Post by James Hannam on Jun 1, 2008 18:40:53 GMT
I've posted these ten elsewhere without the references. Any additions would be most welcome.
1) In the Middle Ages, Christian universities laid down the foundations of modern science and took the subject of rational logic to heights not reached until the nineteenth century.
See: jameshannam.com/medievalscience.htm
2) The Jesuits published over 6,000 scientific papers and texts between 1600 and 1773 including a third of those on electricity. They were by far the largest scientific organisation in the world.
See: Richard Olson “Science and Religion 1450 – 1900” p. 69
3) Copernicus’s book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, was never banned by the church. Instead, the pope’s censors compiled a short insert with ten corrections intended to make clear heliocentricism was an unproven hypothesis. At the time, this is what it was.
See: MA Finocchiaro “Retrying Galileo” p. 20 for the corrections.
4) During the Middle Ages, hardly anyone thought the Earth was flat. The question never arose with Christopher Columbus.
See: jameshannam.com/flatearth.htm
5) No one has ever been burnt at the stake for scientific ideas. The only great scientist to have been executed was the chemist Antione Lavoisier. ‘Freethinking’ anti-clerical French revolutionaries guillotined him in 1794. Bruno and Severtus not executed for scientific reasons.
See: John Gribbin “Science: A History” p. 17 for Giordano Bruno; p. 27 for Michael Servetus and p. 284 for Lavoisier
6) Calvin never said “Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit.
Alister McGrath “The Twilight of Atheism” p. 80 – 1.
7) Even by the standards of their time, Sir Isaac Newton, Johann Kepler and Michael Faraday were devoutly religious. During the Enlightenment, when scepticism about religion became acceptable, scientists almost always remained committed Christians.
Gribbin, op. cit. provides pocket biographies for various scientists.
8) Christians did not try and destroy pagan Greek scientific ideas or burn down the great library of Alexandria. Instead, they laboriously hand copied millions of words of Greek science and medicine thus ensuring they were preserved.
See: jameshannam.com/literature.htm
9) The church never tried to ban zero.
Zero: bedejournal.blogspot.com/2005/11/zero-redux.html
10) The Church never tried to ban human dissection. Vesalius was not punished by the inquisition. Leonardo ‘hindered’ by John the Mirror Maker denouncing him to the Pope and hospital.
Dissection: I really, really need to write an article on this! See: Edward Grant “God and Nature” p. 113.
Best wishes
James
1) In the Middle Ages, Christian universities laid down the foundations of modern science and took the subject of rational logic to heights not reached until the nineteenth century.
See: jameshannam.com/medievalscience.htm
2) The Jesuits published over 6,000 scientific papers and texts between 1600 and 1773 including a third of those on electricity. They were by far the largest scientific organisation in the world.
See: Richard Olson “Science and Religion 1450 – 1900” p. 69
3) Copernicus’s book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, was never banned by the church. Instead, the pope’s censors compiled a short insert with ten corrections intended to make clear heliocentricism was an unproven hypothesis. At the time, this is what it was.
See: MA Finocchiaro “Retrying Galileo” p. 20 for the corrections.
4) During the Middle Ages, hardly anyone thought the Earth was flat. The question never arose with Christopher Columbus.
See: jameshannam.com/flatearth.htm
5) No one has ever been burnt at the stake for scientific ideas. The only great scientist to have been executed was the chemist Antione Lavoisier. ‘Freethinking’ anti-clerical French revolutionaries guillotined him in 1794. Bruno and Severtus not executed for scientific reasons.
See: John Gribbin “Science: A History” p. 17 for Giordano Bruno; p. 27 for Michael Servetus and p. 284 for Lavoisier
6) Calvin never said “Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit.
Alister McGrath “The Twilight of Atheism” p. 80 – 1.
7) Even by the standards of their time, Sir Isaac Newton, Johann Kepler and Michael Faraday were devoutly religious. During the Enlightenment, when scepticism about religion became acceptable, scientists almost always remained committed Christians.
Gribbin, op. cit. provides pocket biographies for various scientists.
8) Christians did not try and destroy pagan Greek scientific ideas or burn down the great library of Alexandria. Instead, they laboriously hand copied millions of words of Greek science and medicine thus ensuring they were preserved.
See: jameshannam.com/literature.htm
9) The church never tried to ban zero.
Zero: bedejournal.blogspot.com/2005/11/zero-redux.html
10) The Church never tried to ban human dissection. Vesalius was not punished by the inquisition. Leonardo ‘hindered’ by John the Mirror Maker denouncing him to the Pope and hospital.
Dissection: I really, really need to write an article on this! See: Edward Grant “God and Nature” p. 113.
Best wishes
James
