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Science Was Born of Christianity

“Exact Science” vs “More or Less” Philosophy – Jaki

Jaki (click link below for Jaki book, The Savior of Science) was a relentless student of the history of science, and he analyzed just about every culture in history that has attempted science. His unique contribution to the history of science is his detailed explanation as to why “modern science” developed in Western, Christian Europe as opposed to anywhere else.  No matter the genius of their scientists, every other culture’s scientific development was “stillborn.”  And Jaki discovered a religio-cultural explanation for that historical fact. (Click link below for Jaki book.)

The Savior of Science

Jaki’s definition of “exact science” was:  “Exact science is the quantitative study of the quantitative aspects of objects in motion.” Taken from Stacy Trasancos, “Science Was Born of Christianity: The Teaching of Fr. Stanley L. Jaki,” (Click on link above), as in numbers, distinguishes exact science from the qualities studied by philosophers from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas. There’s no “more or less” with the number 3.14159265, the value of pi to the 8th decimal place.

Therefore, Galileo could discover the exact mathematical value for the acceleration due to gravity. And any philosopher of the past who disagreed would have to provide a mathematical disagreement to put Galileo’s conclusion in question. But for modern science to be accepted in a society, there must be a solid belief in the reliability of both numbers and the correlation of those numbers with physical phenomena.

But modern exact science has “become confused by the advance of the phenomenon known as ‘Scientism,’ the belief that science can solve far more problems of humanity than it actually can.” From Stacy Trasancos’ book (link above). At a Chestertonian Conference in Minneapolis in 2004, Jaki said, “Equations of numbers are practically everything in science, very little in philosophy, and nothing in theology. It is therefore a huge mistake to take trendy philosophies of science, let alone some theological flights of fancy, for science. Numbers alone make science.” From Stacy Trasancos’ book (link above). The more one departs from “quantities,” the more one departs from modern science.

“Reasoned discourse,” however, involves thought and discussion on many subjects that do not fall into the category of “exact science.” Trasancos (link above)gives an example of the improper use of science with respect to Jaki’s thought:  “Evolutionary biology is an exact science only so far as it measures quantities and is about mechanism, but when extended as an explanation beyond that, it is reasoned discourse, and in the case of materialistic Darwinism, unreasonable discourse.” In other words, materialistic Darwinism is a philosophy, not science; therefore, the newspapers are mistaken when they say that scientists have proven Darwin correct. (Notice the complete lack of quantitative measurement in the linked article; instead, lots of assumption.)

Jaki took issue with the following type of definition of “science” by the Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology, which defined science as “the systematic observation of natural events and conditions in order to discover facts about them and to formulate laws and principles based on these facts.” From Trasancos’ book (link above). What are the limits to that?  It’s too broad & allows the “scientist” to enter into the realm of philosophy using the authority of science, an illegitimate use of that expertise. The ambiguities in such definitions allow people to make statements on the truth or falsity of religion, something that is not based on numbers and quantities, in the name of science, thus the term “Scientism.” according to Jaki, they can even claim that “science is the savior of mankind.” From Trasancos’ book (link above), quoting Jaki, A Mind’s Matter, (link below) pp. 52, 57.

A Mind’s Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography

Jaki said, “Science does not tell us what we should do, it does not even tell us what is, simply because there are no units of measurement for is. Revealed religion depends and rests on that verb is.” From Trasancos’ book (link above), quoting Jaki, A Late Awakening, (link below) pp. 63, 66. Religion deals with how man is re-united with his God, but science “singles out what is quantitative in reality and therefore he deals only with matter and only insofar as matter embodies quantitative features.”  From Trasancos’ book (link above), quoting Jaki, Means to Message, (link below) p. 7.

A Late Awakening and Other Essays

Means to Message: A Treatise on Truth

I’ll close this post with a final quote from Jaki’s “A Mind’s Matter (link above):”

“If there is a conviction that has grown in me during these last four or five decades, it relates to something with very sharp edges and well-defined faces. I mean the decisive role which quantities play in science and their inability to play that role elsewhere. On re-reading various books of mine on science, I find more than one proof of my having been aware of this difference early on.”