Intro | Truths | |
Scripture | Saints | |
Culture | Worship |
Catholic Science—Study Aids
Catholic Culture #6 |
These pages summarize much of the material needed to study for the Catholic Influence on Science unit review questions and are derived from Public domain sources.
Read Online | Printable |
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Philosophy and Science of the Ancients |
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Medieval Scholars and the Scientific Method |
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Astronomy and the Scientific Revolution |
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Christian Scientists |
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Galileo Controversy |
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Science vs. Religion and Martyrs of Science |
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Patron Saints of Science |
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Printable Homework Questions |
The primary book and video series recommended as a reference for the Catholic Influence on Science unit is How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas Woods. The chapter on "Scientific Heresies" from the book Bearing False Witness by Rodney Stark is also very instructive.
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas Wood
No institution has done more to shape Western civilization than the two-thousand-year-old
Catholic Churchand in ways that many of us have forgotten or never known.
In this book Professor Thomas E. Woods explain the Church's profound role in shaping
Western civilization and goes far beyond the familiar
tale of monks copying manuscripts and preserving the wisdom of classical antiquity. Gifts such
as modern science, free-market economics, science, music, and the idea of human rights come from the
Catholic Church.
Reading Assignment: Chapter 5, pp 67-114
(5) The Church and Science
Bearing False Witness by Rodney Stark
In this powerful and persuasive book, Rodney Stark argues that some of our most firmly held ideas
about history, ideas that paint the Catholic Church in the least positive light are, in fact, fiction.
Why have we held these wrongheaded ideas so strongly and for so long? And if our beliefs are wrong, what,
in fact, is the truth? In each chapter, Stark takes on a well-established anti-Catholic myth, gives a
fascinating history of how each myth became the conventional wisdom, and presents a startling picture
of the real truth. Of special interest to the subject of Catholic Influence on Science is his
masterful debunking of the utterly fictional portrayal of the Catholic Church as an enemy of science.
Reading Recommendation: Chapter 7, pp 135-168
(5) Scientific Heresies
The most important videos for the Catholic Influence on Science division are from Thomas Wood's Catholic Church - Builder of Civilization series. These are essential viewing.
- Episode 2: The Church and Science
- Episode 3: Priests as Scientific Pioneers
- Episode 4: The Galileo Case
- Wikipedia: Science and the Catholic Church
- Wikipedia: Galileo Affair
- Wikipedia: List of Catholic Scientists