Fiona’s Reviews > The End of Secularism > Status Update

People speak as though a segment of the population lives according to "science" & the other rejects deliverances of science, the prejudice against religion that accompanies this worldview blinds its holder from the philosophical problems which arise from it. Even centuries ago, people always used the experimental method (is this berry safe to eat?), they were not savages who avoided uncovering material truths.

The strategy for professionalisation & obtaining greater resources & priority was to take a naturalistic approach to science, the young men of science defined positivism as the only legitimate & valid approach to doing science work or know anything- metaphysical concerns outside the laboratory were nothing more than useless speculation. It was an effective way to marginalise & isolate many clergy.

The ideology-of-science group wanted to see religion completely discarded; English research science, well into 19th century, did not command much prestige, nor was it professionalised. The young men who pushed for the warfare between science & religion wanted to advance their careers & gain social status/prestige, to do so would mean to establish greater public trust, respect & appreciation for science.

The ideology-of-science group wanted to see religion completely discarded; English research science, well into 19th century, did not command much prestige, nor was it professionalised. The young men who pushed for the warfare between science & religion wanted to advance their careers & greater social respect, to do so would mean to establish greater public respect for & trust in science.

Critics of the church's involvement with science might insist that science as the handmaiden of theology is not "science", that argument is both naive & dishonest- science enterprises that are simultaneously the recipient of social support & autonomous" are rare to nonexistent. "The question throughout most of history has not been whether science will function as a handmaiden, but which mistress it will serve."

The warfare myth was "first developed by humanists of the Renaissance, further articulated by the philosophes of the enlightenment, & given canonical form by the variety of polemicists in the 19th century" as part of a project by European & American intellectuals to justify & establish the superiority of their cultures.

Accusations that the church was solely responsible for stagnation in scientific discovery for a millennium are reductionist & fail (or wilfully ignore) to take into account how ancient societies had few sources to shift towards the pre-scientific study of nature, especially as it was "rarely seen as a socially useful activity", social conditions were not disposed towards a flurry of scientific activity.

Christianity bloomed in a pagan world that "offered a broad spectrum of attitudes towards the material world", from pagan cosmic religionists who viewed the creation as perfect & worthy of study to Gnostics who saw the material world as irredeemably evil.
Augustine insisted that Christians interpret scripture in light of what we know about the creation through fields like cosmology.

Science & the early church:
Augustine believed in the value of reason & employed it extensively throughout his work, to him, faith was not the "taskmaster to which reason must submit" but rather the spur to "genuine rational activity."
Augustine wrote: "Heaven forbid that God should hate in us that by which he made us superior to the animals!"

Critics of Darwin could have scientific reasons/motivations & supporters could have theological ones, Galileo had many allies among churchmen & many detractors among scientists- there were splits in both camps regarding his work, Copernicus didn't suffer persecution for his promulgation of heliocentrism in the 16th century, he was encouraged in his work by various churchmen.