The Age of Reason

• The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe are called the Age of Reason

– Many believed that reason could replace faith in the Bible

– Emphasis on man’s ability often turned people away from the Creator

Contributions from the Past

Hippocrates

• Father of Medicine

• Rejected notion that disease was a supernatural punishment by the gods

Hippocrates

Hippocratic Oath (original)

I will prescribe regiments for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary (device) to cause an abortion.

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art…but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.

Euclid

• Father of Geometry

• Founded a school of Mathematics

• His textbook, Elements, formed the basis for all geometry textbooks

Euclid

Eratosthenes

• Determined the distance around the earth

• Devised the lines of latitude and longitude found on maps today.

Albert the Great

• A Dominican friar

• Played an important role in introducing Muslim documents to medieval universities

Albert the Great

Roger Bacon

• Made significant contributions in the areas of physics, geography and optics

Roger Bacon

• Medieval science came to a sudden halt with the appearance of the Black Death

• During the Renaissance, tradition was replaced with observations

– Scientists experimented, recorded findings, and reached conclusions

Copernicus

• He believed that the earth revolved around the sun, not the sun around the earth.

Copernicus

Galileo Galilei

• Used the telescope to support Copernicus’s ideas

Galileo Galilei

• People were scared of Copernicus and Galileo’s findings.

– If they were right, the Bible must be wrong because is says that the sun appears to move through the heavens

– Also if the earth, man’s home, is not at the center of the universe, then perhaps man is not important in this world.

Sir Isaac Newton

• Discovered the laws of gravity and motion

• Developed an advanced form of calculus

• Invented the reflecting telescope

Sir Isaac Newton

Edmond Halley

• Recorded the position and motion of hundreds of stars.

• Developed theory about the orbit of comets

Edmond Halley

Sir William Herschel

• Discovered the planet Uranus

• Built a massive forty-foot long telescope

Sir William Herschel

Paracelsus

• Stated the body was mostly chemicals and should be treated with chemicals

Paracelsus

Andreas Vesalius

• Developed his work on anatomy by dissecting human bodies

Andreas Vesalius

William Harvey

• Discovered that blood is pumped by the heart and travels through the body in blood vessels

William Harvey

Edward Jenner

• Discovered a way to prevent people from getting smallpox through a vaccine

Edward Jenner

Robert Boyle

• Contributed to Chemistry with his work with gases

• He was a Christian who lectured in defense of Christianity

Robert Boyle

Antoine Lavoisier

• Father of modern chemistry

• Named oxygen and hydrogen

• Formulated the law of conservation of matter – matter cannot be created or destroyed, rather, it can only change form

• Assembled the first known list of elements

Antoine Lavoisier

Three mathematical improvements

1. Use of Arabic numbers

2. The decimal point

3. Mathematical notation

Five thousand, three hundred seventy five plus ten thousand, six hundred fifty three