A degree in History??????
Sir Isaac Newton was profoundly religious, and based much of his numerlogical investigation on biblical texts.....he did depart from the Anglican Church, but was in no way an Athiest.
Copernicus became a Canon of the Catholic Church in 1497...........his research was supported and encouraged by the Pope of the time......Atheist? I don't think so....
And most ludicrous of all, the idea that da Vinci, the painter of The Last Supper was atheist......
These great thinkers were unanimous about one thing....the existence of God.
I agree with you on your stand on the kirpan, only because the right to go armed should certainly not simply be based on a religious pretext.....but you should think before you post.
We discussed this point in my History of Science class at SFU. And Newton, Copernicus and Da Vinci did not consider themselves scientists because the word wasn't invented yet, Newton and the others called themselves natural philosophers. Yeah, I know full well they were all very religious at this time. You know, Christiandom. Now gone.
They didn't know they were living through a Scientific Revolution, but they were the makers of it, that was one of the ironies of it. They were destroying the worldview they grew up with.
It is hard to believe they were simply using observation and logic to create a new cosmology that did not rely on faith or magic. The secular age began and went into overdrive with the discovery of America.
The prof had a funny cartoon on her door with Galileo using the words orbit, planet and satellites I think. In the bubbles of the churchmen, are question marks. They had no clue what he was talking about because their worldview was static with the earth at the centre. Because he was right, Galileo is remembered and the churchmen are forgotten.