[meteorite-list] First meteoriticist? Criminal!

From: Jeff Pringle <jpringle_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Feb 9 12:34:41 2005
Message-ID: <7AB7C8712693594AA5A8265D3C8313F30C137E_at_dean_mail.stuartdean.com>

I just ran across this paragraph in "Doubt - A History" by J.M. Hecht -

The philosopher Anaxagoras is the earliest historical figure to have been indicted for atheism - in fact, it seems they wrote the law just for him. A meteorite had fallen in 467 BCE and it convinced Anaxagoras that the heavenly bodies, including Helios, the sun, were just glowing lumps of metal. Other people had this information - the meteorite didn't fall in Anaxagoras' backyard - but he was a philosopher and a rationalist and he came to conclusions that were not attractive to everyone. This was the origin of a conflict between religion and science. Here, new information, new empirical data, led to a direct challenge to the way in which the gods were envisioned. This new doubt encouraged a new kind of punishment for doubt. Set up about 438 BCE, the law against Anaxagoras' atheism held that society must "denounce those who do not believe in the divine beings or who teach doctrines about things in the sky."

2000 years before Chladni!


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Received on Wed 09 Feb 2005 12:34:07 PM PST