Description

Andrew Dickson White, a founding member of Cornell University, released A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom in two volumes in 1896. The original purpose of White's 1874 lecture on The Battlefields of Science is stated in the introduction. White expanded on this idea in a book titled The Warfare of Science that same year. He traces the growing separation of science from theology in numerous domains in these books. According to science historian Lawrence M. Principe, "No credible historians of science now continue to support the warfare thesis... The foundations of the warfare thesis may be found in the writings of two persons, John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White, from the late 19th century. Scientists have known for years that White and Draper's claims are more propaganda than history, according to science historian and atheist Ronald Numbers, who wrote in a collection about errors committed by White and others. The "battle" paradigm was based on a terrible oversimplification that required all facets of the history of science and religion to fit into one ill-chosen conceptual box. As a result, many scholars ignored the vast amount of historical information that simply didn't fit into that box.