I'm not sure either. I don't even think Asimov was sure. It's been quite some time since I read it, but my recollection (which is an uncertain source of knowledge according to my list) is that he wrote it more as a conjecture than a firm conviction.
In any event, I don't agree with the claim some have posted here that our Western development of science is specifically attributable to Christianity. It's certainly true that science was developed -- since Galileo mostly -- while the religion of the West was Christianity, but there's the awkward fact of a thousand years of Christianity prior to Galileo which are virtually barren of science, and who gets credit for that? As I've pointed out before, poor ol' Zeus is never given credit for the accomplishments of the Greeks. Anyway, without something more persuasive than mere historical sequence, the alleged causal connection between science and Christianity may be no more than post hoc, propter hoc.
It does speak well of Christianity, however, that it coexists with a science-oriented society. There are certainly tensions, as the evolution threads will demonstrate, but it's a whole lot better environment for science than Islam.
Post 247 should have been addressed to you too.
And, by remarkable coincidence, it took about 1000 years to 'Westernize' the Mideast import. ;^)
And there is also an other awkward fact: science was only developed in the western part of "The West" and this at a time when the predominant religion split up into several denominations. In eastern Europe and Russia science never developed on its own but was only imported much later.
It does speak well of Christianity, however, that it coexists with a science-oriented society. There are certainly tensions, as the evolution threads will demonstrate, but it's a whole lot better environment for science than Islam.
Agree. Science is Aristotle. The unique contribution of the Christian church is that the church was open enough to thought and debate to produce thinkers who liked Aristotle, assimilated him, and went on. This says more about the CONFIDENCE LEVEL of the church than anything else, as opposed to, say, Islam. And this confidence level rises and falls along with her closeness to Jesus, who eschewed all coercion in the certainty He was living the truth and that truth, lived, will conquer all hostile thought.
The caricature of the entire church as a closed society, squashing all dissension, is largely a modern fiction.
This is not to defend the Galileo moments, of course. As the church's SPIRITUAL VITALITY diminishes she becomes INTELLECTUALLY oppressive, much like a short man bullies.
So science is Aristotle's brain, flourishing in the freedom that the Gospel engenders.