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# you wouldn't have a window to throw euclid out of without euclidean geometry
i think a theory that explains the three dimensional world, without knowledge of gravitation, that still stands today is pretty good.
and the hebrews, christians or muslims contribution to this field in the intervening 2000 years is what?
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 18:18, archived)
# I think they had windows long before Euclid.
I've already told you the Muslim contribution, they did loads of good science. As did a lot of Christians, Christianity founded a great deal of research. We also have to thank such people as William of Ockham, the 13th century Franciscan Friar who gave us that Ockham's Razor thing you atheists like to bang on about. The Muslims did so well partly because while they had read the works of Aristotle, they didn't take it as gospel truth. Then Galileo came along and proved it wrong on a few more points. I can hardly emphasize this point enough so I'll even capitalise it: ARISTOTLE'S PHYSICS COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING.

Plato did a little better, to be honest. He came up with the idea, foreign to previous generations of Greeks, of a God created the universe. He also inspired the various Gnostic sects. Unfortunately some people took his story of Atlantis a little seriously, although mostly not until the modern day I must add.
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 18:28, archived)
# what i meant was the computation involved in modern architectural software
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 18:35, archived)
# oh,
this house was built in the 1950s. I don't think they used a computer.

Euclidean Geometry - yes, great. Consequences for religion and mysticism: NIL.
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 18:37, archived)
# hah, no they used pen and paper, but the same equations
so when a christian, a hebrew or a muslim makes a scientific discovery it's because of their religion and therefore of great importance, but when someone like euclid comes up with something of real significance it's irrelevant.
smacks of apologist sentiment to me.
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 18:47, archived)
# It's irrelevant to your original assertion
that "the Greeks were making good headway in discrediting religion and mysticism". Quite a lot of the Greek philosophers were very mystical, in fact. Of course Galileo et al didn't discredit Aristotelian physics because he was a Christian, but you speak as if religious people never said anything clever at all, as if religion were opposed in principle to science, or even to thinking, and that the bounties of modernity are all ultimately creditable to the Greeks.
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 18:58, archived)
# If a religious person did say something clever it would be in spite of religion not because of it
especially with an administration like the catholic church as the dominant authority
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 19:05, archived)
# On the contrary.
Religious people have said clever things throughout the ages and not because they were any less religious than their contemporaries. Being clever and being religious are entirely orthogonal properties. And you haven't read up on the Conflict Thesis yet, have you?
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 19:09, archived)
# so you think setting out on a scientific endeavour with the viewpoint that god made everything
is in no way a hindrance?

I did the conflict thesis at university yes, shall I list a load of literature and you can tell me if you've read up on it?
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 19:28, archived)
# no I don't think it is,
you pulled an ace out of your sleeve just there though, gaz me the bibliography and I'll look into it.
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 19:37, archived)
# roger penrose - the road to reality
there's a start
(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 19:40, archived)
# wait
that doesn't appear to be about the Conflict Thesis at all.

(, Wed 26 Oct 2011, 19:46, archived)