Catholics Did Not Invent Science

religiousragings:

deconversionmovement:

nikosnature:

anonymous asked you:  did the catholic church actually make science?

For all practical purposes, yes. 

1.  The first scientists were Catholics motivated by wanting to know how God ordained the universe.  Science itself makes the assumption that the universe is rationally ordered, a claim that seems to suggest an acceptance and preference for a belief in a rational mind to organize it.  Science is from this point of view, a religious endeavor, and this is how the early scientists understood it.

Science isn’t a religious endeavor.  It is a human endeavor and some of the early scientists didn’t prove their predilections — quite the opposite actually (i.e. Johannes Kepler).

2.  The scientific method was a Catholic invention.

Wrong.  The scientific method is based on the stocratic method, which is a Grecian invention — Socrates invention to be exact.

3.  The Catholic Church set up the first universities which soon began to study scientific questions.

The Muslims also set up universities during the Islamic Golden Age.  I guess it’s proper to call science some part Muslim also?  No.

4.  The entire field of genetics was started by a Catholic priest.

Gregor Mendel founded modern genetics, but who burned all his papers after his death?  The succeeding abbot burned his papers.  His work was duplicated by Hugo de Vries — a Mennonite Protestant; it was also duplicated by Carl Correns.  So, is it safer to conclude that the field of genetics was founded by a Protestant?  No.  It is safer to conclude that science works; Penn Jillette makes the point:

“If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.”

Ironically, that’s what happened to Mendel’s contributions; they were wiped out.  Thankfully, someone figured it out again.

5.  The Big Bang Theory was first proposed by a Catholic priest.

This was Georges Lemaitre who wouldn’t have had a theory to propose if it wasn’t for the calculations of Albert Einstein (raised Jew, but turned Pantheist), William de Sitter and Alexander Friedmann.

Here are some more snippets.

http://www.catholicsentinel.org/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=12315&SectionID=10&SubSectionID=90&S=1

The entire field of biology was founded by Aristotle — a Greek.

The entire field of evolutionary biology was founded by Charles Darwin — an atheist.

Planck time was discovered by Max Planck — a deist.

Science was popularized in the 90s by Carl Sagan — an atheist.

To be quite honest, this is ridiculous.  Science isn’t Greek, Muslim, Catholic, religious or atheistic.  Science is a human endeavor and anyone (assuming he/she applies him/herself) can do science regardless of ethnicity, nationality, gender or creed.  Do not conveniently forget:  your church stifled scientific progress for centuries.  Therefore, I would argue that the biggest Catholic contribution was a fork in the road that turned the vehicle of science on its side.  Point of all this:  Catholics did not invent science, science isn’t Catholic and science isn’t a religious endeavor; be thou reminded:  religious endeavors are based on faith and the same cannot be said of science, which hinges on evidence rather than on belief without evidence.

Well said!

(via skepticalavenger)