Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (1823 -1915) was a friend of Pasteur and was also, like him, a great Christian biologist. He was a lifelong and vigorous opponent of the idea of spontaneous generation and of the entire theory of evolution. He was an observer of nature with great patience and carefulness. His studies of insects, especially in their living habitats, were unprecedented, so that he is generally considered the father of modern entomology. Fabre loved children and wrote many books on science for children.
These were very popular textbooks in French state schools until the intellectuals of the day reacted vigorously against his frequent references in them to God as the Creator and Sustainer of all things. In the later years of his life, however, like Pasteur, he received many high honors for his scientific investigations. His testimony concerning his belief in God was as follows:
Without Him I understand nothing; without Him all is darkness… Every period has its manias. I regard Atheism as a mania. It is the malady of the age. You could take my skin from me more easily than my faith in God.
Excerpted from Men of Science, Men of God by Henry M. Morris. Copyright 1982, 1988 by Henry M. Morris. Used by permission.