Someone told me this about the church in the middle ages, that:
The Universities built by the church were not available to most people and their teachings were from a decidedly Catholic viewpoint. It was not until the end of the middle ages that universities began to be built by non-church entities, which opened up more studies to more people. Science was never patronized by the church but fought against. Science and mathematics were largely introduced from the far east.
How accurate is this?
1) The Universities were not available to most people simply because most people were illiterate, and therefore incapable of attending them;
2) As the Universities were ALL created by the Church, should one be amazed and scandalized that they only taught the truth (i.e., Science in harmony with Faith), especially during that glorious era once known as Christendom, where Church and state were united?
3) The end of the Middle Ages coincided (and was caused by) the Renaissance: A Romantic nostalgia for Greek paganism in the arts and "sciences" (falsely so-called);
4) It was at this time that false philosophies began to be heard, most notable the Nominalist philosophy of William of Ockham (which would later inspire Martin Luther), which denied the Realist/Thomist/Aristotelian distinction between "essense" (what a thing is) and "accid;nts" (attributes), and instead proposed -implicitly- that essense was unknowable; all was but a mere label;
5) Stemming from this, we have a shift in philosophy (which of course had an impact on the so-called hard sciences) from qualitative research to quantitative study: As if to say, "We can't really know the essense of things, but we can make way in their qualities;"
6) And so the "sciences" moved from asking the question "What is it" to asking simply "How fast; how much; etc.
7) Witness the advent of Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, etc.
8) Of course, this was a sellout caused by the philosophical error of Ockham;
9) And of course, these errors would not be tolerated in Catholic universities;
10) And finally, in the days of the Protestant revolution, the now formed heretical universities made this sellout (i.e., The preference for the study of accidents over essences based on the error of Ockham) the basis of what are now erroneously called the "hard sciences."
11) WIth regard to "fighting against science," the bunk example of Galileo is usually raised. Problem: Galileo was not condemned for being right, but for proposing a theory which itself could not be proven (i.e., The Sun is the center of the universe), since the dimensions of the universe cannot be known.
12) As for Oriental scientists and mathmaticians, I can't name a single one, but the Catholic Church certainly has her share, which would prove no hostility exists between sound sciences and true Faith.
Topic: The Church in the middle ages... (Read 1770 times)