Re: [asa] More WLC on Evolution, ID, and Genesis

Schwarzwald,

I was picking up on this specific language: "modern science was birthed by
a biblical worldview," which to my ears sounds like the claim that
Christianity was the one main cause of modern science. Perhaps I have read
too much into this, but if the language said "modern science arose in a
Christian culture" I would fully agree.

Often, I encounter the view that there was no genuine science at all, prior
to (say) 1500 or (less commonly) 1200 AD, that it took Christianity to
produce genuine science. That wasn't part of the claim I responded to, but
(as I say) I do find it said more than a little. Stark pushes this, based
partly on Stan Jaki and partly on his own misreading of other sources (he
seems to think this is a consensus, when it's a tiny minority who think
this). IMO, however, genuine science did exist in the Greek and Hellenistic
worlds. It wasn't widespread in time or space, but it was real science,
even if it didn't very closely resemble modern science. Indeed, the impulse
for the human mind to go out and conquer nature, mentally if not
technologically, is embedded within Greek philosophy; you don't need
Christian theism to believe that nature makes sense, even though it very
naturally flows from Christian theism that it should. Hubris can do what
theism encourages.

Ted

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Received on Tue Nov 25 11:52:33 2008