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Newton's Views On Science And Religion

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Science and Religion

“Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion” Isaac Newton. One of the greatest scientist known to mankind, believed that science without religion or the influence of God was pointless. Isaac newton was also a known Christian who struggled with the doctrine, and practices the church was promoting. Very early on scientist have struggled with incorporating science and religion because of the corruption within the church. Which illustrates how the corruption within the church negatively impacted the scientific community, creating scientist with a large variety of opinions concerning God. Like Copernicus, Galileo, and sir Isaac Newton; all of them have very different opinions …show more content…

However, when he started disproving other mathematician’s ideas some of whose concepts were based off different passages in the bible, he went out of his way and addressed the pope. While Addressing Pope Paul the third, he went on to discredited scientist before him who have stated that the earth was at the center of the universe, a belief held with high esteem within the church even today. Copernicus was aware of what could happen by publishing this concept and slightly afraid of the backlash he would receive from the members of the church. However, He went on with unveiling what he thought was a truth that needed to be shared and, by speaking this truth he was indirectly fighting against the corruption within the church. Speaking out against a belief held with reverence within the church and being correct not only discredited the other scientist before him but, also the church, breaking some of the control they possessed. As well as making it easier for the next scientist to speak out about science and religion. Unlike Copernicus whose ideas were blatantly against the church and afraid of the backlash he would receive from publishing his discoveries, Galileo did receive abuse for his however that didn’t stop him from speaking his …show more content…

Galilea expressed his belief in the bible and the teachings of the church however, he believed because the bible has so many underline meanings which are quite abstruse. He believed that the church as well as other scientist, should rely more on our sense rather than anything else. His idea was stated during a time where the church still had a lot of control, and the scientific community was just beginning to thrive with all their findings. Although correct in his accusation toward the church and the abuse he received from the Inquisition makes his ideas more biased regarding his feelings concerning the incorporation of the bible into science. Galileo was not the only one who shared these ideas, in fact Sir Isaac Newtown had a lot to say regarding how the scientific community and the church could work together to further advance the number of findings

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Galileo Galilei was believed to be a heretic for opposing the belief of the Catholic Church, despite him being scientifically correct. With the invention of the telescope, Galileo Galilei had the ability to study the function of the universe and publish his scientific observations, raising the attention of the Catholic Church. Heliocentrism and the Catholic Church Timeline, states “The Catholic Church told Galileo to stop sharing his theory in public in the year of 1615. Along with that, the Catholic Church added Copernicus’s work (and others supporting the heliocentric model to its list of banned books)” (Doc A :Timeline).

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Galileo believes in the Bible and that God has supreme authority over the world, but he sees religion and science as two different things. It is not the purpose of the Bible to explain the physical world, it is there to save our souls. He makes three distinguishes: The Bible and Church have all matters of faith. , if any scientific finding if proven to be true but is against the teachings of the Bible, then we have not found the true meaning of the Bible, and anything not proven that is against the Bible must be

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Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who disagreed with the Roman Catholic theory of geocentrism. He was not a heretic because he was a Christian and had similar beliefs to the Roman Catholics, but he did not agree with the Church’s theory of the position and movement of Earth in the Solar System. Document A is an excerpt of a letter to Duchess Christina of Tuscany written by Galilei, counter-arguing the heresy claims. In the letter, Galileo wrote, “Can an opinion be heretical and yet have no concern with the salvation of souls?” Although he did not believe in the astronomical theory of the Church, he believed that his scientific thoughts should not interfere with his religious beliefs.

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Because of Galileo’s studies, he was put on trial by the Catholic Church for using science to “destroy” religion and its ideas. Galileo was actually a devout Catholic but he believed that science would not interfere with religion or his god where the Catholic Church disagreed with this in fear of losing their power. Because of issues like this, during this time period is what I like to think of “religion with science” meaning that the church only approved of science that supported the Catholic religion and if not then the Church would ban scientific books and figures. The idea of natural philosophy occurred which focused on fundamental questions about nature and the universe, but these ideas were brought into harmony with Christian doctrines.

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He says that the bible is a metaphor but the pope still sees these ideals as a literal interpretation The church is opposed to this idea of science and the church due to it going against scripture. The Duchess and Galileo are secular thinkers opposing new scientific thoughts and religion together (Doc 4). Galileo was a Secular thinker who wrote to the secular leader. His intent was to prove that the church was wrong and wanted to convince the Grand Duchess that god supported science and the church as one (CAPP 3, Purpose). Galelios' Inquisition continues to show how the church is anti-science.

