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Gregory W. Dawes, Galileo and the Conflict Between Religion and Science

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Gregory W. Dawes, Galileo and the Conflict Between Religion and Science Galileo and the Conflict Between Religion and Science Gregory W. Dawes Prepublication version; published in the Philosophy of Religion Series by Routledge (New York) in 2016. The definitive version is the version published by Routledge; you should cite the published version when reviewing or commenting on the work. This draft is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. You are free to cite this material provided you attribute it to its author; you may also make copies, but you must include the author’s name and a copy of this notice. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ To Kitty This is a small episode in an unending argument between those who know they are right and therefore claim the mandate of heaven, and those who suspect that the human race has nothing but the poor candle of reason by which to light its way. Christopher Hitchens iii Contents List of Figures....................................................................................................8 Introduction...............................................................................................1 1. The Old Conflict Thesis.................................................................................3 1.1 John William Draper..............................................................................3 1.2 Andrew Dickson White...........................................................................7 1.3 Rejection of the Draper-White Thesis.................................................10 2. The Relation of Religion and Science.........................................................13 2.1 Ian Barbour’s Fourfold Typology.........................................................13 2.2 Mikael Stenmark’s Analysis................................................................16 3. What We Mean by ‘Religion’ and ‘Science’.................................................18 3.1 Defining Religion and Science.............................................................18 3.2 Locating the Conflict............................................................................19 (a) Bodies of Doctrine..............................................................20 (b) Distinct Communities........................................................21 (c) Modes of Thought...............................................................22 (d) Epistemic Norms................................................................26 4. Goals and Means..........................................................................................27 5. The Way Ahead............................................................................................32 1. Before Copernicus...............................................................................37 1.1 Ptolemy and his Medieval Followers........................................................37 1.1.1 Popular Cosmology............................................................................38 1.1.2 The Universe of the Astronomers.....................................................39 1.2 The Marriage of Ptolemy and Christ........................................................42 1.2.1 Ptolemy and Genesis..........................................................................42 1.2.2 The Christian Cosmos of Dante Alighieri........................................46 1.3 Between Athens and Jerusalem...............................................................48 1.3.1 The Need for a Marriage...................................................................48 1.3.2 Negotiating a Relationship................................................................53 1.3.3 The Debates regarding Aristotle.......................................................58 2. The Copernican Revolution..............................................................63 2.1 The Copernican Theory.............................................................................63 2.2 Arguments in Favour of Copernicus........................................................67 iv 2.3 Arguments against Copernicus................................................................69 2.3.1 Astronomical Arguments...................................................................70 2.3.2 Physical Arguments...........................................................................72 2.3.3 A Philosophical Argument................................................................76 2.4 Tycho Brahe’s Compromise.......................................................................77 3. The Galileo Affair................................................................................83 3.1 Galileo and Copernicus.............................................................................83 3.2 The Church’s Response.............................................................................88 3.2.1 An Initial Reaction.............................................................................88 3.2.2 The Verdict on Copernicus................................................................91 3.2.3 The Trial of Galileo............................................................................92 4. The Question of Authority................................................................97 4.1 The Scope of Biblical Authority................................................................97 4.2 Dealing with Apparent Conflict..............................................................102 4.2.1 The Augustinian Solution...............................................................103 4.2.2 Two Forms of Prudence...................................................................104 4.2.3 Our Knowledge of the Literal Sense...............................................108 4.3 Has Anything Changed?.........................................................................110 5. The Question of Certainty...............................................................115 5.1 The Claimed Certainty of Faith..............................................................115 5.1.1 ‘More Certain than Science’............................................................115 5.1.2 ‘The Secret Testimony of the Spirit’...............................................118 5.1.3 The Locus of Certainty....................................................................120 5.2 Galileo’s Quest for Certainty..................................................................122 5.2.1 The Aristotelian Ideal of Science....................................................122 5.2.2 Galileo’s Impossible Task................................................................127 5.3 Religion and Certainty............................................................................132 5.3.1 Against Enthusiasm........................................................................132 5.3.2 Liberal Theology and its Aftermath...............................................138 5.3.3 ‘A Certitude No Longer Open To Doubt’........................................142 5.4 Science and Certainty.............................................................................145 6. Critical Thought in Religion and Science...................................149 6.1 Foundational Myths................................................................................150 6.2 The Authority of Myths...........................................................................152 6.3 The Criticism of Myths............................................................................155 5 Contents 6.3.1 The Origins of Critical Thinking....................................................156 6.3.2 The Criticism of Religious Ideas.....................................................158 6.4 Religion and Criticism.............................................................................162 6.3.1 Reform and Renewal........................................................................164 6.3.2 Critical Theology..............................................................................166 6.3.3 Limits to Criticism...........................................................................175 6.5 Science and Criticism..............................................................................179 7. Faith and Knowledge.......................................................................185 7.1 Religious Faith.........................................................................................185 7.1.1 The Faith of Demons........................................................................188 7.1.2 A Non-Evidentialist View................................................................190 7.1.3 The Sinfulness of Unbelief..............................................................195 7.1.4 An Assessment.................................................................................199 7.2 Religion without Faith............................................................................201 7.1.1 A Kantian Proposal..........................................................................201 7.2.2 A Scientific Theology.......................................................................203 7.2.3 From Athens to Jerusalem..............................................................207 8. Secular Acts of Faith........................................................................209 8.1 Religious and Everyday Beliefs..............................................................209 8.1.1 A Wittgensteinian Defence..............................................................210 8.1.2 The Idea of a Hinge Belief...............................................................211
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