Technological progress possible in a Catholic world?

[Tomek]

Hi guys,

I’ve become very interested in science fiction and technology and have been wondering about technological progress and an environment that can make it possible. I’ll be honest in saying that some of my perceptions of Catholic history might be a bit nebulous and in need of correction, but my initial impression is that in a Catholic society where primacy of focus is given to otherworldy things, the state of this world would take back seat in terms of concern and consequently progress would be stiffled. I recall a general remark about how what was called “natural philosphy” (proto-science?) was looked at with disdain and regarded as something of non importance. So what do you guys think? Would a Catholic society foster technology and material progress? Could we really imagine something akin to Star Trek coming forth from such a world? Or would we be perptually stuck in a static world?

Just my random question for the day!

God bless

 

[MJford]

Well, I do think space colonization is possible, God gave us our minds and a whole universe to explore and use to give him glory. Science can be used to praise God, and scientific expeditions don’t seem like they would cause a major problem with the Church. I doubt we would meet alien cultures and civilizations as I don’t see how that would fit with Catholicism (God the Son became man, not Vulcan) however, God can do what he wants.

 

[Della]

The Church promoted the arts and science down through the centuries. Many important discoveries were made by Catholic religious, so you do have a fuzzy understanding of Church hsitory and what the Church is interested in. The Church is very much involved in the world and society and culture. We would take that interest with us into space and other worlds, if we manage to do those things before Christ comes again.

Were you a fan of Babylon 5? Remember the Catholic monks who worked on computers? I always thought that was so telling and apt–like the monks who worked long hours transcribing the Sacred Texts in the Middle Ages. As a Catholic I look forward to space exploration and the possbility of going “where no man has gone before”. Should be fun!

 

[Lawrence178]

There is no conflict between Catholicism and technology. I just wrote a paper that touched on monasteries and their technological advancements. For example, the Cistercians were most famous for incorporating machines in their their every day life. They used water power to do just about everything, from hammering metal to milling wheat to fulling cloth and many other things.

One thing I found particularly interesting was a monastery in England. In the 1500s, it had developed a very sophisticated way to produce cast iron. It was way ahead of other metallurgical operations of its time. One historian speculated that, had Henry VIII not shut the monastery down, the industrial revolution might have come much earlier since these monks would have contributed the knowledge to mass produce cast iron, a vital ingredient for industrialization.

But many Medieval Catholic thinkers didn’t give much thought to science that didn’t have a practical application. For instance, the stars were studied to get a better idea about dates of feasts, mechanics for mechanizing certain tasks, but little was given to more, I cant think of the word, “esoteric” sciences.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_Catholic_cleric%E2%80%93scientists

Jesuits had “contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter’s surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn’s rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon effected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light.”