Galileo Goes to Jail and other Myths About Science and Religion

by Numbers, Ronald L.

• ISBN13: 9780674033276
• ISBN10: 0674033272
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-31
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

Leading scholars in the history of science puncture the myths that continue to cause friction between the science and religious communities.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

That the Rise of Christianity Was Responsible for the Demise of Ancient Science

That the Medieval Christian Church Suppressed the Growth of Science

That Medieval Christians Taught That the Earth Was Flat

That Medieval Islamic Culture Was Inhospitable to Science

That the Medieval Church Prohibited Human Dissection

That the Copernican System Demoted Humans from the Center of the Cosmos

That Giordano Bruno Was the First Martyr of Modern Science

That Galileo Was Imprisoned and Tortured for Advocating Copernicanism

That Christianity Gave Birth to Modern Science

That the Scientific Revolution Liberated Science from Religion

That Catholics Did Not Contribute to the Scientific Revolution

That Rene Descartes Originated the Mind-Body Distinction

That Isaac Newton's Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God

That the Church Denounced Anesthesia in Childbirth on Biblical Grounds

That the Theory of Organic Evolution Is Based on Circular Reasoning

That Evolution Destroyed Charles Darwin's Faith in Christianity-until He Reconverted on His Deathbed

That Huxley Defeated Wilberforce in Their Debate over Evolution and Religion

That Darwin Destroyed Natural Theology

That Darwin and Haeckel Were Complicit in Nazi Biology

That the Scopes Trial Ended in Defeat for Antievolutionism

That Einstein Believed in a Personal God

That Quantum Physics Demonstrated the Doctrine of Free Will

That "Intelligent Design" Represents a Scientific Challenge to Evolution

That Creationism Is a Uniquely American Phenomenon

That Modern Science Has Secularized Western Culture

Notes

List of Contributors

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.