Although there were a lot of changes that contributed taking the world from a medieval to modern age, the Scientific Revolution was the most fundamental. The medieval age was a dark age that revolved around the church’s decisions. People relied on only others to make the decisions and to tell them what to believe. There was no independence or individuality. The Scientific Revolution was able to change the method of how people thought and how people viewed the world. In about 100 A. D. before the scientific revolution, Ptolemy came up with the geocentric theory.
The geocentric theory stated that the earth was the center of the universe and that the sun and planets revolved around it. At the start of the scientific revolution, Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo all contributed to the challenging of Ptolemy’s theory. In the early 1500’s Copernicus theory developed to be almost the exact opposite of Ptolemy’s. Copernicus believed that the sun was the center of the universe and that the earth and all the other planets revolved around it. Because Copernicus’s idea contradicted the church and the senses, few people believed it.
In the late 1500’s and early 1600’s, Johannes Kepler used mathematics to test Copernicus’s theory. After many calculations and slight changes to Copernicus’s ideas, he decided that the heliocentric theory could be mathematically supported. In 1632, Galileo Galilei published his proof to the heliocentric theory in Dialogue on the Two Great Systems if the World. Galileo was the first to use a telescope to look at stars and planets. Using the telescope, Galileo was able to prove that Earth rotated on its axis, and that Jupiter’s moons revolved around Jupiter, proving that not everything revolves around the earth.
Galileo "Whereas Galileo spent his last days under house arrest and was formally condemned by the Church for his scientific views, the elder Darwin was widely respected by the Anglican Church and was buried at the Westminster Abbey, an honor reserved for only the most illustrious personages of Great Britain. The reason for the two scientists' very different fortunes is simple: Galileo couldn't ...
When Galileo published his ideas, it caused a major chaos. Because his work contradicted scripture, the church was very disapproving. In 1663, Galileo was sent to Rome to recant his beliefs. Galileo did as he was told, but it was too late. More and more scientists and philosophers were exploring astronomy and all asking questions on all aspects of how the world works. Once people realized that there were many things to be figured out about the way the world worked, new ways of thinking were created. Before the scientific revolution, people thought in a revealed truth way.
They were told what to believe, and didn’t know how to think otherwise. The scientific revolution started swinging people towards thinking in ways of discovered truth. People started with an idea and tried to find ways to prove it. Descartes believed that everything should be proven before believed. Descartes’ first truth was “I think, therefore I am. ” Bacon however, believed that the only way to build a theory was to have physical proof, and that nothing could be reached from deductive reasoning. All areas of life were affected by the scientific revolution. Astronomy, physics, and anatomy created a new way of looking at science.
The new ideas and theories that were developed were spread widely across Europe. Scientists also had the privilege of using new inventions such as the telescope. In 1687, Newton put the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo together to write, “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. ” This book proved how the earth was able to move around the sun, and contained the laws of motion and universal gravitation. Newton’s work had a very large influence on people of his time. Other scientists used discovered truth to develop new theories and to make important discoveries about the world around them.
The Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, Catholic Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution, all contributed to the transformation of the world from the medieval to modern age. Because people were so focused and captured by the church, the Scientific Revolution is the most fundamental in this transformation. The Scientific Revolution was able to separate people from the church but not take them away from it. People were able to discover how to think for themselves in a new way and come up with new ideas and theories that changed the world in dramatic ways.
The idea of miracles came under attack in the eighteenth century when science began to reveal a universe which seemed to follow fixed laws. This left little room for the supernatural or for the events, which supposedly transcended or even contradicted the laws of nature. The term miracle is well defined by C.S. Lewis when he said a miracle is an interference with nature by a supernatural power. In ...