# scientific revolution, historiography and witchcraft



## Ruth (Mar 16, 2011)

I've just begun working on a master's degree in history at GA State Univ. I have to peer review a paper for a class I'm taking in Early Modern Europe--the historiography of the Scientific Revolution. The paper I'm assigned to review has as its thesis (to the degree that I can determine the thesis) that witchcraft was the original root of the scientific revolution. At some point in the paper she comes at the issue from a pantheistic/Druid position. This is a direct quote, "The ideas of magic and occult science promoted a new set of radical ideas that set the foundation for the Scientific Revolution." This paragraph's first sentence is, "Magic is the science of witchcraft." Does anyone have any ideas about how to address this issue in a compassionate, knowledgeable, academic fashion?


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## iainduguid (Mar 17, 2011)

You might find Rodney Stark's _For the Glory of God_ helpful. He argues cogently for the Christian origins of modern science (and if I recall rightly also has a chapter on witchcraft). In essence, his argument is that science as a matter of historical fact rose in Western Europe and not, for example, in ancient Greece or China because the presuppositions of that worldview made science plausible. For more on the essential presuppositions that scientists must believe in order to do science, see Vern Poythress' book _Redeeming Science_. You won't necessarily be able to use all of his arguments in a secular context, but they may be helpful and stimulating for you personally.


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## louis_jp (Mar 18, 2011)

It has been argued that pantheistic religions are antagonistic to scientific inquiry because they tend "to associate the objects and operations of nature with the immediate presence and direct agency" of a deity. Hence, "to explore the operation of physical properties and laws in connection with natural events" is to undermine the basis for pantheistic religion. 

"It is otherwise with the religion of the bible, when this is rightly understood... for it neither merges God in the works and operations of nature... while still it presents all -- the works themselves, the changes they undergo, and every spring and agency employed in accomplishing them -- in... subordination to His will."

(The quotes are from Patrick Fairbairn, "Revelation of Law in Scripture", which otherwise doesn't deal with this issue at all.)


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