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Newsletter Nr. 707
Amsterdam, April 13th, 2018


WHEN THE SUN BECAME THE CENTER - Introduction - DAVID LANE

Recently in my Introduction to Philosophy classes at Mt. San Antonio College, one of my brightest students and I got into a heated, but fruitful, discussion about the role Roman Catholicism played in inhibiting scientific progress, particularly in light of how Galileo and Bruno were treated. This got me thinking anew about the conflict between science and religion. Essentially, most religions believe they already have the revealed truth and thus all future discoveries must, in some sense, comport with that revelation. Otherwise, the very core of such belief systems can be upended. Witness Christianity's reliance on the Bible and Islam's total acceptance of the Koran. Science, in contrast, doesn't hold to such a priori dogmas, and thus is a new and open-ended quest for understanding how the universe operates. Because of this it is consistently free to being wrong and hence it is intrinsically progressive. Where religion remains more or less stagnant (given its already accepted truth claims), science works precisely because it is always changing and adapting to new forms of information that shed a clearer light on previously held maps or paradigms.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/lane139.html


FOUR SCIENTISTS WHO CHANGED THE WORLD - Introduction - DAVID LANE

We live in amazing times primarily because of the great advances science has made since the era of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Whereas the average lifespan in the 16th century was roughly around 39 years, today we can expect on average to live close to 80 years. We take for granted luxuries that were mostly unimaginable in years past—from air conditioning to antibiotics to jet airlines to a cornucopia of nutritious food. These benefits and many more are the result of scientists trying to best understand the world around us without relying on mythological stories of the past or outdated religious ideas.

Four Scientists Who Changed the World
While there are countless numbers of scientists who have contributed to our well-being, there are a few that stand out amongst the rest for their remarkable accomplishments. I recently came upon an old book entitled Famous Men in Science by Sarah Knowles Bolton that was first published in 1889. In her enjoyable and easy to read text, Bolton provides a glimpse of fourteen distinguished thinkers, ranging from such luminaries as Carl Linnaeus to Louis Agassiz.

Since the book is not readily available, here at the MSAC Philosophy Group we thought it might be helpful to select four biographies from Famous Men in Science and republish them in a new and readable format.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/lane138.html