The Church against Ignorance

The undying case of Galileo, saying because of his discovery, Galileo was put on trial in a court meant to convict; condemned and persecuted by irrational, anti-reason, outdated ignorant Churchmen, rendering Church as suppressor of science. (an atheists' argument which were already addressed here and here)

(But anyways as additional input) far from what they believe, Catholic Church was never against to the theory of Heliocentric, whereas the sun instead of Earth as the center of the solar system; in fact almost century before Galileo enter the history of mankind, a Catholic Cardinal named Nicolas of Cusa already held and regarded the Earth as one of the heavenly bodies just like other stars in the universe and this Earth is not the center of the universe, in his book De Docta Ignorantia (The Learned Ignorance)1440 he wrote:

For in the same way that our earth cannot be in the centre of the Universe, as thought, no more could the sphere of the fixed stars be in it. . . . Thus this world is like a vast machine, having its centre everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. . . . Hence, the earth not being in the centre, cannot therefore be motionless.

So, if the Church was really against on Heliocentric (then) Theory, why Cardinal Nicolas was never put on trial? It is evident that on Galileo’s Affair, the Heliocentric Theory has nothing to do with the case; rather it is about on his attitude, an attitude who tried to invade the boundary of Theology by interpreting biblical verses using a (then) theory which was not yet proven nor did not yet constitute an established truth.

The Church against Ignorance

We’ll make a good start by dispelling some nonsense… statement of Prof. ANTHONY ESOLEN in a video entitled Where the Middle Ages Dark?

It is common to all Atheist to portrait themselves as Knight of shining armor armed with double edge sword of knowledge ready to slay the dragon of ignorance which is no less than the Church itself.

But that is deception. History and reality speaks on the contrary; for example, to unlock the person from the bondage ignorance, Education is the proper key; all atheists admit that this is true. So a simple challenge to them is this, if Education is a tool to unleash a person from ignorance then it is suffice to say that this Church are against Education? But as I have said history negates this wrong notion, the Church “showed consistent interest in the preservation and cultivation of knowledge." [Lowrie Daly: “The Medieval University, 1200-1400”. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961]. It produced finest Universities and Colleges that still exist today,

Pope Innocent IV (1243–54) described the universities as "rivers of science which water and make fertile the soil of the universal Church," and Pope Alexander IV (1254–61) called them "lanterns shining in the house of God." [Thomas E. Woods Jr, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, 2005]

You don’t have to go far to see the prima facie evidence for this truth; look here at in the Philippines:

During the early Spanish period, most education was carried out by the religious orders. […]

The church and the school both worked together. All Christian villages had schools and students to attend.

The Spanish missionaries established schools immediately after reaching the islands. The Augustinians opened a school in Cebu in 1565. The Franciscans, in 1577, immediately took to the task of teaching improving literacy, aside from the teaching of new industrial and agricultural techniques. The Jesuits followed in 1581, also by the Dominicans in 1587, which they started a school in their first mission at Bataan. [Education in the Philippines – Wikipedia.org]

It is true, the Spanish missionaries established schools immediately to educate and to improve young people literacy.

From Shaman to modern healing

During the pre-Spanish period, traditional ways of healing (i.e., herbs and rituals) were widely used. Public health services in the Philippines began in 1577 when a Franciscan friar, Fr. Juan Clemente, established a dispensary for Manila indigents. In 1659, the dispensary became the San Juan de Dios Hospital. (DOH through the Years - http://www.doh.gov.ph/node/milestones.html)

Long before the Spanish missionaries came to the Philippine archipelago, Natives believes that dreaded Typhoon was controlled by a deity named PUWOK; it is very disappointing to hear if someone will answer you that way, but thanks to the Catholic Priests who introduce the Meteorological Services (PAGASA) that gave weather forecast and explain how typhoon really evolve:

