Antecedents to Modern Science

  • Article (PDF)
  • 11 pages
  • Level: high school and above

Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, writes “From Plato to Newton the contest as to what part mathematics has had in coming to a scientific understanding of the universe took place in a religious framework. Today, after a period of what might be called ‘atheistic rationalism,’ we again hear the refrain of discovering ‘the mind of God’ coming from scientists.”

A version of this essay appear as part of Fr. Coyne’s essay “Evolution and Intelligent Design: Who Needs God” in Divine Action and Natural Selection: Science, Faith, and Evolution (World Scientific, 2009).

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