The Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge, the alma mater of Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and an illustrious host of others \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve just begun reading James Hannam, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution<\/em> (Washington DC: Henry Regnery, 2011). \u00a0Hannam earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics at Oxford University and a doctorate in the history of science from the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are a few notes from his introduction to the book, which is titled \u201cThe Truth about Science in the Middle Ages\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWriters use the adjective \u2018medieval\u2019 as a synonym for brutality and uncivilized behavior. \u00a0Recently, the word has affixed itself to the Taliban of Afghanistan, whom commentators routinely describe as throwbacks to the Middle Ages, if not the Dark Ages.\u201d \u00a0(xiv)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cClosely coupled to the myth that there was no science worth mentioning in the Middle Ages is the belief that the [Catholic] Church held back what meager advances were made. \u00a0The idea that there is an inevitable conflict between faith and reason owes much of its force to the work of nineteenth century propagandists such as the Englishman Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) and the American John William Draper (1811-1882). \u00a0Huxley famously declared: \u2018Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science, as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules.'\u201d \u00a0(xiv)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to popular belief, the Church never supported the idea that the earth is flat, never banned human dissection, never banned the zero, and certainly never burnt anyone at the stake for scientific ideas.\u201d \u00a0(xv)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most famous clash between science and religion was the trial of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) in 1633. \u00a0Academic historians are now convinced that this had as much to do with politics and the pope\u2019s self-esteem as it did with science.\u201d \u00a0(xv)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe denigration of the Middle Ages began as long ago as the sixteenth century, when humanists, the intellectual trendsetters of the time, started to champion classical Greek and Roman literature. \u00a0They cast aside medieval scholarship on the grounds that it was convoluted and written in \u2018barbaric\u2019 Latin. \u00a0So people stopped reading and studying it. \u00a0The cudgels were subsequently taken up by English writers such as Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), and John Locke (1632-1704. \u00a0The waters were muddied further by the desire of these Protestant writers not to give an ounce of credit to Catholics. \u00a0It suited them to maintain that nothing of value had been taught at universities before the Reformation. \u00a0Galileo, who thanks to his trial before the Inquisition was counted as an honorary Protestant, was about the only Catholic natural philosopher to be accorded a place in English-language histories of science.\u201d \u00a0(xv)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve just begun reading James Hannam, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution (Washington DC: Henry Regnery, 2011). \u00a0Hannam earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics at Oxford University and a doctorate in the history of science from the University of Cambridge. \u00a0 Here are a few notes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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