The Philippine Meteorological Service began more than a century ago. Prior to 1865, Francisco Colina, a young Jesuit scholastic, professor of mathematics and physics at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila started a systematic observation of the weather. But it was only at the beginning of 1865 that a systematic recording of the observations made from a few primitive instruments two or three times a day was begun. From the hourly observations made by Colina of a strong typhoon later in the year, another Jesuit scholastic, Jaime Nonell, wrote a brief treatise which was subsequently printed by the Diario de Manila. This piece attracted the attention of businessmen, merchants and mariners in Manila and recognized the implications of such an effort. They requested the Jesuit superior, Fr. Juan Vidal, that the Jesuits undertake regular observations for the public so that the latter may be forewarned of the approach of typhoons. Meeting some reluctance from Colina and Nonell because of the primitive instrumentation available, the businessmen offered to finance the procurement of the proper instruments from Europe. The Jesuit superior had no other choice except to accede to these repeated requests and finally made arrangements for the acquisition of a recently invented instrument by another Jesuit, Fr. Angelo Seechi of the Vatican Observatory in Rome called the Universal Meteorograph.

The following year, Federico Faura, S.J., still a scholastic, was designated to direct the fledgling observatory. This signal honor was in recognition by his superiors of his scientific and mathematical abilities. [A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINE METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE – PAGASA.DOST.GOV.PH]

Seismology a scientific study of earthquakes known as Jesuit Science that killed gods of earthquake like Yogyog, Alyog and Panlinugun; In 1664 Athanasius Kircher a Catholic Priest, argued that earthquakes were caused by the movement of fire within a system of channels inside the Earth.

The contribution to seismology of the Society of Jesus as an institution through its colleges and universities, and its members as individual scientists, forms an important chapter in the history of this science. […]

It may be intriguing to some that a religious order dedicated so much effort to a science like seismology. From the very early years of the its foundation in the 16th century by Ignacio de Loyola, the Society of Jesus dedicated itself primarily to educational work through its many colleges and universities. From the beginning of these institutions science was an important subject in the curriculum. [THE JESUIT CONTRIBUTION TO SEISMOLOGY – SEISMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA]

Fr. Federico Fura S.J. who was once mentioned in pioneering Meteorological Services in the Philippines was also a notable person whose work was mentioned by Seismological Society of America:

The first Jesuit to be mentioned is Federico Faura, who published a study about the destructive Manila earthquakes of 1880 (Faura, 1880). In the paper he reproduced the records obtained by the instruments (seismoscopes) in the Observatory of Manila. Faura continued his interest in seismology, improving the seismological instrumentation of the Observatory and publishing a seismological bulletin.

The moon that once worshiped as beautiful goddess by ancient Filipino (having a varieties of names depending on ethnic group: Mayari, Haliya, Libulan, Bulon La Mogoaw, Apûng Malyari, Delan) finding same fate with all above-mentioned mythological characters when a Catholic Jesuits Priests advance the study of cosmology, thus naming the 35 Lunar Craters after them:

At the entrance to the Smithsonian's Moon exhibit is a large copy of one of the earliest (1651) selenographs. This map taken from a Jesuit book Almagestum novum was composed by the Jesuit astronomers Riccioli and Grimaldi and across the top is written: "Neither do men inhabit the moon nor do souls migrate there". It is the best known of all selenographs and has been used by most scholars for lunar nomenclature for three centuries. […]

It would be a mistake to think that the Jesuit names are on selenographs only because other Jesuits put them there. Rather it was a convergence of astronomers' opinions over three centuries: map makers before and after Riccioli confirmed the decisions again and again that these 40 men deserved this honor. This is not surprising. Recent histories emphasize the enormous influence Jesuits had not only on mathematics but on the other developing sciences such as astronomy. Historians of science always listed a surprisingly large number of Jesuits among the greatest scientists and mathematicians of all time. They were at the cutting edge of the sciences. For instance, by the time of the suppression in 1773, of the world's 130 astronomy observatories, 30 were operated by Jesuits. Furthermore Jesuit names are still being added to the list by the I. A. U. [FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY]

In the end, Blessed Pope John Paul the great gave a crystal clear summary of faith and science relationship:

Science purifies religion from error and superstition, while religion purifies science from idolatry and false absolutes.

For Atheist? know your History