Some points:
1. Coming to this continent I was appalled at the lack of historical sense,
in the United States even more than in Canada. As long as people are not
interested in history (even in history of science) they will have too high
an opinion of their own times. From the Bible we know, that what has been
will be, so that technical we may be doing things a little faster, but
human nature has not changed. That is very clear when we read the
discussions. And the Bible tells us it will get worse.
2. Christianity played indeed a role in the development of modern science.
Unrecognized unchristian philosophy probably just as much, if not more.
Don't forget the influence of mid-easter philosophy in the Middle Ages.
Because of the lack of knowledge in the history of philosophy and religion
discussing it becomes very difficult. Most of the time people don't listen
to arguments pointing out things.
3. Man in all his faculties was born in sin. (Even Augustine said by the
way, that was the teaching of the church since the beginning. Bavinck in
Gereformeerde Dogmatiek III quotes Augustinus: non ego finxi peccatum
originale, quod catholica fides credit antiquitis, de nupt. II 12. He goes
on to discuss this. See also, Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics, 274, who
quotes Gen. 8:21, Ps.51:5, Rom.5:12; Job 14:4 (see also Job 42:8.) And
Gordon Spijkman, Reformational Theology, A New Paradigm for Doing
Dogmatics, p.319 - 322.)
4. Because of the lack of interaction between the sciences of History and
Theology, and the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, psychology
etc.) some say that the disagreement began with Galileo. It went on before
and after him. For medieval times just think of the division at the
schools between Arts and Sciences.
Jan de Koning
Willowdale, Ont.