
The Perimeter of Ignorance (2005) - ranit
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2005/11/01/the-perimeter-of-ignorance
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supremesaboteur
The charge against religion is unfair. It is not necessary that religious
people must embrace ignorance. Jesus himself said 'I am the way and the truth
and the life'. There is an argument to be made that Christianity's focus on
truth at all costs helped science rather than hinder it

Also from Laplace's Wikipedia page [1] : A frequently cited but apocryphal
interaction between Laplace and Napoleon purportedly concerns the existence of
God. A typical version is provided by Rouse Ball:

Laplace went in state to Napoleon to present a copy of his work, and the
following account of the interview is well authenticated, and so
characteristic of all the parties concerned that I quote it in full. Someone
had told Napoleon that the book contained no mention of the name of God;
Napoleon, who was fond of putting embarrassing questions, received it with the
remark, 'M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the
system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator.' Laplace,
who, though the most supple of politicians, was as stiff as a martyr on every
point of his philosophy, drew himself up and answered bluntly, Je n'avais pas
besoin de cette hypothèse-là. ("I had no need of that hypothesis.") Napoleon,
greatly amused, told this reply to Lagrange, who exclaimed, Ah! c'est une
belle hypothèse; ça explique beaucoup de choses. ("Ah, it is a fine
hypothesis; it explains many things.")

In 1884, however, the astronomer Hervé Faye[52][53] affirmed that this account
of Laplace's exchange with Napoleon presented a "strangely transformed"
(étrangement transformée) or garbled version of what had actually happened. It
was not God that Laplace had treated as a hypothesis, but merely his
intervention at a determinate point

It is unclear whether Laplace himself was an atheist, and Newton was
definitely not.

"[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-
Simon_Laplace"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace")

~~~
dghf
> There is an argument to be made that Christianity's focus on truth at all
> costs helped science rather than hinder it

In certain respects, such as Roger Bacon's advocacy of the scientific method
and Gregor Mendel's discovery of the rules of inheritance, perhaps. In others,
such as the Church's persecution of Galileo and Giordano Bruno, perhaps not.

