Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion »

Ronald L. Numbers is Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has served as president of the History of Science Society, the American Society of Church History, and the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, Division of the History of Science and Technology.

Myth 2. That the Medieval Christian Church Suppressed the Growth of Science

Myth 3. That Medieval Christians Taught That the Earth Was Flat

Myth 4. That Medieval Islamic Culture Was Inhospitable to Science

Myth 12. That René Descartes Originated the Mind- Body Distinction

Myth 16. That Evolution Destroyed Darwin's Faith in Christianity—Until He Reconverted on His Deathbed

Myth 21. That Einstein Believed in a Personal God

Myth 25. That Modern Science Has Secularized Western Culture

Ryan T. Anderson - Weekly Standard

The authors necessarily spend the bulk of their time debunking attacks on religion in the name of science, but they also clear the muddy waters left behind when pro-religion forces try to obscure the scientific record...As Numbers points out in his introduction, fewer than half of the contributors are religious believers at all; and of those, there are only two evangelicals, one Catholic, and one Jew. In other words, they have no axe to grind, and their only agenda is to set the historical record straight. Given all of the polemics published today, this is a breath of fresh air.

• Contents

• Acknowledgments


• Introduction

  Ronald L. Numbers

• Myth 1. That the Rise of Christianity Was Responsible for the Demise of Ancient Science

  David C. Lindberg



• Myth 2. That the Medieval Christian Church Suppressed the Growth of Science

  Michael H. Shank



• Myth 3. That Medieval Christians Taught That the Earth Was Flat

  Lesley B. Cormack



• Myth 4. That Medieval Islamic Culture Was Inhospitable to Science

  S. Nomanul Haq



• Myth 5. That the Medieval Church Prohibited Human Dissection

  Katharine Park



• Myth 6. That the Copernican System Demoted Humans from the Center of the Cosmos

  Dennis R. Danielson



• Myth 7. That Giordano Bruno Was the First Martyr of Modern Science

  Jole Shackelford



• Myth 8. That Galileo Was Imprisoned and Tortured for Advocating Copernicanism

  Maurice A. Finocchiaro



• Myth 9. That Christianity Gave Birth to Modern Science

  Noah Efron



• Myth 10. That the Scientific Revolution Liberated Science from Religion

  Margaret J. Osler



• Myth 11. That Catholics Did Not Contribute to the Scientific Revolution

  Lawrence Principe



• Myth 12. That René Descartes Originated the Mind-Body Distinction

  Peter Harrison



• Myth 13. That Isaac Newton’s Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God

  Edward Davis



• Myth 14. That the Church Denounced Anesthesia in Childbirth on Biblical Grounds

  Rennie B. Schoepflin



• Myth 15. That the Theory of Organic Evolution Is Based on Circular Reasoning

  Nicolaas A. Rupke



• Myth 16. That Evolution Destroyed Charles Darwin’s Faith in Christianity—until He Reconverted on His Deathbed

  James Moore



• Myth 17. That Huxley Defeated Wilberforce in Their Debate over Evolution and Religion

  David N. Livingstone



• Myth 18. That Darwin Destroyed Natural Theology

  Jon H. Roberts



• Myth 19. That Darwin and Haeckel Were Complicit in Nazi Biology

  Robert J. Richards



• Myth 20. That the Scopes Trial Ended in Defeat for Antievolutionism

  Edward J. Larson



• Myth 21. That Einstein Believed in a Personal God

  Matthew Stanley



• Myth 22. That Quantum Physics Demonstrated the Doctrine of Free Will

  Daniel P. Thurs



• Myth 23. That “Intelligent Design” Represents a Scientific Challenge to Evolution

  Michael Ruse



• Myth 24. That Creationism Is a Uniquely American Phenomenon

  Ronald L. Numbers



• Myth 25. That Modern Science Has Secularized Western Culture

  John Hedley Brooke

• Notes


• List of Contributors


• Index