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撮要

自然科學有兩個預設;自然界的秩予及宇宙的非神性性。有了秩序人才可理性地探求宇宙真理;非神性性意味宇宙並非上帝本體或其延伸，所以人儘可放心探究宇宙而不會冒犯神靈。

本文嘗試指出希臘的科學並不能提供近代自然科學研究的基礎，由於希臘哲學否定經驗世界，把真理歸於理型(idea)，所以物質世界流變不真，不穩定的世界並不能產生自然律，或科學真理，另方面原始宗教卻把宇宙等同上帝，以致人若對宇宙探究會褒瀆神靈。

基督教創造論肯定宇宙是上帝所造，有上帝的創造理性，故可以提供穩定的宇宙論，且宇宙是偶然性，不是上帝本體，人的研究不會干犯上帝，近代科學家哥白尼、培根、伽里略的思想都深藏著宇宙秩序及宇宙偶然性的內涵，而這兩種觀點都可溯源於基督教的創造論。

ABSTRACT

The presuppositions of natural science are: 1. The order of the nature; 2. The de-deification of the universe. The order of the nature provides us the rational foundation to investigate the natural law of the universe. The de-deification of the universe means that the contingency of the world that opening the investigation of the universe would no longer be blasphemy to God. The former one frees us from the unstable world view of Greek’s philosophy; the latter one frees us from the superstition of the primitive religions.

The Christian doctrine of creation asserts that God is the Creator, He created the world according to His rationality, this is the order of the universe; He also created the world from nothing, that means the world is not the extension of Him. The world itself is contingency.

The paper attempts to point out that 1. Greek philosophy could not provide the foundation of scientific research because Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle rejected any kind of certainties from the natural world. 2. The universe is cut off with any kind of mythologies so that scientists can have an objective way to do his research on science. The modern scientists like Copernicus, Bacon and Galileo were influenced by these two conceptions, namely, order and contingency, which can be derived from the Christian doctrine of creation.

原載於《建道學刊》8期（1997年7月），頁121-133。