Science and Religion

1. SCIENCE - RELIGION
NIKOLAS DAVARIS

2. CONTENT
• 1 Unit: The
inquisition put
Galileo on trial
• 2 Unit: What did
ancient Greeks
believe?
• 3 Unit: What do
scientists believe?
• 4 Unit: What do
religions say about
our world?
• 5 Unit: Why is there
science and religion?

3. THE INQUISITION
PUT GALILEO ON
TRIAL

4. THE INQUISITION
• The inquisition was a
Catholic Church’ s tribunal
• It used to examine heretic
people
• However the inquisition
often was undue
• It judged El Greco and
Galileo
• It is famous now because it
used to rack the accused.

5. GALILEO VS THE
INQUISITION
Galileo brought out a new book,
which presented a dialogue
between Copernicus ’ and
Ptolemy ΄s system. He proved
the correct system was the first.
The Pope got angry about this.
The inquisition limited Galileo’s
activity and this restricted him.
WHAT WAS THE RESULT?????

6. Religion conflicted with
science and science
conflicted with religion.
Some still believe this. But:
Why is there science and
religion?
What do religions say
about our world?
What do scientists believe?
What do ancient Greeks
believe?

7. What did the
ancient Greeks
believe?

8. ANCIENT GREEKS
The Ancient Greeks worked on math (Pythagoras),
geometry (Euclid), astronomy and medicine (Hippokrates).
Also they were interested in ethics and laws. But they used
to wonder “How did our world begin?”. When they started
to wonder, they explained everything through myths. Myths
were connected with religion.
‘’ The stars were created when
Hera’ s milk was spilled by
Heracles and Hermes ‘’

9. ANCIENT
PHILOSOPHERS
Ancient Greek philosophers tried to explain “How our
world began?” and many other questions. However
today many people don’t consider them scientists
because:
1) They didn’t check their theories
2) They didn’t have sound arguments about their
theories
3) They hadn’t observed nature before they
formulated their theories
WHAT DID THEY SAY ?

10. Τhales of Miletus
Thales (640-546) was a
mathematician, astronomer,
engineer, meteorologist and
philosopher.
He believed that “ Everything began from water ”.
Apparently he was affected by Egyptians who believed
the same thing. Also Thales supported that earthquakes
came from the water because the earth was flat and
floated over a big ocean. In the end he believed gods
were everywhere

11. Anaximenes of Miletus
Anaximenes (585,528) was a
philosopher. Anaximenes,
Thales and Anaximander
belonged to the Ionian school.
He believed that “ Everything began from the
air”. Further he thought all differences between
things were due to how compact the air was.
Therefore fire becomes rock because it comes
from the air! Anaximenes didn’t believe in Zeus
etc.. In the end, he believed the air was
innumerable and spontaneous

12. Others
Empedocles) He believed
that “Everything came from
fire, water, earth and air”.
Also he introduced
“φιλότητα” and “νείκος”
.
(Empedocles) He
believed that
“Everything came
from fire, water,
earth and air”. Also
he introduced
“φιλότητα” and
“νείκος”

13. Furthermore there
were other
philosophers who
didn’t believe the
world was from fire,
water, air or earth. As
Democritus and
Pythagoras.
Anaximander
expressed a theory
like Anaximenes.

14. CONCLUSION
We saw the first attempts which
explain how the world began. People
created myths (which were connected
with gods), theories which said that
the gods existed (Thales) and others
which said they didn’t (Anaximenes).
What happened after the ancient
philosophers?
Thales
Anaximenes

15. What do scientists
believe?

16. MIDDLE AGES
• 30 BC: The Romans conquered Egypt
• 313 AD: Constantine the Great signed the Edict of
Milan
• 395 AD: Theodosius I separated the empire and
forbade idolatry
• 529 AD: Justinian I closed the
Academy of Plato
• Theocratic countries were
created
• 1453AD: Constantinople
wasconquered
• 1300-1600 AD: The Renaissance

17. The Catholic
Church’ s power
The Catholic Church was powerful.
Everyone would be harmed , if they
doubted it or the Bible. Only Martin
Luther managed to do that. The Catholic
Church had oppressed people because of
the Bible. This stemmed from the Middle
ages and Galileo. There are some people
who believe everything which is written in
the Bible today.

