Dr. Michio Kaku,
At the end of your radio program, Science Fantastic,
broadcast in Fairbanks , Alaska
I enjoy listening to your broadcasts for your knowledge of
physics and general science, your ability to clearly explain difficult
concepts, and to hear the informative interviews with your guests – especially
with truly great and questioning minds like that of Professor Paul Davies. I
also appreciate how you typically handle potentially sensitive topics as it
pertains to religion in not being dismissive toward believers. That changed
with the broadcast on October 5th in which you pushed a false
historical narrative.
When a caller asked about Islam’s contribution to science,
you were right in pointing out the developments that they are known for, like
algebra. Unfortunately, instead of simply answering the question you used it as
an opportunity to attack Christianity, and in so doing skew the historical
record. You did this by elaborating on how technologically advanced China and the Islamic world were (during the
Middle Ages) in comparison to a scientifically anemic Europe, claiming that Europe was a net importer of science during this time. To
prove your point at Europe ’s hostility to
science (and reason) you brought up “Poor Galileo” and how he was treated by
“the Church”. You continued by alluding that the superstitious Europeans (i.e.
Christians) were more interested in witch hunting than pursuing intellectual
endeavors. Meanwhile, the great Chinese civilization decided to turn inward and
shut themselves off to the rest of the world for centuries. And the powerful
armies of Islam, after having swept through Spain ,
into Gaul (France ) and threatening
the very gates of Vienna …decided, like China , to become
introspective and lost interest in conquering other lands.
Really? We in the West aren’t speaking Arabic today because the
Islamic world decided to stop waging war in Europe
and instead devoted themselves full-time to theological discussions? When their
armies had Vienna surrounded, did a messenger
arrive from Istanbul or Mecca saying to lay down their arms and go
home? Your account seemed to imply as much. But the truth is something other
than that; namely, that they were defeated by European (i.e. Christian) armies.
The Muslim armies didn’t pack up and just leave Europe: they suffered defeats
and were forced out by the likes of Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Ferdinand and
Isabella, The Battle of Lepanto, and The Knights of Malta: this last one withstanding two invasions in the 15th century, one by
the Sultan of Egypt in
1444 and another by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in
1480 who, after capturing Constantinople and
defeating the Byzantine Empire in 1453,
made the Knights a priority target.
As I recall, you said that Muslims preserved great works
from the burning of the Library of Alexandria. That’s possible, but not likely.
There were apparently several burnings of the famed library, the first and most
famous of which occurred by Julius Caesar in 48 B.C. The last, however, was by Caliph Omar Bar-Hebraeus in 642 A.D, who reportedly said, "If those books are in agreement with the Quran,
we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy
them." That last and final burning of the great library was only a decade
after the death of Mohammad, which meant, of course, that Muslims did not exist
prior to that time to preserve any of the books from an earlier era…assuming
they (unlike Caliph Omar) actually valued them. Perhaps you meant that Muslims saved
many of the great books after the destruction of the Imperial Library of
Constantinople: the last of the great libraries of
the ancient world that preserved the
knowledge of the ancient Greeks and Romans for
almost 1,000 years. According to
Wikipedia, “A series of unintentional fires over the years and wartime
damage, including the raids of the Fourth Crusade in
1204, impacted the building itself and its contents. The library continued in
substantial form until the city of Constantinople
was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in
1453 when the library's considerable surviving contents were destroyed or
lost.” So, despite fires and Fourth Crusade raids the library continued “in
substantial form” until a great Islamic Empire completely destroyed it. So much
for preserving ancient wisdom. This, undoubtedly, was a similar mentality to
the current introspection occurring in the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria
The fact of the matter is that “the Church”, especially
monasteries, were critical in preserving ancient knowledge throughout the
turbulent Dark Ages in Europe, and it was precisely “the Church” that provided
any stability at all after the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent centuries
of Viking and other barbarian raids on mainland Europe. The first universities
were begun by “the Church” - not Islamic or Chinese scholars – and the
intellectual framework for modern philosophy and science emerged from the
European intellectual tradition thanks in large part by clerics studying Aristotle
and Plato.
“The Church” is so anti-science that practically the only
example its detractors can think of is that of Poor Galileo (also known as
Galileo Galilei): who one would think was hung, drawn, and quartered before
being burned at the stake judging by the reaction the case always gets. If the
Church were so hostile to Poor Galileo and science, then why would Poor Galileo
himself write in 1611, “I have been received and shown favor by many
illustrious cardinals, prelates, and princes of this city [Rome ]”? In 1612, after Poor Galileo published
his Letters on the Sunspots, in which
he espoused the Copernican system for the first time in print, one of the many
enthusiastic letters of congratulations came from none other than Cardinal
Maffeo Barberini, who later became Pope Urban VIII. Unlike the common and false
narrative that the Church was antagonistic to science, nothing could be further
from the truth. The problem Poor Galileo ran into was when he insisted on the
veracity of the Copernican model bereft of any hard evidence. The Church asked
him to present his ideas only as a hypothesis, and the famous scientist agreed
but later reneged. This would not be the first nor the last time the Church has
been cautious. Gerome Langford, a modern scholar on the subject had this to
say:
Galileo was convinced
that he had the truth. But objectively he had no proof with which to win the
allegiance of open-minded men. It is a complete injustice to contend, as some
historians do, that no one would listen to his arguments, that he never had a
chance. The Jesuit astronomers had confirmed his discoveries; they [waited]
eagerly for further proof so that they could abandon Tycho’s system and come
out solidly in favor of Copernicanism. Many influential churchmen believed that
Galileo might be right, but they had to wait for more proof.
Langford adds, “Obviously it is not entirely accurate to
picture Galileo as an innocent victim of the world’s prejudice and ignorance.
Part of the blame for the events which follow must be traced to Galileo
himself. He refused to compromise, then entered the debate without sufficient
proof on the theologians’ home grounds.”
In 1624, Pope Urban VIII presented Galileo with several
impressive gifts and spoke of him as a man “whose fame shines in the sky and is
spread over the whole world” but in 1632 after Dialogue on the Great World Systems was published (at the pope’s
urging), the scientist continued to ignore the instruction to treat
Copernicanism as a hypothesis rather than an established truth and was declared
suspect of heresy and ordered to desist from publishing on Copernicanism. Of
course we now know the historical impact of this unwise censoring: generations
of historically impoverished and anti-Catholic/Christian crusaders claiming the
Church is anti-science.
It is a pleasure to hear you talk about physics every week, Dr. Kaku. Please stick with what you know if you are unable or unwilling to get the facts straight outside of your field of expertise.
Brendan Wolff
Brendan Wolff
Sources: Wikipedia, How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods
