He goes on to write:
The Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth century was the … result of [Christian scholarship] starting in the eleventh century… Why did real science develop in Europe … and not anywhere else? I find answers to those questions in unique features of Christian theology… The “Enlightenment” [was] conceived initially as a propaganda ploy by militant atheists and humanists [e.g. Voltaire, Diderot and Gibbon] who attempted to claim credit for the rise of science [through promulgating] the falsehood that science required the defeat of religion.Stark notes that,"It is the consensus among contemporary historians, philosophers and sociologists of science that real science arose only once: in Europe."
Why? Because Europe was strongly influenced by Christian theology which held that the universe was intentionally created for man by a rational, logical God, and that it could yield up its secrets by rational inquiry. Since God was rational His creation was not chaotic or random, but like His will for mankind, it was lawful and orderly.
No other belief system, whether secular or religious, offered a ground for belief in an orderly universe that could be studied rationally.
Stark researched "scientific stars" from 1543 to 1680, the era usually designated as the scientific revolution, and came up with a list of the top 52. Fifty of the 52 were Christians, at least 30 of whom could be characterized as devout. One (Edmund Halley) was a sceptic and one (Paracelsus) was a pantheist.
Here's a short version (8 pages) of Stark's argument for those who lack the time to read his book. One of the most devout of the scientists who initiated the scientific revolution was also one of the greatest geniuses in the history of science, Isaac Newton. Newton actually wrote more on theology in his lifetime than he did on science. This short video from the John 10:10 project gives some insight into the man and his beliefs:
