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Knowing and Believing
by Len Schwee
| About 300 BC, several Greeks began to think, and use the tools of reason. Euclid wrote a good book about geometry and Democritus deduced the need for atoms (things that could not be divided). Archimedes discovered a simple law about buoyancy and Eratosthenes became the first human to measure accurately the circumference of the earth. To see how he did it, see page 14 in Carl Sagan's Cosmos. |
The writers of the bible, however, mostly wrote down stories and incredible beliefs. The bible contains no graphs, no geometry, no math, and it considered the earth to be flat. |
Mathematics, a tool of reason, was in bad shape. Multiplication and division were difficult in Roman numerals, and there was no zero. Indian numbers from 1 to 9 were introduced into Europe near the year 1200, but 0 did not come into widespread use until around 1600. |
In the 1300s, William of Occam used the principle of parsimony, a tool of reason, so often that it became known as Occam's razor. He believed in revelation, but did not think reason could be used to prove God was one, omnipotent, or the creator of all things. Today, his principle is used to argue that God, heaven, hell, angels, the devil, and souls are unnecessary hypotheses. |
Finally, observation of nature began again with Copernicus (1473-1543) who claimed that earth was not at the center of the universe, as the Vatican thought, but that the earth revolves around the sun. Next, Giordano Bruno, a Dominican priest, agreed with Copernicus, and also thought that the stars were other suns possibly with inhabitable planets rotating about them. The Vatican burned him at the stake in the year 1600. Next, Galileo displayed telescopes and microscopes, learned about falling objects, and agreed with Copernicus. Pope Urban VIII called Copernicus's idea "perverse." Galileo was forced to recant or be stretched on the rack. Churchmen believed the bible was a higher authority than nature itself, and their erroneous beliefs were enforced with a vengeance. Reason and the truth seemed not to matter. |
But thinkers kept coming. Newton and Leibniz invented calculus and Newton used it to advance physics. Soon, mathematicians were solving differential equations, and their confidence in reason grew. In 1873, James Clerk Maxwell published four powerful, relativistic differential equations which describe electromagnetic waves. As a consequence, we have radio, TV, cell phones, radar, microwave ovens, X-rays, the internet, and polarized sun shades. |
Meanwhile, Charles Darwin examined the evidence, and beautifully explained it with his theory of evolution. The believers had it backwards. They thought man had fallen and needed redemption. In fact, man ascended from lower animals, and Darwin was the first to understand his origin. |
Nuclear physics led to the understanding of the sun, stars, and nuclear bombs. |
Rational thought, however, even now is respected and used regularly by only a small part of the population. In spite of the many new inventions due to reason and the incontrovertible evidence supporting it, many believers still trust their superstitions more. For example, President Bush asks us to follow our faith, not our reason. |
When Carl Sagan was dying, many of his friends prayed for him, and his wife was asked if Carl wanted to believe. "Carl never wanted to believe," she replied fiercely, "He wanted to know." |
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