At University College London, Professor David Colquhoun has been looking into the University of Central Lancashire’s BSc in Homeopathy, admission to which has thankfully been closed since 2008.
How can there be any such thing as “complementary medicine” or “alternative medicine”? If it works, then it is just medicine. And it does work, doesn’t it?
The current popularity of these things is, like so much else, the result of our culture’s having moved away from the uniquely Christian rejection of humanity’s otherwise universal concepts of eternalism (that the universe has always existed and always will), animism (that the universe is a living thing, an animal), pantheism (that the universe is itself the ultimate reality, God), cyclicism (that everything which happens has already happened in exactly the same form, and will happen again in exactly the same form, an infinite number of times) and astrology (that events on earth are controlled by the movements of celestial bodies).
Science cannot prove that these closely interrelated things are not the case; it simply has to presuppose their falseness, first established in thirteenth-century Paris when their Aristotelian expression was condemned at the Sorbonne specifically by ecclesial authority, and specifically by reference to the Biblical Revelation.
This is why science as we now understand the term never originated anywhere other than in Mediaeval Europe. And it is why science did not last, or flower as it might have done, in the Islamic world: whereas Christianity sees the rationally investigable order in the universe as reflecting and expressing the rationality of the Creator, the Qur’an repeatedly depicts the will of Allah as capricious.
By turning away from ecclesial authority’s articulation and protection of the Biblical Revelation, and by turning away from the Biblical Revelation itself, the civilisation that these things called into being has turned away from science and towards eternalism, animism, pantheism, cyclicism and astrology, to the extent that a few years ago a Doctorate of Science was awarded to François Mitterand’s astrologer by, of all institutions, the Sorbonne.
And eternalism, animism, pantheism, cyclicism and astrology, inseparable from each other, underlie, among so very much else, each and every form of “alternative medicine” or “complementary medicine”, contradictions in terms that these are.
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Another excellent post, Mr. Lindsay. I enjoy your blog very much; it is certainly one of the best on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your explanation of the origins of modern science out of the Christian milieu of Mediaeval Europe. It, of course, smashes the old narrative of a titanic, dualistic war between obscurantist religion and brave, forward-looking science. In reality, the pioneers of modern science probably faced more opposition from fellow scientists who upheld older theories than they did from ecclesiastical authorities.
Very many thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe writings of Professor Dom Stanley Jaki OSB are invaluable. So is 'The Mystery of Reason' by Dr Peter E Hodgson, and Fr Paul Haffner's 'The Mystery of Reason'.
Thank you very much for the reading recommendations, Mr. Lindsay, I will seek out those works.
ReplyDeleteIs it not ironic that scientific rejection of things occult and spiritual arises not from the scientific method but from church decree? Those scientists who today stray into ecclesiastically restricted areas may not be literally burned, but risk loss of post, reputation and funding - the figurative equivalent. Thus, solar scientists who study the seven very different layers of our local star and measure its heliosphere holding the solar system in a protective embrace never stop to consider that it might be a life form. Yet it was not science that branded solar religions as primitive and ignorant.
ReplyDeleteIt is energy that brings life and consciousness to us; our Sun is a dynamic and highly variegated energy maker/ manipulator. It would be refreshing if a solar scientist could consider such thought and not face ridicule. I have considered them deeply in my own recent book, “Sun of gOd - Discover the Self-Organizing Consciousness that Underlies Everything, and readers find the arguments convincing.
Gregory Sams, author
www.gregorysams.com
The irony is lost on me. "Church decree", as you call it, does indeed make possible science, with all its vast benefits. Those benefits would be denied in the future, as they would have been (and, before that, were) denied in the past, if we were to return to animism and astrology, which are of a piece with each other and with eternalism, cyclicism and pantheism.
ReplyDeleteThe irony because science views the Bible religions with some disdain, yet still maintains taboos imposed by them. There was good science alongside astrology, alchemy, and animistic beliefs. Think Archimedes, Aristotle, Democritus, Pythagoras, Hypatia and many others. Most of their work was burned by the earlier Christians.
ReplyDeleteGalileo was an astrologer, and Giordano Bruno, who first realized the Sun was a star and alive, was burned at the stake. Isaac Newton spent more time as an alchemist studying the spirit of matter than he did its mechanics. Perhaps that is why he was able to grasp the concept of gravity.
I would much rather have scientists studying these “forbidden” regions than leave it to the people in robes with funny hats reading ancient books of fairy tales. Bruno was right about stars being a celestial life form. This has to be the longest running cover-up in history and if solar scientists had not had their minds gagged by the church they would see the obvious.
Gregory Sams, author “Sun of gOd”
http://www.gregorysams.com
"Think Archimedes, Aristotle, Democritus, Pythagoras, Hypatia and many others"
ReplyDeleteAll before science, properly so called, began.
"Galileo was an astrologer"
There are a lot of misconceptions about Galileo...
"Giordano Bruno, who first realized the Sun was a star and alive"
Everyone has always known that the sun was a star. It is not alive.
"Isaac Newton spent more time as an alchemist studying the spirit of matter than he did its mechanics"
And it did his work a great deal of harm.
"if solar scientists had not had their minds gagged by the church"
The same ones who "view the Bible religions with some disdain"?
"Everyone has always known that the sun was a star."
ReplyDeleteWho might you mean by everyone? Neither Copernicus nor Galileo, who thought the entire Universe revolved around the Sun. You might find a couple of ancient Greeks who suggested it before Bruno, and were ignored.
“It (the Sun) is not alive”
Have you a scientific basis for the assumption that stars are not a life form, other than habit and convention? That same scientific convention has long maintained that no animals other than humans experience consciousness. Scientists ridiculed “superstitious” mariners for thinking the moon affected tides, until Newton came along.
Perhaps it's time to open up a little and not dismiss areas of research just because the church told us to, centuries ago.
www.gregorysams.com
"Who might you mean by everyone? Neither Copernicus nor Galileo, who thought the entire Universe revolved around the Sun."
ReplyDeleteThat's a different question.
Science, with all its benefits, collapses entirely if there is reversion to the eternalist-animist-pantheist-cyclicist-astrological system. Condemnation of which, as you rightly say, derives from the Church.