Science is in need of a makeover. Here’s why.

Mainstream science rests on an assumption, not a fact

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

René Descartes, the french philosopher and scientist, had a vision in 1619 : that of a universe as a mathematical system.

This enforced the emergent view of the time that the universe functions like a mechanical clock. A complex piece of machinery that ticks predictably, and that if taken apart into its basic building blocks, would provide us with an understanding of how those blocks function so they could then be assembled, lego style, into useful machines.

The biggest minds of the time supporting this worldview, namely Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton, were practising Christians. The general belief back then was that the great universal clock or machine had been impulsed by God, but then left to evolve on its own.

The church and science co-existed by mutual consent : each happy to busy itself within its own confines of angels, souls and spirits on the one hand, and animals, plants and planets on the other.

But the mechanical nature of the universe was gaining favour against a backdrop of religious wars as it was seen as a way to gain an understanding of the universe that didn’t solely rely on sectarian beliefs.