FRDB Archives

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.


Go Back   FRDB Archives > Archives > IIDB ARCHIVE: 200X-2003, PD 2007 > IIDB Philosophical Forums (PRIOR TO JUN-2003)
Welcome, Peter Kirby.
You last visited: Today at 05:55 AM

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 01-27-2002, 04:07 AM   #1
Contributor
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Lebanon, OR, USA
Posts: 16,829
Post Andrew Dickson White?

It has been a century since his magnum opus, [i]A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom[i] was published; has anyone tried to evaluate how sound his scholarship is? And I mean seriously evaluate it, rather than be enthusiastic or hostile to it.

In particular, I'd like to find out the accuracy of his account of the handling of lightning; the theologians come off rather glaringly as having egg on their faces in it.

Also, the chapter titles suggest simplistic progressivism, when in many cases, the path of discovery was a long and twisted one. And I think that the chapter on economics uses a rather weak example of economic superstition: forbidding lending of money at interest. This is because this is the economic interest of a debtor, pure and simple (that of a creditor is "I'll have my pound of flesh!!!"). I think that a much better example is the belief that gold has some sort of great intrinsic value; that belief has inspired such follies as the alchemists' centuries of effort to manufacture it.
lpetrich is offline  
Old 01-28-2002, 02:16 AM   #2
Contributor
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Barrayar
Posts: 11,866
Post

White was part of a century of attacks on religion as stunting the growth of the mind. Modern scholars are taking a more nuanced and balanced approach to the role of the Church in the intellectual growth of the west. Lundberg, Jaki, Numbers, and many others are writing on this.

I personally feel that the "balance" has gone to far and the Church's role was minor and largely that of a negative stimulus. Bede and I had a good discussion, one of the best I've had here, of this in Science and Skepticism last year, search under a thread titled something like "Did Christianity Set Science Back 500 Years?" Bill weighed in as well.

Michael

Michael
Vorkosigan is offline  
Old 02-02-2002, 11:32 AM   #3
Contributor
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Lebanon, OR, USA
Posts: 16,829
Post

That's all well and good on the conceptual side, but it would be interesting to evaluate some specific ADW examples, such as the reception of lightning rods.

ADW's account looks a bit one-sided; were there any leading Bishops or whoever who had welcomed lightning rods from the start? Or who had taken a wait-and-see attitude to something that seemed too good to be true?

I'm sure that ADW's critics could score points against him by demonstrating something like that; has anyone ever tried to do so?
lpetrich is offline  
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 05:44 PM.

Top

This custom BB emulates vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.