2006-03-27 - 10:49 a.m.
From Betrand Russell "The Impact of Science on Society"
Eclipses were one of the first natural phenomena to escape from superstition into science. The babylonians could predict them but priest kept the knowledge to themselves so as to increase their power over the populace.
John Knox thought comets were evidence of divine anger. When comets were found to obey gravity and could be calculated, they were no longer considered to be portents.
Charles II estimated that science could be used as an ally against the fanatics and he founded the Royal Society. The House of Commens were not as committed to science yet and announced that the Plague and the Great Fire could be attributed to Divine Displeasure. The House Committee also found that what most displeased the Lord was the work of Thomas Hobbes.
Aristotle believed that women had more teeth than men. He was married twice but never examined their teeth. Aristotle also thought that children would be healthier if conceived when the winds were blowing strong from the north.
The effect of science upon our view of mans place in the universe had had two opposite effects, it has both degraded and exalted him.
Since the victory of Copnernican universe view we know that the earth is not the center of the universe. For awhile the sun replaced it but it turns out our star is hardly even middle class in the billions of billions. It is not easy to keep up the illusion of man's importance in a universe with overwhelming statistics pointing to mans increasing diminuation.
In the pre-Scientific world, all the power was God's. Science has enriched man, showing him that he has say.
In the Theological world view, man decided nothing pisses off God more than a lack of humility. Sureity was the fasted road to the divine wrath, therefore man had to go around, attempting to avoid disaster by acting properly meek.
With the old views, you could tell somebody that if you had enough faith, you could move a mountain and nobody believed you. In the Atomic Age, a government could tell their people they are going to move a mountain and nobody doubts it. (The United States erased a 12 mile island in the Pacific in 1956 with an experimental Hydrogen Bomb.)
