Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC




Date/Time 07 Oct 2015 3:33:59am

The Greeks did use their understanding of elements in a fashion that is analogous to our current chemical understanding - namely in determining the properties of a material. Thus a material was 'wet' because it combined the elements of Water and Air.

I'm intrigued that you limit the development of the Ptolemiac model to the 13th and 17th centuries. That model was proposed before the Christian era, and was developed and refined all through the Christian era.

The concept of a "Dark Ages" between the Classical and Renaissance periods has been shown to be a myth. The lack of access to Greek texts didn't stop impressive technological developments throughout the Medieval period (agricultural, military, maritime, etc). If Prof Judge is correct, access to those texts might have even slowed that development!

Finally, the "Arab centres of learning" came about through Muslim oversight of Christian scholarship preserving European culture. Crediting Islam with scientific advances is a bit like crediting President Roosevelt with the production of the atomic bomb, when the genius lay with men like Oppenheimer.