Abstract
From the very birth of modern science in the seventeenth century there has been tension between science and religion. This tension is symbolized by the trial of one of the founding fathers of modern science, Galileo Galilei. His defense of Copernicus’s heliocentric system was condemned by the Catholic Church as heresy. He was forced to withdraw his assertions that the sun is the center of the universe and does not move, and that the earth is not the center of the universe and moves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Both translations retrieved from http://www.biblegateway.com/.
- 2.
Perhaps the first to point out this was the historian of science Alexandre Koyre (Koyre 1978). He influenced Edmund Husserl, who called it “Verhangnisvolle Missverstandnisse als Folgen der Unklarheit uber den Sinn der Mathematisierung” (Husserl 1962: 54) (“Portentous misunderstandings resulting from lack of clarity about the meaning of mathematization”, Husserl 1970: 53). It is the main point in Paul Feyerabend’s posthumously published book Conquest of Abundance (1999).
- 3.
The selection of traits that are beneficial to the group, and not to the individuals, is called group selection. Many evolutionary biologists have argued that group selection is incompatible with Darwinism. According to their view, Darwinism only permits two kinds of altruism: kin altruism and reciprocal altruism. Kin altruism is to act altruistically towards close relatives, who share many of the genes, and reciprocal altruism is following the rule: “I scratch your back, and you scratch mine”. Reciprocal altruism is not really altruism; it is more enlightened egoism: I do someone a favor if I am relatively certain that it will be paid back. The problem is that religion does not fit into any of these categories. Therefore, Richard Dawkins gives an alternative evolutionary explanation in The God Delusion.
Bibliography
Brecht, B. 2007. Life of Galileo. Translated by W. Sauerlander … R. Manheirn. Retrieved from http://buehnenkunst.bu.ohost.de.
Copernicus, N. 1990 [1543]. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2nd edition.
Dawkins, R. 2006. The God Delusion. London: Bantam Press.
Descartes, R. 1971 [1641]. Meditations, in R. Descartes: Discourse on Method and the Meditations. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics.
Dinesen, I. (Karen Blixen). 2002 [1937]. Out of Africa. New York: Random House.
Feyerabend, P. 1999. Conquest of Abundance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Galilei, G. 1957 [1623]. The Assayer. In S. Drake (ed.). Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Doubleday … Company.
Galilei, G. 1970 [1630]. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Hawking, S. 1986. A Brief History of Time. London: Bantam Press.
Husserl, E. 1962. Die Krisis der europaischen Wissenschaften und die tranzendentale Phäsnomenologie. Haag: Martinus Nijhoff.
Husserl, E. 1970. The Crisis of European Science and Transcendental Phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Koyré, A. 1978 [1939]. Galileo Studies. London: Harvester.
McMullin, E. 1998. Galileo on science and scripture. In P. Machamer (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Galileo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 271–347.
Monod, J. 1971. Chance and Necessity. An essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology. New York: Alfred Knopf.
Pais, A. 1982. “Subtle is the Lord…”: the Science and the Life of Einstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Redondi, P. 1998. From Galileo to Augustine. In P. Machamer (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Galileo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 175–210.
Schroeder, G.L. 1998. The Science of God. The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom. New York: Broadway Books.
Toulmin, S. 1990. Cosmopolis. The Hidden Agenda of Modernity. New York: Tte Free Press. Wilson, E. 1979. On Human Nature. New York: Bantam Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Wageningen Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fjelland, R. (2012). Science without God. In: Øyen, S.A., Lund-Olsen, T., Vaage, N.S. (eds) Sacred Science?. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-752-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-752-3_7
Publisher Name: Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen
Online ISBN: 978-90-8686-752-3
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
