In the ancient and medieval ages of Europe, people were trying to find out the truth about the nature by using only observation and reflecting on it. They did not use scientific methods, indeed it cannot be called as science; it was ‘natural philosophy’. However, through the enlightenment this began to change and it was converted to ‘science’ by creating a new methodology and reflection on nature. While this process, science that existed due to the enlightenment gradually differed from natural philosophy in terms of its relationship to religion. Briefly, natural philosophy which means the way of thinking about nature before the enlightenment was different from modern science of today in terms of the relationship to religion, it was completing the religion in contrast of modern science.
The process of the development of the thinking about nature can be divided into three stages: natural philosophy, the enlightenment and modern science. The ‘natural philosophy’ term is used for the reflection on nature until the 1830s, because there were not words such as ‘science’ and ‘scientist’ in English. Although French involved ‘science’ it meant ‘knowledge’ as a basic use. According to Outraw (2013), this shows us science was not differenced from other intellectual areas as “a defined body of knowledge”, thus there was no divided sub-disciplines of science (p. 101).
Although it turned out secular modern science, the aim of natural philosophy was to understand God’s power and purposes in the creation of nature. This relationship between natural philosophy and religious studies was strengthened by the clergy, especially in Protestant churches. They aimed to create a ‘reasonable Christianity’ by supporting the irrational sources of it, such as ...
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...ist (Outraw, 2013, p. 100). These ideas of Newton inspired the basic of Deism. According to deist thinkers, observations and the ‘reason’ is enough to believe the existence of God and there is not a need for theological methods for this.
To sum up, to find out the God’s purposes in the creation of nature was crucial before the Enlightenment and before it. Although theological methods were used in ‘natural philosophy’, it changed gradually due to the studies of people like Newton, Hume, Kant, Condillac etc. during the Enlightenment. The terms ‘rationality’ and ‘deism’ occurred, so eventually natural philosophy which worked with theology became modern science which works with only observation, experimentation and rationally independently from religious.
Works Cited
Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment 3rd ed. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press: 2013), 99-113.
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