It was discovered that Earth turns on its axis and human perceptions that the earth is stationary in space are unreliable. For example, space in the solar system was identified as a frictionless vacuum, allowing heavenly bodies to continue in motion forever. Stark records the scientific work done by clerics in medieval universities, including Roger Bacon (1214 -1205) and William of Ockham (1295-1349). About 60 more were added by 1500, over half endowed with papal charters.
The first university was founded in Bologna in about 1088, then Paris (1150), Oxford (1167), Palencia (1208) and Cambridge (1209). Universities were tasked with the pursuit of knowledge and innovation was esteemed, eg human dissection was introduced into human physiology studies. The university was invented in the Dark Ages, many universities developing from church cathedral/monastic schools. Great advances were made throughout the "Dark Ages" and the revolutionary discoveries of the "Scientific Revolution" were simply normal incremental scientific advances.Īnd as for religion frustrating scientific progress, the major discoveries of the Scientific Revolution were made in universities strongly supported by the church, building on previous work largely done by churchmen.
There were no Dark Ages and no Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution was conducted by scientists freed by the Reformation (1517) from blinkered Catholicism.īut this story is a myth, according to social scientist/historian Rodney Stark in his book Bearing False Witness (Templeton Press, 2016). Later, as church dominance waned, the Dark Ages were succeeded by the Renaissance (1400-1600), the Scientific Revolution (1543-1687) and the Enlightenment (1715-1789), allowing people to slake their thirst for knowledge unhindered by theology. Following the fall of Rome (476AD), Europe entered the Dark Ages (476 to 1453), a Catholic-dominated era when, to quote Voltaire, “barbarism, superstition and ignorance covered the face of the world”.
You all know the story, frequently recounted to the present day.
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