Class 19: Church and
Science
Ann T. Orlando
13 March 2006
Introduction
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History Review
Scientific Revolution and early Enlightenment
Real question: how do we ‘know’ and what is
relation to belief in God
In my opinion,
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Enlightenment answer is one of either
presumption or despair
We still living in the Age of the Enlightenment
Political Developments in Europe
17th C
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Spain: World Power in 16th C; decline in 17th C
England: Tudors, Puritan Revolution, Restoration
with broader democracy
France: Strong Kings
Germany: Separate Duchies, HRE
Italy: Separate states
Impact of Reformation
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Different models of Church in Politics
Thirty Year’s War; intellectual disillusionment with religion
Development of a new secular
philosophy: Enlightenment
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Science (as we now define it) is the (only) basis for knowledge;
 Human reason based on observation and reasoning by induction
can figure it (anything, everything) out;
 Always making progress
 Devalue history, tradition
Toleration as the basis for political-religious relationship;
 Separation of Church and State
Individual rights, not duty, as basis for political systems and
society;
 Social contract not natural law as basis of legal system
Offers an alternative to established religions as a basis for
society
The Revival of Hellenistic Philosophy
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Humanist legacy from Renaissance
New philosophical and political theories
‘reached back’ to the ‘golden era’ of Rome
and Hellenistic philosophy: Stoicism,
Epicureanism
Scientific theories developed around both
cause and effect, as well as atomic motion
Summary of Stoicism
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God controlled every aspect of life
There was no free will, only Divine Providence
There was life of soul after death, with rewards and punishments
Law was the most important human endeavor
Divine cause (eternal reason, Logos) and effect ruled the
universe; there is a chain of cause and effects at work
We know through participation in Logos
Participation in civic life and duty to position in life was most
important
Natural law is very important
Family duties more important than friendship
Virtue, not pleasure, is basis for ethics
Summary of Epicureanism
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That the gods were irrelevant to human life; they lived in a
state of happy tranquility
In the complete free will of the individual
That there was only annihilation after death
That science and technology were the most important
human endeavors
We know only through our senses
World was made of randomly moving atoms
That participation in the civic life was not important
There was no such thing as a natural law
That women could be members of an Epicurean school
Friendship was more important than family
That the attainment of stable pleasures by the individual
was the basis of ethics
th
17
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C Philosophy: Empiricists
Empiricists: Knowledge is from senses
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
 The modern idea of technological “progress” (in the sense of a
steady, cumulative, historical advance in applied scientific
knowledge) began with Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning
 Champions inductive logic based upon extensive observation;
proceed from particular to general
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
 Atheist and materialist: does not accept natural law
 Impressed by current scientific advances
 Very pessimistic about human nature: social contract with threats
of punishments only way to control behavior
John Locke (1632-1704)
The Enlightenment Emphasis on
Science
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Before Enlightenment ‘science’ meant any well defined area of
knowledge
During the Enlightenment it comes to mean investigation of nature by
our senses through inductive reasoning and then applying
mathematical models to describe observations
Key Enlightenment Scientists
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Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
William Harvey (1578-1657)
Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
Christian Huygens (1629-1695)
Antoine von Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Royal Society of London established 1660
And don’t forget voyages of discovery
Catholicism and Science
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Galileo (1564-1642) controversy
 Church silences Galileo because of his theory that earth revolved
around sun
 But the Jesuits also supported Kepler against Protestant
attackers
 Part of Robert Bellarmine’s argument against Galileo was that his
circular orbits were not consistent with observations; epicycles
explained astronomical observations better than circular orbits
Real question: Where is knowledge to be found?
 Church rejects the argument that only science has access to
truth; rejects attempts to relativize (trivialize) revelation
 In 17th C Church is in good company: Isaac Newton, Robert
Boyle
The Giant of the Scientific Age:
Isaac Newton
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The most famous man in Europe in his own day and
thereafter until Einstein
Founder of calculus (along with Leibniz)
Fundamental discoveries in optics, mechanics,
gravitation
Very deeply religious; focuses on Biblical exegesis,
not physics, at end of his life
Alexander Pope: “Nature and nature's laws lay hid
by night; God said let Newton be and all was light”
Religion and Science: Isaac Newton
and Robert Boyle
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Newton
 At the end of his Opticks, he tries to distance himself from
Epicurean ethics. He was concerned that a corpuscular theory of
light could be interpreted as support for Epicurean philosophy
 Newton’s favorite verse was Acts 17:28; he knew it was Stoic
poetry; he tried to use this to explain how gravity could work
across ‘empty’ space
Boyle
 Called fundamental units in gases corpuscles rather than atoms
because he did not want his theory used to support Epicurean
philosophy
 Left an endowment for Christian lectures to be given in London
opposing Epicureanism
Key Difference Between 17thC and 18th C
Enlightenment Figures
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17th C Enlightenment Figures
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18th C Enlightenment Figures
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Scientists and Philosophers
Devout Christians
Political philosophers and activists
Deists or atheists
Why rise of Deism, why not just atheism?
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Religion needed to enforce morality among ignorant
masses
To rescue science; there is order in the world and we can
know what it is; that is Intelligent Design
Despair of knowing
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Pierre Bayle (1647-1706)
 Huguenot
 His Historical and Critical Dictionary was single most popular
work in 18th C
David Hume (1711-1776) Dialog Concerning Natural Religion
 Published after his death
 Attacks both religion and science (i.e., attacks deism)
 Severe attack against Intelligent Design
 Skepticism is the only acceptable intellectual stance
Voltaire, Lisbon Earthquake Poem
 Voltaire starts as a deist, becomes an atheist and a skeptic
Deeply connected with skepticism was problem of evil and
theodicy (a term invented by Leibniz in opposition to Bayle)
Natural selection (chance) in Biology
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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Voyage of Beagle 1831-1836; Darwin is the ship-board
naturalist (flora, fauna, geology samples)
Origin of Species 1859; reading selection from end of work
Evolution as described by Darwin is in direct
opposition to
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Platonic Great Chain of Being
Literal interpretation of Genesis
Mathematics as the precise description of what is
happening in nature
Assignments
1. Bokenkotter, Chapter 22
2. Robert Bellarmine Letter on Galileo available at
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1615bellarmine-letter.html
3. Isaac Newton. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. in Paul Hyland. The
Enlightenment, A Sourcebook and Reader. London: Routledge, 2003. p 38-39.
4. Voltaire Lisbon Earthquake. In Paul Hyland. The
Enlightenment, A Sourcebook and Reader. London: Routledge, 2003. p 77-82.
5. Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of Roman Empire. in Paul Hyland. The
Enlightenment, A Sourcebook and Reader. London: Routledge, 2003. p 201-208.
6. Charles Darwin. Origin of Species. At
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/darwin.html
7. Mark Kalthoff, “A Different Voice from the Eve of Origin, Reconsidering John Henry
Newman on Christianity, Science, and Intelligent Design”. PSCF 53 (March
2001) available at http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2001/PSCF3-01Kalthoff.html
8. Immanuel Kant. What is Enlightenment? In Paul Hyland. The Enlightenment, A
Sourcebook and Reader. London: Routledge, 2003. (Skim) pp 54-58.