Most of the pioneers of science and rational thinking were religious. One can believe in one thing based on logic and evidence and still have beliefs that aren't as well grounded. Newton was a genius and paved the way for so many things, yet dabbled in the mystics and alchemy. Doesn't downplay his science work.
Most of them were forced to be religious or they'd be burned alive as heretics.
How many were actually atheists? Id wager most
Maybe deists, not necessarily convinced of the Christian god but thinking there could be something in control.
I bet some of the non devout were agnostic deists, believing in general "intelligent creation".
Some of these folks view the pursuit of knowledge on the universe as understanding God's designs.
Especially once you get into genetics and evolution. A lot of those theories directly contradict creationist theories.
Catholics don't have a problem with science in fact the belief is that it is a sin if you have a talent given by God and waste it.
The problem are the Christian sects that decided to interpret the Bible literally that led to these conclusions.
Most people in history were religious.
Yep, for most of history what we'd call "science-ing" was done by people called natural philosophers, people who blended early scientific thought with questions of theology (ex. "How can I understand what God built outside our planet?")
They don't know the difference between:
because
vs
despite
Counter point: Galileo.
And Giordano Bruno
I was not aware of Giordano Bruno. 😮
Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges of denial of several core Catholic doctrines, including eternal damnation, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and transubstantiation. Bruno's pantheism was not taken lightly by the church,[2] nor was his teaching of metempsychosis regarding the reincarnation of the soul. The Inquisition found him guilty, and he was burned alive at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori in 1600.
That's an impressive list! And the last person listed only died two hundred and thirty years ago!
The Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre, who died in 1966, discovered the Big Bang.
Werner Heisenberg, died in 1976, on of the creators of quantum physics, was Lutheran.
Ernest Walton, who died in 1995, proved that E=mc², was Methodist. Nobel prize in physics.
John Eccles, Nobel prize in Physiology, who died in 1997, was a devout Christian.
Just to name a few… That doesn't prove anything, but yes one can be scientist, and a good one, and believe in God.
The Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre, who died in 1966, discovered the Big Bang.
In Steven Hawkings' book A Brief History of Time, Hawking described meeting with the Pope and the Pope told him how the Big Bang theory was great but don't go searching for the cause of the Big Bang.
I think that perfectly illustrates the difference between scientists who are religious and the Church itself.
I think the whole Galileo Galilei affair demonstrates the attitude of the Church before and after the fact. Didn't the RCC finally forgive him (irrespective of admitting he was correct) in the 1990s?
Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître a Belgain Catholic priest and cosmologist who hypothesized the primeval atom beginning of the universe, now the Big Bang Theory
Pope Pius XI was so impressed and glad to have a scientific theory that informed a beginning of the universe (where God could be inserted) that he gave Lemaître a promotion... right out of the astronomical department.
Lemaître, who was a much better scientist and mathematician than he was a bureaucrat petitioned his way back into astrophysics, not amused by how God works in mysterious ways, sometimes.
Jimmy Carr has a great perspective on the church. Preblack plague the priests were the smartest people in the village.
Post black plague the churches took anyone with a pulse. The Renaissance gave education and wealth redistribution organically to topple monarchies.
I mean, this is Catholic, a specific branch of Christianity. Fundamentalists like Jack Chick think that Catholicism is devil-worship, but I'm sure these people would be like, "yeah, he's a weirdo, but I wanna laugh at atheists, not actual crackpots!"
