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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Science as Religion
Message-ID: <415@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Jul-85 14:34:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: kontron.415
Posted: Thu Jul 25 14:34:04 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jul-85 07:23:20 EDT
References: <3158@decwrl.UUCP> <2172@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA
Lines: 48

> In article <3158@decwrl.UUCP> arndt@lymph.DEC writes:
> >
> >The premise... is that 'science' as
> >we know it rose only under the Christian world-view.  A statement Whitehead,
> >Oppenheimer and others have made as well.
> 
> I should know better than to try to argue with Aren't, and i do.  I'll just
> state my disagreement and point to the source, so he can look it up himself.
> 
> Whitehead, in his book titled (i believe) "Science and Reality," does not
> maintain that
> 	 "science... rose... UNDER the Christian world-view,"
> but rather that
> 	  science rose AGAINST the Christian world-view.
> 
> Whitehead's contention is that 'science' was a reaction against the 
> 'rationalism' of Aristotle, Aquinas, Decartes, etc.
> 
Gee, Aristotle was a Christian?  Wow, what a revelation!  Seriously,
the "rationalism" of Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, etc. has a lot more
to do with Greek philosophy than with Christianity.  (After all, it was
Aristotle who "demonstrated" that women had less teeth than men because
women were inferior.  He just didn't bother to actually do any field
work.)  Experimental method arose because men like DaVinci were engaged
in building practical weapons of war, where intellectualizing to 
exclusion of reality would have serious and deadly consequences.  (See
George Orwell's remarks in _1984_ about the problems of Truth in a
totalitarian society, and why science is the least harassed of the
pursuits of knowledge in such societies.)

Also, on the issue of science and Christianity, I think a good case could
be made that the emphasis on the individual after the Reformation 
*encouraged* scientific inquiry, especially in comparision to the
rigidity the Catholic Church adopted.

> Christians arguing endlessly about how many teeth a horse has, each
> interpreting the Bible as the sole way of learning the answer.
> 
I haven't heard this one before; are you sure you aren't confusing this
with Aristotle's determination of teeth count done a few centuries before
Jesus was born?

> 	Al  Algustyniak
> 
> p.s.  It looks like i have to leave the net in a couple of weeks.  Thanks,
> 	everyone, for the fascinating experience.

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