18. GALILEO
He lived in Italy (1564-1642)
He made the first telescope
He was the first who saw the
solar system
He believed in the Bible and
was religious but didn’t
believe anything which was written about
our world. Also he always told the truth
despite what the Catholic Church was saying.
IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES
1) Mobility laws
2) Oscillation laws
3) Law of fall
4) Construction of the
solar system
5) Zeus’ s natural
satellites

19. Isaac Newton
He believed there were
three ships with which
he could sail the oceans to find the
truth. They are alchemy, religion (Bible)
and science.
He was born on 1642
Robert Hooke (who discovered
F=kx) envied him
He made the best satellite ever
IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES
1) Motivation laws
2) Gravity
3) Law of fall
4) Optics laws

20. Charles Darwin
When he was a child,
he believed in the Bible.
When he was 19 years old, he tried to
become a padre! Then, when he
published his theories, he didn’t believe in
in the Bible. He had doubts.
He never wrangled with other
scientists while his friends
protected his theories. (Darwin
was quiescent)
He married his cousin.
IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES
1) Evolution

21. CONCLUSION
We saw three important scientists who
changed our world! We would see the
universe differently today, if they hadn’t
existed. However they supported
different theories about religion (and the
Bible). Galileo didn’t abolish the Bible,
Newton believed the Bible is a road to
the truth and Darwin was a skeptic. All of
them saw the world differently, but they
helped scientists.
What do religions say about our world?
Galileo
Newton
Darwin

22. What do religions
say about our world?

23. IMPORTANT RELIGIONS
Religions (which have
many follower) are:
Christianity
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism
Taoism
Confucianism *
Judaism
What do they say about our
world?
Are there any similarities
between them?

24. Christianity - Islam
Judaism
Christianity, Islam and Judaism have much likeness.
They aren't polytheistic religions. The Old Testament is
found in both Christianity and Judaism. Also the Islam
considers Christ a prophet. Furthermore, three
religions describe mainly the same theory about the
beginning of the world. God made the world. God
created Adam whom he put in a grand garden. “All of
the plants and the animals would be
controlled by Adam” God said. But
Adam infringed on god’ s orders etc.

25. Taoism
Taoism was created by Tao de Jing. Tao said the “Tai-
ji” (big unity) gave birth to the yin and yang:
 On the one hand, Yin is associated with the earth,
darkness and humility.
On the other hand yang is associated with energy,
brightness, solidness and highness.
They constitute everything. Taoism is
more like philosophy.
Yang and yin is alterated like day-night, youth-
anility. Yin is sea, fresh, silver and yang is land,
bone, gold.

26. Hinduism
Brahma: is the world’ s creator. He has
four heads and four hands. This
symbolizes his strength. He is married
to the god of wisdom.
Vishnu: is the world’ s protector. He has
four hands and he holds special
symbols. He knows everything, he can
do anything.
Shiva: is the world’ s destructor
The universe is created, is preserved and is
destroyed. Hinduism is a religion which has many
Gods. But here are the most important ones
Brahma
Vishnu
Shiva

27. Buddhism
Gautama created Buddhism.
He is known as Buddha
which means enlightened.
Everyone must meditate
(yoga) to reach Nirvana
(paradise). It comes from
Hinduism. Buddhists believe
in reincarnation and not in a
greater god.

28. CONCLUSION
We saw the most important religions. We learn that
Confucianism is not a religion, Christianity, Islam and
Judaism have many similarities, Taoism is like a
philosophy. We must know how many different views
there are about science, religions and their relations. We
read about their theories about the creator of the
world.But today:
• What do people believe about science and religion?
• Why is there science and religion?

29. Why is there science
and religion?

30. First view
Religion and science are seeking the same truth
through different ways. Science is active, it tries
through research and its results to find the
truth. Whereas, religion is passive. It expects
religious people to discover the truth.

31. A hypothetic dialogue
- Do you believe in God ?
- No, I don’t.
- Why not ?
- Because logic says that there is no God
- There isn’t proof for that. As in positive sciences,
you can’t take something as a fact without proof.
- Where do you base the existence of God?
- I feel like God exists.
- Well… I feel God doesn’t exist.

32. Second view
Lastly, science deals with different questions
than religion. In other words, science researches
the ways nature works, and presents its laws.
While religion tries to find who created the
world and why.

33. THANK YOU