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The latest stories of trial-and-punishment for gender heretics come from overseas, but they could as easily have originated in America.

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thomaspaulick
May 18, 2021 at 02:48 PM
May 19, 2021 at 03:51 PM

Modern science has been a Christian project from its beginning. Here are two very interesting little books.

** The Genesis Of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution by James Hannam

** The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages by Edward Grant

Despite the similar titles, these books have almost no overlap, and therefore are great complements to each other.

Stanford's online philosophical library is often terrifically useful. Two of the greatest "proto-scientists" were the great 14th-century French philosophers Jean Buridan and Nicolas d'Oresme, both of whom were Catholic priests. (Oresme eventually was appointed Bishop of Lisieux.)

Buridan (1295-1363) assimilated the methods of Aristotilian logic to articulate a new (for the medieval world) vision of philosophy as a secular enterprise based on what is evident to the senses and intellect, without making use of revealed theology. He also went beyond Aristotle in his reflections on the natural world by stressing empirical observation as an essential foundation for theoretical reasoning. As part of his study of nature, he popularized the concept of "impetus", essentially the quantity that Newton named and used as momentum 400 years later.

Oresme (1320-1382) introduced rectangular coordinates in two and then three dimensions and used this mathematical tool to describe the motion of objects, preparing the ground for the development of Analytical Geometry by Descartes and of particle kinematics by Galileo. Oresme also proved certain fundamental theorems of what we now call Set Theory, anticipating Georg Cantor by 500 years.

** https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nicole-oresme/

** https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buridan/

billmullins12
May 18, 2021 at 03:07 PM

The psalmist wrote (Psalm 19:1 - 4)
"1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world. "
The first "scientists" were theologians searching creation for insight into the mind of the Creator. Christians could do so because their God is a God of order - He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Muslims do not study creation because their god is NOT a god of order! The god of Islam would reward someone for a.given act and then turn around and punish someone for the same act later. The God of the Bible is limited. There are things He cannot do - lie, break His word, break a promise - because such acts would be contrary to His nature. The god of Islam can - and apparently has - do anything INCLUDING lying and allowing His followers to lie. Believe what you will!