RE: A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the forum....
June 19, 2019 at 5:27 am
(This post was last modified: June 19, 2019 at 5:32 am by vulcanlogician.)
(June 19, 2019 at 4:46 am)Belaqua Wrote: No one has ever been burned at the stake over scientific issues.
(And if you name Giordano Bruno, I'll know that you don't know what you're talking about.)
Heresy is a tricky thing, Belaqua. From a secular perspective there is no real act that one might deem heretical. As I see it, all those heretics were burned for "thinking outside of the box." If you're going to burn people alive for that, I think you're sending a message that people had better be careful with their intellectual contributions, scientific or otherwise.
We can only guess at how much scientific progress may have been stifled because Christians liked to play with fire. But, whatever the case, I don't think the church's policy on alternative viewpoints served as a great catalyst for new discoveries.
