Hi Mary
MARY:
The other day I started out to write to Jon on his wonderfully intriguing
post about the Sci Method vs Spirituality. <snip>
JON:
Thank you, ma'am.
MARY:
As I read it, the period of the Enlightenment, which the 18th century is
called, was born of a direct reaction to church authority. It was man's
first attempt to deny the power of the Church to define our world for us.
JON:
It's worth noting that hundreds of years before the church existed, man was
defining the world around him, through intuition and reason. Especially in
Ancient Greece, where they speculated endlessly about the nature of reality
long before the existence of Christianity. These early speculators were the
Sophists.
MARY:
When we think about the scientific method, then, we must remember where it
came from - that is, as a direct*response* to Church authority. It was never
intended to meld the twotogether, instead, it was a refutation. So, when
scientists tell us that weshould believe in gravity but not believe in God,
that is only to be expected.
JON:
There's that key word I keep harping on. Authority. The sci-method was a
direct response to church *authority*. Specifically with regard to the
intellect. The important thing to keep in mind was that the Social Level
still reigned supreme in the 18th century. Even if science managed to get
authority over the Intellectual Level at this time, it wouldn't have top spot
unless the Intellectual Level gained precedent over the Social Level. But
science's acquisition of authority of intellect proved to be a good
investment, because in 1911 the Intellectual Level finally reached the top
spot!
Jon
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