German Research Institute Regrets Censorship of a Pro Science Statement

To imply that the Church relied on (and demanded) blind faith is not borne out by history. From earliest times the role of reason was promoted as the bedrock of belief. As Clement of Alexandria wrote in the 3rd century, “For indeed it is not safe to commit these things to bare faith without reason, since assuredly truth cannot be without reason”.
When Newton remarked, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” he was speaking of the massive contribution of medieval scientists down the ages. These were not ‘Dark Ages’ as Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Hume and others would have us believe but were in fact times of real enlightenment.
The Early Universities
Whilst China, India and Persia can claim institutions from ancient times these were exclusively devoted to religious culture, contemplation and meditation. The first university as we know them today was founded in Bologna in about 1088. This was followed by Paris (c. 1150), Oxford (1167), Palencia (1208) and Cambridge (1209). The stated mission of these universities was of exclusive devotion to higher learning, i.e. the active pursuit of knowledge.
By the end of the 14th century there were 24 others: Montpellier, Siena, Toulouse, Oleans, Naples, Salamanca, Seville, Lisbon, Grenoble, Padua, Rome, Perugia, Pisa, Modena, Florence, Prague, Cracow, Vienna, Heidelberg, Cologne, Ofen, Erfurt, Leipzig and Rostock.
As Nathan Schachner (1895-1955) put it, “The university was the spoiled child of the Papacy and Empire, of King and municipality alike.
Here is a short list of Notable Scholars
Robert Grosseteste (1168-1253)
Attended Oxford and taught and studied in Paris before becoming Chancellor of Oxford and then bishop of Lincoln (England’s largest diocese which included Oxford). He refuted Aristotle’s theory of the rainbow and was one of the first to realise that rainbows involved refracted light and did important work on tides. His most important contribution, however, was in laying down clear ideas of controlled experiments and scientific method – his principle of “resolution and composition”. “When one controls his observations by eliminating any other possible cause of the effect, he may arrive at an experimental universal of provisional truth”.
William of Ockham (1295-1349)
He studied at Oxford, joined the Franciscans and worked mainly on the Continent. He is now remembered for the (often misrepresented) principle known as Ockham’s razor but his main contribution to astronomy was in recognising that space was a frictionless vacuum thus doing away with the Greek philosophers need of ‘pushers’ to move the planets.
Nicole d’Oresme (1325- 82)
Attended and taught at the University of Paris before becoming Dean of Rouen Cathedral and then bishop of Lisieux. D’Oresme firmly established that the earth turned on its axis thus giving the illusion that other heavenly bodies circled the earth.
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64)
Studied at Padua, became bishop of Brixen and then a Cardinal in 1448. He proposed that the earth was moving through space and furthermore that, “Whether a man is on the earth or the sun, or on some other star, it will always seem to him that the position he occupies is the motionless centre, and all other things are in motion.
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)
When Copernicus in his most famous book On the revolutions of Heavenly Spheres placed the sun at the centre of the solar system with the earth and other planets circling it he was not saying anything particularly revolutionary. Such theories were well known to him as they had been taught in all 3 Italian universities which he attended. What made Copernicus stand out was that he expressed it in mathematics. Unfortunately, he failed to realise that the orbits were elliptical not circular and so had to postulate that there were loops in these orbits that delayed them sufficiently so that they did not complete their orbits too soon. Of course, these loops were never observed and everything in Copernicus’ book apart from the idea that the sun was at the centre of the solar system was wrong.
As Bernard Cohen (1914-2003) wrote, “the idea that a Copernican revolution in science occurred goes counter to the evidence… and is the invention of later historians”.
Copernicus added a small step in the long process of normal science furthermore, the scholars involved in this process were not rebel secularists. Not only were they devout Christians, they were all priests or monks and four of them were bishops and one a cardinal.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) dedicated his book Assayer to his (erstwhile) close friend cardinal Maffeo Barberini (later to become Pope Urban VIII) and the Barberini crest appears on the title page of the book.
The work was mainly an attack on the (correct) theories of Jesuit mathematician Orazio Grassi who treated comets as small heavenly bodies and not as Galileo proposed ‘reflections of vapours arising from the earth.’
As the Protestant Reformation took hold, its charges that the Catholic Church was not faithful to the bible caused the papacy to attempt to separate science and theology. Scientists were urged to adopt the tactic of identifying scientific conclusion as mathematical or hypothetical and hence devoid of theological implications. This is what Pope Urban VIII urged Galileo to do.
In 1632 Galileo published the awaited Dialogue Concerning the two Chief World Systems and although he did include the pope’s disclaimer, but he put it in the mouth of ‘Simplicio’ (the simpleton) thereby disowning it. The pope, not unreasonably, felt betrayed but more importantly, Galileo’s defiant action prompted a crack-down on intellectual freedom by the wider Counter-Reformation Church.
It didn’t help Galileo’s case that most of the science in his book was incorrect. The work on tides (as Einstein pointed out) was nonsense and his work on heliocentricity did not move scientific understanding beyond the erroneous calculations of Copernicus. It would be another 100 years before the orbits were accurately described.
Despite their disagreements the pope used his power to protect Galileo from any serious punishment following his conviction for heresy by the Roman Inquisition. He did not serve a single day in prison but freely accepted his house arrest, and remained deeply religious, devout communicant member of the church until his death in 1542.