For centuries, churches rang their bells during storms to “drive away thunder.” It was a deadly mistake. Metal bells in tall towers acted like lightning magnets, and hundreds of bell-ringers were killed across Europe. Faith and ritual became a death sentence.
Then came Benjamin Franklin. In 1752, his lightning rod offered a simple solution: give the storm’s electricity a safe path to the ground. Fires, deaths, and disasters could be prevented. Today, we barely notice lightning rods, just as we take for granted the seatbelt, the AED on the wall at the airport, or the blood bank at the hospital. Each quietly saves lives.
Why Did Religious Leaders Oppose The Lightning Rod
Surprisingly, Franklin’s invention did not win instant praise. Many religious figures OPPOSED the lightning rod! In Boston, Rev. Thomas Prince warned that rods might cause earthquakes by charging the earth with “electrical substance.” Others accused Franklin of trying to “control the artillery of Heaven.” The lightning rod was science pitted against theology.
This was not the last time life-saving innovations met religious opposition. In the mid-1800s, many clergy denounced anesthesia in childbirth, citing Genesis: “in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.” To them, easing women’s suffering was resisting God’s will. That objection only faded when Queen Victoria used chloroform in 1853 — and the world saw that modern medicine could serve, not subvert, the divine.
History has its verdict. Churches now wear lightning rods on their steeples. Anesthesia is standard in every maternity ward. Organ transplants, once seen as tampering with the soul, are now celebrated as gifts of life. Each case follows the same pattern: initial resistance, then reluctant acceptance, then universal gratitude once lives are spared.
The lesson is clear. Science and faith need not be enemies. When religious fear resists proven knowledge, it is human beings who suffer. Franklin’s rod — and every humble invention since — reminds us that saving lives should never be controversial.
A Political Controversy?
According to this wonderful article in Scientific American, King George III of England objected to the shape of the lightning rod.!
Good article Barry. I can see how vaccines fit into this category today. People who deny science and withhold vaccines from their kids have started a measles epidemic in some states where unvaccinated kids have died from a preventable disease.
Karen
I found it interesting that it happened not just in American history, but two the single most respected American of his time. Franklin wasn’t a scientist in the strictest sense of the word, but he was widely addressed as doctor Franklin because of his inventions and his inventive mind and even that wasn’t enough to convince some of the religious leaders of his community!