It is believed that Nicholas Copernicus “kicked off” the scientific revolution; Copernicus ‘revived’ the ancient idea that the earth was not the center of the universe, but rather that the earth revolved around the sun. This was especially interesting because Copernicus was a priest who had been asked by the Pope to research this topic (because he wanted to redo the calendar). Thus, there was no warfare between theology and science. Dr. Goldish did a phenomenal job explaining the connection between the history scientific discoveries during the Scientific Revolution and religion at this time. For example, as Copernicus is working on his project, the Protestant Reformation has begun and thus the church has split.
Johannes Kepler was the first person to formulate laws in nature that are universally true; he is the first to use mathematics to support and provide evidence for these laws. Although Kepler initially still believed in the perfect circular orbits of the planets in the solar system, he eventually accepted that this was not the case, and formulated the idea of elliptical orbits. He believes that the reason he has discovered this is because God has given him the power to do so.
I really enjoyed hearing Dr. Goldish speak about how science and theology are actually intertwined; for example, many believe that Sir Issac Newton was a man who had risen above religion became the hero of modern science, when he was actually a deeply religious man (Newton believed that God was revealing this scientific knowledge to him). Newton believed that the scientific discoveries that had occurred during his time was actually God preparing the world for the second-coming of Christ.