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Copernicus’ previous statement is continued with, “...although I know that the meditations of a philosopher are far removed from the judgement of the laity, because his endeavor is to seek out the truth in all things, so far as this is permitted by God to the human reason I still believe that one must avoid theories altogether foreign to orthodoxy.” (Doc 6.) Copernicus did not need validation from the Church for his ideas. He knew his scientific ideas could be proved without religion endorsing them. Another rationalist thinker, Francesco Petrarch, felt as if he should form opinions after looking at things rationally and from different perspectives.

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It is brought to the attention by John Calvin when he proclaims that even though these advances are great, they are done by the work of God only. Calvin, later on, describes that subjects like astronomy are only able to be possible because of the “wisdom of God”, which distinguishes how effective religion was at the time(Doc 2). In most cases, this document was more deliberate for the people to realize that even though these advancements were being made, one shall not lose faith for this is done by the power of God. A further explanation is done by Marin Mersenne for she is able to indicate that if things are not collaborative with the church, it is within conscious to not display these disagreeable discoveries. This is done by the use of Mersenne explanation that even though a discovery has gone several experiments, but the church disagrees it is within the righteous actions to not publicize this new thinking (Doc 5).

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Following the advancements in the sciences, Astronomers such as Copernicus discussed new ideas that went against the holy scripture, which

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This debate was sparked by the discussion of geocentrism versus heliocentrism, and Paolo Antonio Foscarini, both a monk and a scientist, argued that heliocentrism took so long to become popular because it went against the scriptures (Doc 1). Even though Foscarini saw the reason behind heliocentrism, he agreed that it went against the Church. Cardinal Bellarmine wrote a letter of response to Foscarini, and in it he explained that it is dangerous to entertain ideas of science, because they can be interpreted to go against the consensus of the Holy Fathers (Doc 2). This means that it cannot be understood through the eyes of the Catholic faith, and therefore goes against the Church. In a letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, a secular leader, Galileo Galilei wrote that he believes the Bible to contain metaphors, but it would be considered heretical to suggest any ideas other than the commonly accepted one by the Catholic Church (Doc 4).

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Galileo’s theories portrayed a heliocentric solar system while the Catholic Church had said it was geocentric; as a result, Galileo’s works were put on the Index of Prohibited Books and he was later put under house arrest by the Inquisition. A letter from an Italian monk in Document 3 depicts how religious figures would try to convince him to retract his discovery of the moon having craters in order to avoid confusion and contradiction of the Bible, which portrays how religious figures hindered the progress of the Scientific Revolution because these new ideas challenged the Bible and their old

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Galileo had been teaching about how the sun is rotating around the earth which encouraged Copernicus theory about the heliocentric theory which isn't what the Catholic church wanted. The Church had interpreted the Bible that stated that the Earth was the center of the universe. Galileo teaching is theory was the opposite of what the Church was saying so, it was indeed heretical. The council of treaty made it clear that interpreting scriptures according to your own meaning was not allowed. In 1616, Galileo got a warning from the church that said not to defend the Heliocentric theory.

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Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity. However, while following his discovery, he finds out that the solar system would be unstable because of the pulling of the planets against each other and believes that God is involved in creating stability. This fact clearly indicates that an individual must acquire insight of nature to understand science Therefore, from this perspective, it is clear that religion and science complement each

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Christianity has shaped the Scientific Revolution in Europe in many different ways. The main argument is that it brought a new of thinking that relied on Empiricism and objectivism. The findings made by the revolution’s astronomers challenged the foundations of the truths of the Christian church and the Bible. Some studies show that it has shaped the Scientific Revolution, whereas others show that it has not. The research that shows Christianity does have a significant amount of impact on the Scientific Revolution mostly deal with the explicit conflict between religion and science.

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Copernicus developed the heliocentric theory which claimed that the earth revolved around the sun. This immediately challenged the authorities who believed the opposite. Galileo furthered Copernicus’ argument and promoted that the Bible, that God

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Galileo was saying if it is truth than another truth cannot disprove it. Truth is proven, not debatable and can never be disproven. If it is truth than it is a fact and other facts (in this case new discoveries) cannot disprove what is real truth. Even though Galileo we don’t know whether the discoveries or religious beliefs he was arguing are correct the point is the philosophical statement he was making about truth. Once something is known to be truth, it will stay truth and is something to be trusted

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