Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion

Edited by Ronald L. Numbers

    • Contents
    • Acknowledgments
    • Introduction
      Ronald L. Numbers
    • Myth 1. That the Rise of Christianity Was Responsible for the Demise of Ancient Science
      David C. Lindberg
    • Myth 2. That the Medieval Christian Church Suppressed the Growth of Science
      Michael H. Shank
    • Myth 3. That Medieval Christians Taught That the Earth Was Flat
      Lesley B. Cormack
    • Myth 4. That Medieval Islamic Culture Was Inhospitable to Science
      S. Nomanul Haq
    • Myth 5. That the Medieval Church Prohibited Human Dissection
      Katharine Park
    • Myth 6. That the Copernican System Demoted Humans from the Center of the Cosmos
      Dennis R. Danielson
    • Myth 7. That Giordano Bruno Was the First Martyr of Modern Science
      Jole Shackelford
    • Myth 8. That Galileo Was Imprisoned and Tortured for Advocating Copernicanism
      Maurice A. Finocchiaro
    • Myth 9. That Christianity Gave Birth to Modern Science
      Noah Efron
    • Myth 10. That the Scientific Revolution Liberated Science from Religion
      Margaret J. Osler
    • Myth 11. That Catholics Did Not Contribute to the Scientific Revolution
      Lawrence Principe
    • Myth 12. That René Descartes Originated the Mind-Body Distinction
      Peter Harrison
    • Myth 13. That Isaac Newton’s Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God
      Edward Davis
    • Myth 14. That the Church Denounced Anesthesia in Childbirth on Biblical Grounds
      Rennie B. Schoepflin
    • Myth 15. That the Theory of Organic Evolution Is Based on Circular Reasoning
      Nicolaas A. Rupke
    • Myth 16. That Evolution Destroyed Charles Darwin’s Faith in Christianity—until He Reconverted on His Deathbed
      James Moore
    • Myth 17. That Huxley Defeated Wilberforce in Their Debate over Evolution and Religion
      David N. Livingstone
    • Myth 18. That Darwin Destroyed Natural Theology
      Jon H. Roberts
    • Myth 19. That Darwin and Haeckel Were Complicit in Nazi Biology
      Robert J. Richards
    • Myth 20. That the Scopes Trial Ended in Defeat for Antievolutionism
      Edward J. Larson
    • Myth 21. That Einstein Believed in a Personal God
      Matthew Stanley
    • Myth 22. That Quantum Physics Demonstrated the Doctrine of Free Will
      Daniel P. Thurs
    • Myth 23. That “Intelligent Design” Represents a Scientific Challenge to Evolution
      Michael Ruse
    • Myth 24. That Creationism Is a Uniquely American Phenomenon
      Ronald L. Numbers
    • Myth 25. That Modern Science Has Secularized Western Culture
      John Hedley Brooke
    • Notes
    • List of Contributors
    • Index
  • Cover: Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
  • A photo of the author

Ronald L. Numbers is Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has served as president of both the History of Science Society and the American Society of Church History and is currently president of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, Division of the History of Science and Technology.