"It's fascinating to me that a process at the heart of science is faith not evidence based. Indeed, believing in peer review is less scientific than believing in God because we have lots of evidence that peer review doesn't work, whereas we lack evidence that God doesn't exist."
Funny thing about that graph - Egypt, Greece and Rome were all extremely religious societies. Clearly nothing incompatible between religiosity and scientific progress, then!
Great read, glad some historians are finally hitting back against this nonsense. It's shameful that the "new atheist" contingent is so vocally belligerent that they've tended to bully theist scientists into silence about their faith.
I know I’m a little late to this party, but I wanted to express my appreciation for this entertaining and important book review. Before the Manhattan Project led to a model where governments fund most scientific research, the funding agency for science was the church, bringing us such discoveries as the Linnean system of biological classification and Mendelian genetics. Thank you very much for this post.
Thank you for this. Not to be nit picky, but the advances in science that you fantastically attribute to the Romans is far overblown. Science did not advance much beyond Aristotle until the late middle ages.
In another article (https://www.experimental-history.com/)], Richard Smith, the former editor of the British Medical Journal, commented:
"It's fascinating to me that a process at the heart of science is faith not evidence based. Indeed, believing in peer review is less scientific than believing in God because we have lots of evidence that peer review doesn't work, whereas we lack evidence that God doesn't exist."
When I hear the term "trust the science" I hear a request to maintain the faith - a religious appeal, if you wish.
This was fantastic, thank you, Tom Holland has helped and inspire me so much, great to see him having an affect on others as well!
Funny thing about that graph - Egypt, Greece and Rome were all extremely religious societies. Clearly nothing incompatible between religiosity and scientific progress, then!
Great read, glad some historians are finally hitting back against this nonsense. It's shameful that the "new atheist" contingent is so vocally belligerent that they've tended to bully theist scientists into silence about their faith.
Very enlightening and intelligent discourse. I learned quite a few things and appreciate your skilled dissection on some murky suppositions.
Are you religious? If you don’t mind me asking.
I know I’m a little late to this party, but I wanted to express my appreciation for this entertaining and important book review. Before the Manhattan Project led to a model where governments fund most scientific research, the funding agency for science was the church, bringing us such discoveries as the Linnean system of biological classification and Mendelian genetics. Thank you very much for this post.
Thank you for this. Not to be nit picky, but the advances in science that you fantastically attribute to the Romans is far overblown. Science did not advance much beyond Aristotle until the late middle ages.