EDITED BY RONALD L. NUMBERS
If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths.
Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed conversion to Einstein’s belief in a personal God who “didn’t play dice with the universe.” The picture of science and religion at each other’s throats persists in mainstream media and scholarly journals, but each chapter in Galileo Goes to Jail shows how much we have to gain by seeing beyond the myths.
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Ronald L. Numbers is Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has served as president of both the History of Science Society and the American Society of Church History and is currently president of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, Division of the History of Science and Technology.+++++
Galileo Goes to Jail by Ronald L. Numbers
BOOK REVIEW - HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religionedited by Ronald L Numbers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. Pp. 302. $27.95 cloth.
Ronald Numbers, professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design (Harvard, 2006), employs several prominent historians and scholars to engage and refute twenty-five myths pertaining to the history of science and religion.
Galileo Goes to Jail does not seem to have a theological or scientific axe to grind, as seen by the fact that over half of the contributors are self-styled agnostics or atheists and the other half form a mixture of evangelical Christian, mainstream Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, and at least one pious Spinozist. This mixed bag of personal commitment adds credibility to the premise and shows, if nothing else, that the study of science and religion is not as monophonic as some might suppose.
For those who have been engaged in the field the myths here exposed will be no surprise—it always seemed too good to be true that Darwin would recant on his death-bed or that Albert Einstein (1879-1955) believed in a personal God. For those fresh into the field and still bathed in popular lore there will be several surprises. If this book does nothing else, it will expel the myth that Christianity was the historical nemesis to science or that Catholics did everything in their power to snub scientific progress.
The truth is, there were and still are a lot of popular misconceptions about the interaction of science, religion, and faith—an interaction that not only engages thinkers in our time, but engaged those in every generation prior. Galileo Goes to Jail thus exposes common falsehoods that have lingered from the early modern era to the present time.
Until about the 1970s, the chief narrative in the history of science had long been that of the triumph of the sciences over religion—science had, as it were, disproved religion and placed it in the realm of urban legend. But a new generation of historians began to re-examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the personal convictions of the actors themselves, and soon discovered that popular religious belief not only informed the scientific practices of their day, but made many things possible which otherwise would have been shrouded in superstition—the most brilliant early modern scientists thought of their faith as inseparable identities to their task at hand.
This is not to say that religion was the only impetus to progress (or regress), but rather that religion was one of many factors in the early modern period that forged a path towards advancement in science and knowledge. Of course, some people used religion as a check and balances against unseemly gains in the sciences, much in the same way that congress today has placed a hold on stem-cell research, but that does not mean that religion as a whole is a cause for scientific regress or that scientific progress in every situation is desirable.
The ethical and religious convictions of early modern scientists enabled them to engage in science in an open and respectful way, knowing their limitations not only as scientists but as human beings made in the image of God.
Understanding the historical interaction between faith and science is no easy task, and Numbers and his crew have done a commendable job in exploiting the myths of history. In the end, one cannot say that religion won the day, nor can one say that science obliterated a supposed ‘superstitious’ belief. What one can say is that the convergence of science and religion is far more complex than what many historians have been willing to admit, and towards that end Galileo Goes to Jail shines admirably.
Randall J. Pederson
Twenty-Five Myths About Science and Religion
(Also the Table of Contents)
Myth 1. That the Rise of Christianity Was Responsible for the Demise of Ancient Science (David C. Lindberg)
Myth 2. That the Medieval Christian Church Suppressed the Growth of Science (Michael H. Shank)
Myth 3. That Medieval Christians Taught That the Earth Was Flat (Lesley B. Cormack)
Myth 4. That Medieval Islamic Culture Was Inhospitable to Science (S. Nomanul Haq)
Myth 5. That the Medieval Church Prohibited Human Dissection (Katharine Park)
Myth 6. That the Copernican System Demoted Humans from the Center of the Cosmos (Dennis R. Danielson)
Myth 7. That Giordano Bruno Was the First Martyr of Modern Science (Jole Shackelford)
Myth 8. That Galileo Was Imprisoned and Tortured for Advocating Copernicanism (Maurice A. Finocchiaro)
Myth 9. That Christianity Gave Birth to Modern Science (Noah Efron)
Myth 10. That the Scientific Revolution Liberated Science from Religion (Margaret J. Osler)
Myth 11. That Catholics Did Not Contribute to the Scientific Revolution (Lawrence Principe)
Myth 12. That René Descartes Originated the Mind-Body Distinction (Peter Harrison)
Myth 13. That Isaac Newton’s Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God (Edward Davis)
Myth 14. That the Church Denounced Anesthesia in Childbirth on Biblical Grounds (Rennie B. Schoepflin)
Myth 15. That the Theory of Organic Evolution Is Based on Circular Reasoning (Nicolaas A. Rupke)
Myth 16. That Evolution Destroyed Charles Darwin’s Faith in Christianity—until He Reconverted on His Deathbed (James Moore)
Myth 17. That Huxley Defeated Wilberforce in Their Debate over Evolution and Religion (David N. Livingstone)
Myth 18. That Darwin Destroyed Natural Theology (Jon H. Roberts)
Myth 19. That Darwin and Haeckel Were Complicit in Nazi Biology (Robert J. Richards)
Myth 20. That the Scopes Trial Ended in Defeat for Antievolutionism (Edward J. Larson)
Myth 21. That Einstein Believed in a Personal God (Matthew Stanley)
Myth 22. That Quantum Physics Demonstrated the Doctrine of Free Will (Daniel P. Thurs)
Myth 23. That ‘Intelligent Design’ Represents a Scientific Challenge to Evolution (Michael Ruse)
Myth 24. That Creationism Is a Uniquely American Phenomenon (Ronald L. Numbers)
Myth 25. That Modern Science Has Secularized Western Culture (John Hedley Brooke)
