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Science and Religion

Science and Religion. Natural Enemies OR “A Match Made in the Heavens”?. Aristotelian-Ptolemaic-Galenic (ancient times to 15 th century). Each object is unique with unique properties The world is static and unchanging Geocentrism, crystal spheres, heavenly circular motion

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Science and Religion

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  1. Science and Religion Natural Enemies OR “A Match Made in the Heavens”?

  2. Aristotelian-Ptolemaic-Galenic (ancient times to 15th century) • Each object is unique with unique properties • The world is static and unchanging • Geocentrism, crystal spheres, heavenly circular motion • Four humors (blood, black/yellow bile, phlegm) and treatments • Assoc. w/Scholasticism & medieval universities • Synthesized into Christianity by RCC

  3. Neo-Platonic-Hermetic-astrological challenge (15th-17th centuries) • Assoc w/Renaissance revival of Plato, Pythagoras • Belief in mathematical harmony, “music of the spheres” • Paracelsus—interest in chemicals in body that reflect those in nature • Uniform cosmological forces that govern all phenomenon • Compare to Cartesian view of inert matter studied by non-physical mind • Interest in astrology (Cardano and Kepler)

  4. Newton’s Synthesis: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants • Life and personality (apple, “By always thinking…,” “A vast undiscovered ocean”) • Three laws of motion: inertia, F=m x a, equal & opposite reactions • Universal law of gravitation (F = gM1M2/d2) • Study of alchemy & religious beliefs (“God is everywhere present”) • Other deeds: Royal Mint, Royal Society, calculus, optics, knighted • “2nd most important in history”

  5. Spinoza and Monism • Study of Cartesian dualism • Rejects this separatism in favor of monism (= God) • Ethics Demonstrated in a Geometric Manner—rational ethics • Humans can be studied like nature because all from same substance • Unhappiness comes from ignorance of causes of human behavior • Persecuted and rejected by Jewish and Christian communities (an atheist?)

  6. Pascal: Balancing Reason and Faith • Genius credentials: 32 Euclidean theorems by 9, adding machine, triangle, conic sections • Interest in Jansenism and spiritual conversion • Pensees—effort to show that humans are between everything (neo-Platonism) and nothing (Calvinism) • “man is a reed, but a thinking reed” • God can be shown by rational means, but ultimately a matter of faith (Pascal’s Wager)

  7. Towards Deism and Atheism • Separation of mind and matter eliminates need for spiritual connection • A mechanistic view of the world (vs. a vitalistic one) • God as the supreme clockmaker • Gloss of neo-Platonism, cosmic spirit stripped away, left with “particles in motion”

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