Continuing our series of reflections on the Church and
science, we will focus this post on some of the history of the Church and
science.
During its earliest days, the persecuted Christian Church was
noted for its tending to the sick and infirmed.
Priests were often also physicians. Early Church fathers like St Benedict of
Nursia and Clement of Alexandria emphasized medicine as an aid to the provision
of hospitality.
After the fall of Rome, it was the monks who carried on the
intellectual tradition of Western civilization.
This included study of the natural world. There was religious motivation for this; for
example, studying the stars and sun to determine times to pray, and when to
celebrate certain feasts like Easter.
They also continued the study of medicine.
This led later on to the establishment of schools and
universities. There were 50 Catholic universities
in Europe by the mid-15th century.
Roger Bacon was a Franciscan
priest who studied at Oxford, and taught at the University of Paris. He studied nature, and is considered to be
the founder of the scientific method. Georges
Lemaitre was a priest and astronomer was the first to propose what is now known
as the Big Bang Theory. He taught
physics at the Catholic University of Louvain.
He applied Einstein’s theory of relativity to cosmology.
Also at this time (the Middle Ages), great cathedrals were
being built. The beauty of these
cathedrals was attributed in part to a great understanding of mathematics. Rene Descartes, in addition to being a
philosopher, is also considered the father of modern geometry.
During this time, the study of geology began to take root. Georgius Agricola, a German catholic and
scientist, is known as the father of mineralogy. (One can see the origin of the word “agriculture”
in his last name.) Nicolas Steno was a
Bishop who also studied the formation of rock layers and fossils which are
still used today.
The study of astronomy also owes a lot to the contribution
of Catholics. Based in large part on
input from astronomers, at his request, Pope Gregory XIII introduced to the
world the Gregorian calendar that is still used throughout the world today for
measuring the year. Nicolas Copernicus
was an astronomer and priest was the first person to formulate a comprehensive
heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the
universe. He devoted his work where he
explained this theory to Pope Paul III.
Decades after Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, also a Catholic
scientist, came along and supported Copernicus’ theory. He is
known as the founder of modern science. I
am sure this name is familiar to most of you because of the controversy of him
being condemned by the Church. One could
do an entire post on this case, but for now, suffice to say a few things. 1) He
was originally censured not for his heliocentric views, but rather, for his critical
view of Scripture. 2) He was condemned (incorrectly, yes) for his
heliocentric views, after a lengthy review, but his reasons of support for his
theory are still questioned today (even though the theory is not). 3) He was not tortured and the conditions of his imprisonment
were rather benign. The Church has apologized for giving him a bad name during
his time, and rehabilitated his name since then, but everything was not as bad
as it is made out to be today. Galileo
never renounced his Catholic faith.
So we see here Catholics with a huge role in the founding of
modern medicine, astronomy, geology, and mathematics! Their schools and monasteries were especially
centers for this.
Here are some other notable Catholic figures in the history
of science.
Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk who discovered the
basis for genetics. Jesuit Athanasius
Kircher was the first to propose that living beings enter and exist in the
blood, an important development in the field of bacteriology. Jean Fernel was a physician who introduced
the term physiology. Antoine Lavoisier was the founder of modern
chemistry. Francesco Grimaldi was a
Jesuit who discovered the diffraction of light.
Hieronymus Fabricius is known
as the father of embryology. Hippolyte Fizeau
was the first person to determine experimentally the velocity of light. Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing
press. Rene Just Huay was a priest and
father of crystallography. Eduard Heis
was an astronomer who contributed the first delineation of the Milky Way. Jan Baptist van Helmont was the founder of
pneumatic chemistry. John Philip
Holland developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the US
Navy. Rene Laennec was a physician who invented the
stethoscope. Louis Pasteur was the
founder of bacteriology. Giovanni
Battista Riccioli was a Jesuit, and the first person to measure the
acceleration due to gravity of falling bodies. Louis Jacques Thenard discovered hydrogen
peroxide. Theodor Schwann was the
founder of the theory of the cellular structure of modern organisms. Francois Viete was the founder of modern
algebra. Alessandor Volta was a
physicist known for the invention of the battery.
Just google
Catholic scientists and you can find many more! These are just some of the more notable ones,
in my opinion. Perhaps this will wet
your appetite, as it has mine, to look up these names, and others, and study
their lives in more detail.
Hopefully, I have
provided evidence that science owes a lot of its development to Catholics, and
there is no way can one say, nor demonstrate with evidence, that Catholicism is
opposed to science. In fact,
Catholicism is not opposed to anything that
is true, as we hear in Sacred Scripture. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is
commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of
praise, think about[ these things (Philippians 4:8)
In the next post
in this series, we will look at further evidence of this, but instead of
looking into the past, we will look at our current times for such evidence.
Saint Joseph,
model of artisans, and light of patriarchs, pray for us.
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