I've been reading (actually, re-reading) several books on the enlightenment recently. Particularly "Science and the Enlightenment, by Thomas L. Lankins, and The Revolution in Science 1500-1750, by A Rupert Hall. Hall notes on page 24:
"Protestantism is totally irrelevant to the initiation of the scientific revolution. The influence it had on the character of seventeenth-century science is another matter. But no historian has failed to see an essential continuity from Vesalius to Harvey, from Copernicus to Kepler, from Galileo to Netwon, bridging firmly over any stretch of time in which the new protestant spirit might be supposed to infiltrate. Those historicans who wish to write any kind of generic account of the scientific revoluton (or of the enlightenment), or to trace its evolution from small beginnings through successive accretions and modifications, are surely right in looking back to the universally Catholic Fifteenth Century in the youth of Leonardo and Copernicus, for the first portents of what was to come."
So it is not true that the enlightment began or was was led by protestantism (Luther, who was a butcher, certainly didn't lead the enlightenment, and neither did Calvin, who was known for burning scholars at the stake).
"Protestantism is totally irrelevant to the initiation of the scientific revolution. The influence it had on the character of seventeenth-century science is another matter. But no historian has failed to see an essential continuity from Vesalius to Harvey, from Copernicus to Kepler, from Galileo to Netwon, bridging firmly over any stretch of time in which the new protestant spirit might be supposed to infiltrate. Those historicans who wish to write any kind of generic account of the scientific revoluton (or of the enlightenment), or to trace its evolution from small beginnings through successive accretions and modifications, are surely right in looking back to the universally Catholic Fifteenth Century in the youth of Leonardo and Copernicus, for the first portents of what was to come."
So it is not true that the enlightment began or was was led by protestantism (Luther, who was a butcher, certainly didn't lead the enlightenment, and neither did Calvin, who was known for burning scholars at the stake).
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
