/sci/ - Science & Math

>>6330946
You seem to be ignoring all the many many cases where the church actively initiated and invested in scientific R&D both before and after the formal development of the scientific method. There are numerous Bishops and others who aided in scientific advancements. The church was the pro science powerhouse back in the day.

You seem to have the false assumption that God and science are incompatible. Suggesting God had nothing to do with physical phenomena wasn't done back then because the commonly head belief was that God created the rules all physical phenomena followed, therefore learning about them was to better know God's rules and even God. The threat of torture was not nearly as widely used as you make it sound because it was not needed as most early scientists were born, raised and firm believers that they were doing it for God. Stop and think about it, it makes very little sense to threaten and torture people who are already strong supporters of everything you want.

Now on a darker note there where many cases of torture and these actions can't be over looked if we want to learn from them, but you should note most were in times of wars and against foreigners. Also oddly enough some of the scientific studies where on how to torture people without killing them, which also led to developments in trauma medicine that later saved countless lives. So while that is not the nicest of backdrops it does also count as the church supporting science.

The other problem with your claim is how it rolls all of the churches history into one statement, the church (or more accurately churches, as there is more the just the Catholic church) have had many different stances over time. Some were dark and torturous others were open and pro scientific advancement. I was referring to the original purpose as common around 1101 -1200 AD which was formally declared. Although given the large number of cases over time I could make a strong counter case against you broad claim.