A Short History of Science and
Religion
~ by Ernie Stokely 9-25-2007
The Rise of Science - The Ages
of Reason and Enlightenment
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) – Born
in East Prussia and a giant of philosophical thinking, Immanuel Kant defined
"enlightenment" toward
the end of the 18th century, the late period of the Age of Enlightenment.
He also ushered in the 19th century and its rich period of new ideas
and discoveries. He wrote that one could not know if there was a God,
but one could also not know there was not a God. He tried to reconcile
faith and science basically by separating the two. Kant felt the focus
should be on human relationships and not on the natural world, which he
considered inscrutable.
The 19th
Century - The Ferment of Ideas
Charles Darwin 1809-1882 No one in
history more than Charles Darwin influenced
the rift between religion and science. The 5th of 6 children, he
was born into a family of means. He was sent to Cambridge to study for
the ministry after being a failure at studying for medicine. Charles'
professor had been offered a globe-circling trip on the 100 foot boat,
the Beagle, but was unable to accept. He offered the trip to Charles.
At first his family forebad him to go, but his uncle persuaded the family
to support Charles in the voyage. He was seasick the entire five years
of the trip. Charles’s
mother was a Wedgwood (of the famous pottery-making family), and Charles
eventually married Emma Wedgwood, his 1st cousin. Origin
of the Species was his blockbuster book, but Descent
of Man was his exposition on anthropology
and the evolution of the human species. Darwin believed in God, and did
not see personally see a conflict between religion and his work, although
he clearly understood the disserntion between the Church and his work
that followed.
The Philosophers and Theologians -
Only a small sample of the ground-breaking and original thinking of the 19th
century will be presented here. David Strauss (1808-1874) dared to suggest that
the stories surrounding Jesus's life and work did not derive from actual events
but had resulted from an Old Testament mythological tradition. Theology in the
19th century became diverse and sometimes contentious. For example, Charles Hodge
(1797-1878), Professor of
Theology at Princeton, wrote simply that Darwinism was atheism.
Thomas Huxley
(1825-1895) wrote treatises supporting the theory of evolution, even though
he had doubts about Darwin's ideas of natural selection and gradualism.
He enlarged
evolutionary thinking to include ideas about human evolution and distinction
between human races and genders. Huxley considered himself an agnostic. Almost
totally self-schooled, Huxley made contributions not only in areas of thinking
about evolution, he made large contributions to biology.
Go to the next page.
Index:
Introduction
The Ancient World
The Greek Era
The Rise of Christianity
The Middle Ages
The Rise of Science and Enlightenment
The Enlightenment by Great Scientists and Philosophers
Galileo, Newton, and Kant
Reason and Enlightenment
Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, Progressiveism
Personal Theologies of God
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