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Galileo

Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 2

Photo of the Moon next to a photo of Ganymede
Galileo made new observations of the Moon and Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, adding to his case for heliocentrism. (Photo by Lunar and Planetary Institute )

Was Galileo more lucky than right? I kept wondering about that as I read “Galileo, the Church, and the Cosmos” from When Science and Christianity Meet. Galileo was a champion of the heliocentric model of the cosmos, which ran counter to both well-established science and the prevailing doctrine of Catholic theologians. The alternative geocentric model, and more specifically the cosmology of Ptolemy and Aristotle, has long since fallen out of favor with both scientists and Christian scholars of all stripes. So of course that vindicates Galileo retroactively, right?
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Science in Review: Reformation Comes to the Book of Nature

Photo of Playmobil Martin Luther figure
Would science have given us plastics without the Reformation? (Photo by albersHeinemann)

This week we observe the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s hammer stroke heard ’round the world, a milestone in the broader Reformation movements that redefined the European landscape for centuries. While Luther’s concerns were theological, change came to many corners of the cultural world, even the sciences. Thus even a notable scientific journal like Nature is sharing a remembrance of Luther, albeit with the twist that maybe the emergence of Protestantism did not influence science so much as we might think.
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Week in Review: Awe-Inspiring Blizzard Edition

Swann in SnowWhat are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

Photo Credit: Philadelphia’s Swann Memorial Fountain, blizzard-style, from Eddie Hales via Flickr. Click for a larger image.

1. Is there a place in the academy for the Christian worldview? (Jesus Creed) RJS, a regular guest blogger at Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog and a science professor at a major research university, shares a recent conversation with a friend about the role of the Christian worldview in the university. A brief except:

If one accepts methodological naturalism consistently as the basis for academic inquiry and rational thought,  it follows that Christianity and religious belief have no place in the university, or in rational discussions, except to do autopsy on them.   We must concede that a scientific-historical understanding of Christianity must be built with no reference to the possibility that He rose from the dead.  We must accept that our own beliefs must be explained in evolutionary and neurological terms, without reference to the possibility that they are true.

The whole thing (and the ensuing conversation) is worth reading. [Read more…] about Week in Review: Awe-Inspiring Blizzard Edition

An Obituary for the “Warfare” View of Science and Religion

Galileo Goes to JailDo you have Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion on your reading list (personal and/or group discussion)?  The book’s edited by one of the names in the study of science-religion in America, i.e., Ronald L. Numbers, University Wisconsin-Madison, Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine. 

As for the title of this entry, I’m referring to last week’s Science and Sacred post by Ted Davis, Messiah College, History of Science.  Here’s an excerpt.

The twenty-five authors in Numbers’ book – one for each of the short, pithy chapters – serve writ on the conflict thesis and its legacy. (To view the contents, go to here.) Many contributors, including Numbers and Lindberg, are major players in the history of science, and at least two will be known to many readers who rarely venture into the field: Edward Larson, whose book on the Scopes trial won the Pulitzer Prize in History, and Michael Ruse, a distinguished philosopher and historian who often writes for general audiences. (Full disclosure: I wrote the chapter on Isaac Newton, but I do not mean to imply that I am a major player and my enthusiasm for the book would be undiminished if I had not contributed to it.) Twelve contributors are agnostics or atheists (by their own statements) and eight are Christians, so charges of advancing a clear ideological agenda will not stick. All of us wrote with ordinary readers, not specialists, in mind, making this a truly rare book: where else can you find such authoritative scholarship delivered so accessibly and fairly on such an important subject?

In effect, this book delivers a public obituary for the warfare view, which has been dead among historians for decades – though many scientists, journalists, and others who know far less about the topic apparently missed the funeral. In fact, the real history of religion and science is too complex, with too many important subtleties and significant mutual interactions, to be captured by any simple metaphor – not conflict, not harmony, nor any other single word that comes to mind. The people who actually lived through the events – those we historians call the “actors” themselves – very often saw things quite differently from the ways in which we’ve usually been told they saw them, or must have seen them. — Ted Davis, An Obituary for the “Warfare” View of Science and Religion, Friday August 28, 2009

Any thoughts on to what degree the warfare view has gone to the grave in academic and/or popular circles?  You’ll hear more from me over the course of the next several months as I participate in the Central Pennsylvania Forum for Religion and Science‘s discussion of Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion, but I thought I’d stir the pot.

Two specific items, I’m interested in from you:

  1. Let me know if you’re picking up the book as an individual or as part of a campus book discussion.
  2. Whether or not you’re reading Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion, if you have particular questions regarding the relationship of science-religion-faith which you’d like addressed on the blog, post them here.  As questions arise, I’ll see what insights Ted Davis, Messiah College, History of Science, might have to share with us.

Updated 3/10/2011. 9:15 AM EST.

Week in Review — Cultural Power, Galileo, Naivete

As you take a break to enjoy the summer weather, review these pieces and share your responses. …

1.  Andy Crouch: Christians, culture and power (Faith & Leadership, Duke University, 8:31 on-line video):  Andy’s back with more!  Do you agree with him that

Christians don’t like to talk about power. But cultural power — the ability to create — is something all people are meant to have.

Should we (or do you) start each day with such a vision? How well are you able to embrace and articulate a distinction between power to coerce (e.g., political) versus power to inspire (e.g., cultural power for the redemption of creation)?

2. Vatican’s Celestial Eye, Seeking Not Angels but Data (George Johnson, NY Times, 6/22/09).  Check out

[t]he Vatican Observatory Research Group [which] does workmanlike astronomy that fights the perception that science and Catholicism necessarily conflict.

Galileo Before the Holy Office
Galileo Before the Holy Office

Anyone have reflections on Galileo or The Two Books (i.e., the Book of Nature and the Scripture)?  On Monday, I had the opportunity to hear Ted Davis, Messiah College’s Historian of Science, lecture on The Galileo Affair: What Really Happened. He had just returned from The Legacy of Galileo Symposium and had upgraded his presentation, below’s an excerpt.

No story in all of the history of science is more famous than that of Galileo, who was tried by the Roman Inquisition after he had written a book advocating the new astronomy of Copernicus.  But the real facts of his story are much less well known.  …  The ideas being debated involved science and religion, but this is not an example of the “warfare” of science and religion.  Galileo saw himself as a faithful Catholic; the church never opposed any proven fact; and the real debate was between different Christian views on how to interpret the Bible. — Ted Davis, Messiah College, History of Science.  6/25/2009.  Part of the the Central Pennsylvania Forum for Religion and Science summer lecture series.

3.  When to Be Naïve: It’s not a virtue just for children (Christianity Today Magazine, 6/12/2009):  Edith M. Humphrey, William F. Orr Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has a good word to share, wish the article was slightly longer.  Note:  If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading Edith’s Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit (Eerdmans, 2005).

We must therefore consider the dynamic of the Christian story rather than merely static principles. God alone, who lives from eternity to eternity, has the wherewithal to be absolutely simple and omnisciently wise at the same time; human beings, on the other hand, must take things in stages, for they are indeed players in the drama of God.”

As always, if you’d like to contribute to next week’s Review, add your link(s) in the comments, or send them to Tom or Mike directly.