FREE ESSAY ON SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

The scientific advances of the seventeenth century challenged traditional concepts of God

and the universe, leaving a profound effect on the rest of western civilization.
Revolutionary 
thinkers such as Aristotle, Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galilei, and Newton through their

discoveries, transformed the way of thinking of an entire culture. As the people of the
day 
searched for more logical explanations for the events they saw, Copernicus and others
sought out 
the answers through science. A combination of factors such as the Renaissance,
Reformation, the 
Age of Exploration and the spirit of capitalism all helped produce this intellectual
change; a 
change in which we see in our everyday lives. A change from a faith in God to a faith in
science.
One such scientist was the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus. Published on the year of

his death, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium suggested his heliocentric theory causing
quite a 
stir. Beforehand, Ptolomy's geocentric system was thought of as fact by both the Church
and the 
educated world. One reason this made such an impact is heliocentrism contradicts passages
from 
the Bible such as Joshua 10:12-13. Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord

delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of
Israel, Sun, 
stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood
still, and 
the moon stayed, until the people had arranged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this
written 
in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to
go down 
about the whole day. This was a lot to swallow to for the seventeenth century European
who was 
raised on the Bible and it's teachings. Contemporaries simply were not ready for this way
of 
thinking. At that time people couldn't understand that if the Earth is supposed to be
spinning, 
why didn't arrows shot in the air fly off the face of the Earth. The heliocentric theory
also 
challenged the Church and it's theological notion of a two-dimensional flat world
existing 
between Heaven and Hell. At the same time Copernicus damaged the human ego by somewhat 
diminishing the importance of Earth. If it isn't at the center of the universe, what's so
special 
about it? It is a planet just like all the others, yielding to mathematical and
scientific description. 
No longer in the center of the universe, Man was simply a minute part of a much greater
whole. 
For a religion that believes we are the children of God, why wouldn't we be in the center
of a 
universe our Father created for us? Aware that he could not persuade the traditional
thinking of 
the time, Copernicus published his book in the year of his death in hopes that the
mathematician 
would understand and appreciate the order and essential simplicity of his system without
being 
around for the commotion it would cause.
Another important figure in the Scientific Revolution was Galileo Galilei. Galileo 
through his invention of the telescope was the first man to see craters on the moon, sun
spots and 
the rings of Saturn. But the leaders of the Church refused to look through the telescope.
At the 
time, seeing something that could not be seen with the naked eye was the same thing as
seeing 
a ghost or hearing voices. Aristotle's teachings had already been established as fact in
the 
eyes of the Church, and anyone who opposed or contradicted him was a heretic. Since it
could 
not be explained, it was passed off as the Devil's handy work. Most famous for his theory
of the 
Earth's motion around its own axis and around the sun, Galileo found himself under house
arrest 
and condemned by the Church in 1632. Which gives you some idea of how greatly the Church
opposed 
Galileo's teachings and the reaction it would cause. Galileo's book Dialogue Concerning
the Two Chief 
World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books until

1757. One reason for his condemnation is that he supported his theories with Scripture in
a
attempt to make his findings seem more logical and easy to understand to his peers. He
argued 
that for physical problems, the wise man shouldn't begin with authority from the
Scriptures, but 
from experience and demonstration. In other words, science and experiment can prove
physical 
matters far better than religious Scripture can. Despite his attempt to share his
knowledge, he was 
labeled a heretic and put under house arrest so he couldn't cause any more trouble. By 
condemning Galileo, the Church hindered scientific growth in Italy, and many other
regions still under 
Catholicism.
Perhaps the most influential in this Scientific Revolution was the Englishman Isaac 
Newton. With the basis of his knowledge from the teachings of Aristotle, St. Augustine,
Aquinas, 
and Dante, Newton sought to break free from tradition. It was Newton who took the
observations 
of the stars and planets and made them a measurable and undeniable fact. In his book 
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Newton explains why planets were held in
their 
orbits and why the apple fell from the tree, gravity. But Newton did more than just
describe the 
laws which explained gravity, he invented calculus to explain the laws of gravity. And in
doing 
so, showed that nature had order and meaning that wasn't based on the faith in religion
but on 
human reason. For the first time people had undeniable proof to the theories which had
been 
proposed to them. This proof came in the form of mathematics. This gave the people
something 
to believe in besides faith in an invisible God. It was then possible to know how and why
something happens 
without having to put faith in a God or a religion. Proof was found through science and
experiment rather 
than Scripture and prayer. 
The long term effects of both the Scientific Revolution and the modern acceptance and 
dependence can be felt today in our daily lives. Had it not occurred, who knows how far
behind our 
technology and culture would be. Without these revolutionary scientists, who were the
radicals of their 
time, we might still be ignorant to much of the world around us due to the mindset
instilled in us by a 
religion created thousands of years ago. It was these and other men that opened up a
whole new way of 
thinking and paved the way for others to come, like Darwin and Einstein. It was not the
fault of religion; it 
was the fault of that short-sighted linking of theological dogmas to scriptural texts
which were substituted 
for religion. It was this same thinking that slowed the Scientific Revolution, and
allowed it to grow in 
countries like England, Holland and Germany where the Protestant culture, with its less
antiquated ideals 
and tradition, allowed more tolerance for new ideas. Science gives us ways in which to
think about, explain 
and make sense of the apparently random and meaningless experiences we witness throughout
our lives. It 
is impossible to think how different our lives would be today without the science and
technology we take for 
granted everyday. Science is the new faith. The Scriptures of that faith was written by 
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and others. And the language it was written in is
mathematics.