I found it interesting that Christianity was forced upon
children in school. It was mandatory for them to take it and learn about this
religion. I find it unfair and that religious beliefs shouldn’t be forced upon
you. You should learn about it because you believe in it, not just because
someone is telling you to understand it. Justice was served because the
teachers were defeated for teaching mandatory intelligent design.
Europeans were in charge of the globalization of
Christianity and the emergence of modern sciences. Asian, African, and Native
American peoples determined if Christianity would be accepted, rejected, or
transformed as it entered new cultural environments. Islam continued a long
pattern of religious expansion and renewal even when Christianity became to
compete with it as a world religion.
Christianity was largely limited to Europe at the beginning
of the Modern Era. Christianity was divided between the Roman Catholics of
Western and Central Europe and the Eastern Orthodox of Eastern Europe and
Russia. This was the defensive mechanism against an expansive Islam.
Martin Luther was a German priest who debated about abuses
within the Roman Catholic Church by posting the document the “Ninety-five
Theses.” It was for the people who were critical of the luxurious life of the
popes, the corruption and immorality of clergy. His ideas provoked a schism
within the world of Catholic Christendom, for they came to express a variety of
political, economic, and social tensions as well as religious differences.
On page 464, there is a chart of the Catholic and Protestant
differences in the 16th century. I found it very helpful to compare
and contrast their beliefs with authority, rules, clergy, prayer, and many
more. On page 466, there is a map of the reformation of Europe in the 16th
century. The rise of the Protestantism added another set of religious divisions,
both within and between states, to European Christendom, which was already
sharply divided between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Some Europeans wanted to spread Christian faith to corners
all around the world. Europe’s Scientific Revolution is a vast intellectual and
cultural transformation that took place between the mid-sixteenth and early
eighteenth centuries. Careful observations, controlled experiments, and the
formation of general laws, expressed in mathematical terms, became the standard
means of obtaining knowledge and understanding in every domain of life. The
Scientific Revolution altered ideas about the place of humankind within cosmos and
challenged the teachings of the authority of the church.
Europe’s historical development as a reinvigorated and
fragmented civilization arguably gave rise to conditions uniquely favorable to
the scientific enterprise. Europeans had evolved a legal system that guaranteed
a measure of independence for a variety of institutes. Therefore the Roman
Catholic Church achieved some measure of autonomy from secular authorities,
making Europe quite different from the Islamic world, where the separation of
religious and secular law gained little traction.
On page 480, there is a chart about the major thinkers and achievements
of the scientific revolution. I thought it was pretty cool because you get to
see who discovered what and how times and achievements have evolved.
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