who was perhaps second only to the Greek Archimedes as the greatest mathematician of all time.  When Riemann was sent as a teenager to an advanced German school, he quickly became bored with his math class.  He went to the principal and requested more advanced material, whereupon the principal gave him the lengthy and most advanced math book known.  Riemann returned in a just few days declaring, “I have mastered it!”  He went on to create a new type of geometry that became useful in the 20th century, and he formulated the most famous unsolved hypothesis that remains in mathematics today.