There is something of a spat going on at Comment is free about the contribution of Christianity to science.

Madeleine Bunting wrote a piece in which she asked accused A C Grayling of offering a masterpiece in anti-Catholic bile.

A C Grayling replied, challenging her to name one - even one small - contribution to science made by Christianity in its two thousand years.

My piece, picking up on the challenge, looks at the top ten scientific discoveries of all time; Christianity is right there in the midst of them.

Putting it more philosophically: Professor Grayling makes his argument by separating the science out from the religious context: the argument is that the context in which science arises is irrelevant to the science, since science is objectively true (unlike religious belief, of course). In support, he refers to Popper's distinction between the psychology and the logic of scientific discovery, seeming to suggest that the logic is all, and that the psychology (in this case, the Christian inspiration, doctrinal context, religious beliefs and so on) can be discarded.

Actually, Popper's point was precisely the opposite. It is the psychology of scientific discovery that is the wellspring of the intuitions that inspire a new theory; it is absolutely essential. However, the difficulty that Popper identifies with this psychological part of the process is that it is not susceptible to rigorous analysis. So, he develops the logic of scientific discovery to derive a test for the intuited theories, via his preferred method of falsification. Of course, Popper means that part to be strictly scientific. But without the psychology, the logic would have nothing to work on, as it were.

So, it is not only to go against common sense but also against Popper, to deny that the Christian-shaped psychology of many scientists, and the Christian-shaped psychology of the societies in which they lived, were essential to the original intuitions - to say nothing of contributing to a congenial environment for testing, observation, experimentation and so on.

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