stahrwe wrote:So what happened to abort the development of math and science by the Muslims?
The significance of the Condemnation of 1277 continues to be ignored.
The Galileo affair continues along the Urban Legend track.
Hi, Stahrwe.
I wanted to give you a more precise answer to your questions rather than rely on my faulty memory. Hence, I cheated a bit and looked at the outline that accompanied the course on the history of science - antiquity to 1700 (by THE GREAT COURSES) that I pulled out from mothballs.
There are a few reasons presented for consideration regarding the end of the advancement of Islamic natural philosophy:
1) factionalization
2) the "reawakening" of the latin west which brought armies against many of the Islamic lands (the "pax islamica" had come to an end)
3) the eastern mongol invasions (the one I actually remembered!)
There's also the possibility that "intellectual reasons" brought about the fall of Islam's intellectual movement.
The division in scientific thought between two groups of intellectuals, the mutakallimum and falasifia, might have contributed as well.
It's believed that the mutakallimim eventually was able to undercut the falasifia, who were known as adherents to Greek natural philosophy. The mutakallimum were practioners of "kalam," which was described as "a kind of Islamic speculative and disputational theology."
The historical record is clear: the monotheistic religions valued Greek natural philosophy and we owe a considerable debt to their translations. I think you and I agree that Christianity did not discourage, but rather encouraged and venerated natural philosophy.
The stability of the 12th century brought about by Christianity allowed for the assimilation and further development of Islamic scientific thought. The historical evidence of natural philosophy not only involves what was being done and by whom, but also WHERE it was being done.
For instance, The School of Chartres is one such place:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Chartres
The Royal Portal of the cathedral preserves one memory of this school. It is surrounded by statues of classical figures representing the seven liberal arts, one of which is a statue of Aristotle, I believe.
The many prestigious Christian schools and universities of the middle ages were forums of free natural philosophical thought. There is no evidence that free thought was suppressed behind the walls of the great universities of the time.
Arguments of assertion are the favorite choice of the militant atheists of today who offer no historical evidence to support claims that the Church prohibited scientific practice and growth. The natural scientists at the time had free access to Greek translations in schools and universities. If they had not there would have been no further intellectual growth.
It's PIG-DUMB for anyone to believe anything else WITHOUT having done the research, or at least tried.
Hell, even I've tried.
"The Church banned all science books and told everybody to say Goddidit"
"The Church was burning all science books and scientists at the stake!"
I'm unaware of even one natural philosopher who was burned at the stake for practicing natural philosophy (aka "science").
Someone please name one for me.
I repeat - the historical relationship between science and religion is highly complex. It's not as easy as once upon a time religion forbade the practice of science, then the atheists came to the rescue. That's PIG-DUMB slanted history.