John Freely: 'Before Galileo', Kuhn and the real history of real science.

Freely's book 'Before Galileo' expresses the obvious linkage between Christianity and modern science, a fact denied by Atheists, secularists, 'humanists' [what an absurd term for Marxists and Atheists]; and other bien-pensants.

Freely quotes Kuhn a noted historian on science then adds his own observations, which are well worth reading. [Kuhn and his history of science, 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions']

Kuhn:

"Buridan [circa 1340] describes the motion of a vibrating string as one in which impetus is first implanted when the string is struck: the impetus is next consumed in displacing the string against the resistance of its tension; tension then carries the string back; implanting increasing impetus until a mid-point of motion is reached; after that the impetus displaces the string in the opposite direction, again against the string's tension, and so on in a symmetric process that may continue indefinitely."

Freely:

“Once again, we must ask if vibrating strings were not found in non-christian cultures. Of course they were found in non-christian cultures. They are universally found. Yet Buridan saw something in a vibrating string that other non-christian thinkers failed to see. Is it because the trade was so great in France that they obtained strings that better vibrated? Er, no. And even if they did, why didn't the folks they traded with notice the vibrating strings? Buridan saw something because his Christian world view enabled him to see things that could not be seen by those who held to views that nature was organismic, pantheistic, irrational, and cyclical.”

Kuhn continues:

"Later in the century Oresme sketched a similar analysis of the swinging stone in what now appears as the first discussion of the pendulum. His view is clearly very close to the one with which Galileo first approached the pendulum."

Galileo's indebtedness to Oresme is obvious not only here, but when it came to his interpretation of biblical teachings about nature.”

Finally, Kuhn says:

"At least in Oresme's case, and almost certainly in Galileo's as well, it was a view made possible by the transition from the original Aristotelian to the [Christian] scholastic impetus paradigm for motion. Until that scholastic paradigm was invented, there were no pendulums, but only swinging stones, for the scientist to see. Pendulums were brought into existence by something very like a paradigm-induced gestalt switch."

Freely:

“I am satisfied in noting that Kuhn is saying basically what I have said throughout these essays. The only difference is that Kuhn is not identifying the cause of the paradigm shift. But the cause is obvious - Christianity.”

Freely: 

“So in conclusion, we either attribute the localized aspect of the birth of science, where modern science was born in Christianized Europe, to a coincidence or to something resulting from a dependence on Christianity. I favor the later interpretation. It has the overall simplicity where it doesn't depend on a series of ad hoc explanations to account for the lack of science in so many other cultures. There are also several basic elements of Christian theology that certainly seem to provide a fertile ground for the birth of science, elements that are not found in other religious world views. In fact, many of these elements are found on the lips of the founders of science. And finally, even a brief synopsis of Christian medieval philosophy documents many elements that clearly paved the way for, and even anticipated, modern science.”

Me:

It is no coincidence that the major breakthroughs to establish modern science, all occurred in Europe between 1000 and 1650 AD. Only a blind fool would postulate the opposite, blinded by his modern dogma, ego, cant and secularist theology.