Giordano Bruno Was Not a Martyr to Science
For one thing, he was no scientist.
But, "for those who prefer simple slogans and caricatures to the hard work of actually analysing and understanding history, Bruno is a simple answer to a intricate question."
See more here, and learn that Neil deGrasse Tyson's history is as badly mangled when he does a major documentary as it is when he does a podcast.
NOTE: The author of the post I link to above describes himself as "an arrogant Irish-Australian atheist bastard." The debunking of the "Church as the foe of science" myth has not been a project of solely, or even mainly, Christian scholars. It is simply the work of serious historians, many of them non-believers, finding out what actually occurred in the past. If you think something like "The Church held back science for hundreds of years," you simply have no idea what you are talking about.
But, "for those who prefer simple slogans and caricatures to the hard work of actually analysing and understanding history, Bruno is a simple answer to a intricate question."
See more here, and learn that Neil deGrasse Tyson's history is as badly mangled when he does a major documentary as it is when he does a podcast.
NOTE: The author of the post I link to above describes himself as "an arrogant Irish-Australian atheist bastard." The debunking of the "Church as the foe of science" myth has not been a project of solely, or even mainly, Christian scholars. It is simply the work of serious historians, many of them non-believers, finding out what actually occurred in the past. If you think something like "The Church held back science for hundreds of years," you simply have no idea what you are talking about.
Thank you for that interesting post, Prof. Callahan. I am afraid one is generally unaware of the scope of those systematic attacks on the Catholic Church. The link shows accurately that those false rewriting of history can be traced back to an era of fierce anti-clericalism. That reminds me of a four volume history book I found, “histoire partiale, histoire vraie” that shows how deliberately false were of lot of history textbooks written in the end of the 19th C. and beginning of the 20th C. and intended for primary and secondary public education in France: the obvious intend was to show the church in the worst light as possible, as anti-science, learning, progress, etc.. and how horrible were the Middle Age with its crass ignorance and abject poverty (even systematic canibalism, when not only grass eating), and how after the french revolution all was beautiful and progressive (school furniture forever new and children allways happy..). The noble purpose of those official textbooks was of course to create good and enlighten citizens...
ReplyDeleteThe links about Hypathia were also interesting : we watched the movie in family (my wife and her kids are atheists) and of course, since we don't know much about the time, the general feeling was how horrible the church was (is). But since I have encountered that kind of anti church propaganda, I made some quick research to show them something more accurate. Alas, it is easier to keep the impression given by a movie than to read painstakingly some serious work.