European Intellectual History: The Scientific Revolution

Words: 686
Pages: 3

The Scientific Revolution began during the Reformation and Renaissance time periods. Religion was a big topic at the time because of the reforms established and the corruption of the Catholic Church. With all these branches of religion off of Christianity people are starting to lose faith. In the 16th century the Catholic Church was losing followers because of the Protestant Reformation, now scientists during the Scientific Revolution like Copernicus and Galileo made astronomical discoveries that challenged the church and all religions. How the scientists spread their ideas, how the Church defended themselves, and how the people interpreted this would create a turning point in European intellectual history. New scientific discoveries gave new ideas, philosophies, and challenged toward the Church. Galileo invented the telescope which allowed more scientists to view the universe and record information they found. Copernicus discovered that the Earth is not the center of the universe, but actually is the sun. He created the heliocentric model which showed the sun in the center of the universe surrounded by the planets and in the outermost layer, the heavens. It opposed Ptolemy’s geocentric …show more content…
Giordano Bruno, an ex-monk and writer on mathematics and science, stated that everything in the universe moves, there is always change. John Calvin, founder of Calvinism, also didn’t disregard Copernicus’s model. He may not have agreed with it but he told people to not reject it because this information is useful to be known. It unfolds the admirable wisdom of God. These scientists put in hard labor and made these discoveries, so the wealthy must not neglect these founding’s. These discoveries gave people a new way of thinking, it changed the way they thought of the world. People would agree with Descartes’s deductive reasoning which is the foundation that the Enlightenment is built