I liked this lecture, especially with the emphasis that scientific revolutions were not always caused as a way to disprove God. Charles Darwin had brought in a new era of thinking from creating his theory of evolution, a theory that has many aspects which go directly against the teachings of Christianity. With the change it incited and the type of impact it had on people, it is very tempting to think that only science that disproved religion would be the type of science sought after in research for creating these scientific revolutions. In fact, this was not the case as men like Priestly displayed how in the enlightenment time period, scientists instead sought to create a link between science and God. Despite doing this, their discoveries were still so great as to be recognized by their peers and the public for centuries. They did not need to find research against God that would polarize the public just to create a scientific revolution. I also liked how in this lecture we had to do the thought experiment of thinking about air without any background information. It really helps put perspective on why people had thought the things they did about the world at that time. It is often the case that we look back at science and think that people were dumb for thinking things like how there were only 4 basic elements made up of earth, water, air, and fire, where today we know there to be hundreds of chemicals that make up elements. Yet at the time period without any of this knowledge, thinking that there are only 4 elements is not as insane as it seems. The air thought experiment really helped highlight the intelligence of Lavosier and Priestly and how great of a progress they had made from starting without knowing what air actually was.
Author: timple.3
Dr. Anelli – Anu Timple
I enjoyed how the lecture was set up to show the scientists that came before Darwin and how they had influenced him and the advance of science. When Hutton had realized that the Earth was much older than what the bible depicted, he had struggled and then failed to publish his findings for the public to see from a fear of persecution. This was interesting to see how the same situation had almost repeated itself, especially as depicted in the movie Creation. Creation had delved into the more emotional aspects of Darwin’s theories, more specifically the fear of isolation from society. In the time period where religion had played such a major role in society, it was understandably fear inducing to try to go against such a status quo. As shown in the movie, Darwin had struggled with the idea of publishing his results. It impacted him so much that he was failing to sleep and was having nightmares. Yet, the difference was that in the end he had found the courage to make peace with the decision of publishing his book as oppose to Hutton. It was also fascinating to learn more about Darwin’s upbringing, as through the lecture I had learned how Darwin came from a rich family and had grown up strongly influenced by religion. Having to go against such fundamental values is quite a stressful undertaking psychologically and providers a better perspective to the effort it took to reveal such a polarizing discovery. Additionally because he had money, Darwin was able to further his education and get the opportunity to study science in his life. Without having the bravery to publish his results, the theory of evolution would have perhaps taken additional decades for a person to be in the right situation to create the theory and present it to the world.