The Savior of Science

I just love this book. I have a Masters in Electrical Engineering and would have really profited from this book back in college. This has helped me appreciate the significance of Newton's 3 Laws at a gut level and to make sense out of the mindset of the ancient pagan cultures. Now I understand that for true science to emerge, or as Fr Jaki puts it, to be born, it was necessary that mainstream culture of the time be convinced of the eternal nature of God, the finite nature of the universe and that the only begotten of God is Jesus Christ (not the universe). The Christian world view with its relience on the omnipotence of God and its understanding of the order in which He created everything OUT OF NOTHING had to be ingrained in people's minds before science would be able to formulate the Laws of Motion and the theory of Relativity. The ancient's understanding of reality as never ending repeating cycles in rigid determinism, the treadmill world view, could only yield contradictions such as we see in Aristotle's "On the Heavens" in which among other errors, he formulates that an object of twice the weight falls at twice the speed. This has led me on a quest to impart to my five young children this same understanding of Christ as the Saviour of Science that Jaki has given me. I'm taking advantage that I homeschool them, and am focusing on history this year. I have written a lesson for my children and others in my homeschool group on Acient Greece which is built around Fr Jaki's illuminating work, The Savior of Science. I plan to continue teaching from Fr Jaki's same perspective the ancient culture of Egypt and the Hebrews as well. This book is definately worth buying and studying. I believe anyone with the desire to learn will profit greatly from Fr Jaki's fascinating and inspired insights. I am TRULLY grateful.

Jaki's thesis is an interesting one--that Christian monotheism is the only worldview that makes science--such as we have it--possible. However, it causes problems in two ways. The first is theological--that it would seem to suggest that this-worldly successes such as Western science (and subsidiary benefits like modern medicine, agriculture, etc.) are traceable to Christianity, and this view tends to contradict Paul's teaching in 1st Corinthians about the foolishness of the cross. The second problem is that most of the advances in science occurred in the years following the enlightenment and were concurrent with the decline of Christianity in the West. However, Jaki suggests that it is the philosophy behind modern science, which arose out of late medieval scholasticism, that is impossible without Christianity. If that were true, though, one would expect the decline of science along with the rise of postmodern unreason.Admittedly, Jaki is a brilliant mind, but his style failed to convey his thinking in a very coherent way. The book often seemed tangential. The anecdotes (such as the story of a young German's letter to Darwin) were extremely interesting. But it seemed to detract from the flow of the book.

There is much nonsense afoot that would have one believe that religion, especially Christianity and the Catholic Church, has always been hostile to science and greatly innhibited its progress. This view is plainly contrary to the facts. Many of the greatest scientists were sponsored and paid by the Church. In fact, many were members of a clerical order. Consider this. If one were to take a wall map and draw an outline of the areas of the world that have seen the most scientific progress over the past 1000 years, and then draw an outline of the area of what one might call Christendom, one will find that the two outlines match up very closely. This could certainly not be the case if Christianity was hostile to science. Rather, just the opposite is true. If one wants to understand how this is so, Jaki's work is a great place to start.

This book is about the history of science, particularly the origin of science as we know it. Written from a Christian perspective, Jaki argues that Jesus himself is ultimately the savior of science. Jaki's review of ancient cultures such as Greece, Eqypt, China, and India is fascinating, as he explains how theological errors were the key factor that inhibited the development of science that came about in the Christian world. Fascinating reading.