| Martyrs for Science |
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One of the common claims regarding Christianity and science is that scientists have been put to death for their scientific discoveries when they conflicted with the Church's teachings. This turns out not to be the case: no one has ever been put to death for their scientific claims in Western Europe. Two people that are often brought forward are Hypatia of Alexandria and Giordano Bruno. Hypatia was recently the subject of a movie which portrayed her as a pagan scientist towards the tail end of the ancient world, who was murdered by Christians. The suggestion is that when Christianity took over, the Dark Ages began, "dark" because the Christians rejected science. This, however, ignores the fact that Hypatia's murder was entirely political in nature, not religious or scientific. Michael Flynn, the science-fiction author has recently written an excellent series on Hypatia entitled "The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria". Here are the links:
Part I
Giordano Bruno was one of the first people to believe Copernicus's claim that the earth revolves around the sun rather than vice-versa. For this, it is alleged, he was put to death by the Inquisition. But again, Bruno was put to death for his religious claims, not his scientific claims. Of course he shouldn't have been killed for those reasons either, but he still doesn't fit into the mythical category of scientist-martyrs. My co-blogger Humphrey at Quodlibeta wrote an excellent takedown of the claims that Bruno was a martyr for science: Giordano Bruno -- Martyr for Science and Reason. |
