preview

The Pros And Cons Of The Scientific Revolution

Decent Essays

I believe the Scientific Revolution was not intending to be a war on tradition and religion. The scientists and philosophers of the scientific revolution did not set out to change the world or cause war on tradition and religion. The scientific revolution developed gradually over a period and was revolutionary in the sense that it transformed human thought, just as political revolutions have changed systems of governments. The scientific revolution challenged traditional views of the world and fostered a new way of thinking that relied on empiricism and skepticism rather than accepted, fundamental truths, a development which changed the world forever. Due to increased emphasis placed on experimentation and empirical knowledge during the …show more content…

The discovery of the natural laws caused many philosophers to rethink the nature, or even existence of God and his role in the universe. Several philosophers claimed that the universe’s laws could be quantified mathematically. This position, which thinkers known as deist adopted in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, denied the Christian belief that God was constantly active in the operation of the world. More directly, it rejected the possibility of miracles. Rene Descartes and others rejected the ideas that God could intervene into the matters of man anytime he wished, because it would upset the balance of the laws he had put in place himself and instead, it favored God more akin to a watchmaker. In other words, Descartes and his followers believed God created all the natural laws and all the matter in the universe. God started the universe with no planning to intervene, allowing the universe and its constituent parts, laws and people to play themselves out. This idea did not sit well with Early Christianity, both Catholic and protestant and angered several church authorities throughout the seventeenth century. The Italian astronomer and champion of the telescope, Galileo Galilei was able to gain much more support for the sun centered model of the universe. He was able to demonstrate the plausibility of Copernicus’ theory with the publication of his Dialogue

Get Access