‘Could modern science have arisen outside the theological matrix of Western Christendom? It is difficult to say. What can be said for certain is that it did arise in that environment, and that theological ideas underpinned some of its central assumptions. Those who argue for the incompatibility of science and religion will draw little comfort from history.
What historical record also suggests is that insofar as modern science posits natural laws and presupposes the constancy of nature, it invokes an implicit theology. Most important of all, perhaps, religious considerations provided vital sanctions for the pursuit of scientific knowledge and, arguably, it is these that account for the positive attitudes to science which have led to the high status of science in the modern West.
This is not to deny that there have been those in the past who have opposed certain scientific views on religious grounds. This has been especially the case since the advent of Darwinianism, which met with a mixed reception in religious circles. It is often forgotten, however, that Darwinism met with a mixed reaction in scientific circles, too.
Those who have magnified more recent controversies about the relations of science and religion, and who have projected them back into historical time, simply perpetuate a historical myth. The myth of a perennial conflict between science and religion is one to which no historian of science would subscribe.’
Full article here: Christianity and the rise of western science by Peter Harrison, Research Professor at the University of Queensland and Senior Research Fellow at the Ian Ramsay Centre in Oxford
