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To: Pyro7480
In fact, an RCC priest (and scientist) Fr. Stanley Jaki has stated in his books that science could have ONLY been birthed in a Christian context.
11 posted on 08/14/2003 12:27:39 PM PDT by fishtank
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To: fishtank
In fact, an RCC priest (and scientist) Fr. Stanley Jaki has stated in his books that science could have ONLY been birthed in a Christian context.

Yes. The thesis is that the reason that science arose in a Christian culture, and not in a culture like China which was clearly sophisticated, is this: science assumes that there are LAWS that exist that can be discovered. The assumption is that the universe is orderly, not random. Fundamental laws underlie it. But why make this assumption? Most cultures have not made this assumption. Christianity, however, postulates a single monotheistic God who created the universe and imposed his will upon it. Other cultures believed in multiple gods, quarreling, squabbling like some kind of inbred hillbilly incest fest (the Greek gods are typical of this breed). But the Judeo-Christian God imposed order and established laws by his will (this was the assumption). Therefore, scientists could discover those laws, so they went looking. And lo, they found them. Of course today many scientists are materialists and believe no God is necessary -- but at the dawn of science, when no one knew whether there were fundamental laws of nature or not -- the assumption that there were was itself an act of faith.

24 posted on 08/16/2003 5:13:32 PM PDT by dark_lord (The Statue of Liberty now holds a baseball bat and she's yelling 'You want a piece of me?')
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