标签：science and religion

The Reformation and the Scientific Revolution

The Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution occurred and unfolded almost simultaneously—people discovered this obvious fact long ago and tried to guess at the inner connection between the two. Beginning with Francis Bacon, many tended to treat praise of science as part of an argument for the superiority of Protestantism. This raises a question: although there is clearly some connection between the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, how exactly did that connection arise? And to what extent was it related to the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism? This essay will make some very preliminary inquiries into this question. The most conservative conclusion is this: Protestantism was more conducive to scientific…