Logic and the scientific method
An eclipse of the moon. You can see the curved shadow of the Earth. Logic tells you the earth is round. Making predictions Once people have seen that something happens [...]
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09, 2017
6
09, 2017
Science and the gods – History of Science
The Egyptian god Bes Gods are part of people's desire to know how the world works. It's one of the ways that people explain how the world works. People say [...]
4
09, 2017
Roman philosophy – ancient Rome
A Roman man making a speech (Florence, about 50 BC) Thanks to VROMA for the image Romans meet Greek philosophy Roman men didn't begin studying philosophy until about 200 BC. At that time, [...]
25
08, 2017
What is a theologian? History of religion
Pope Gregory the Great writing, from the 900s AD. Ivory, probably from Kenya. (Now in Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum) A theologian (thee-oh-LOW-gin) is a person who studies religion. The word comes from [...]
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08, 2017
What is a rabbi? Judaism – Religion
The rabbi Maimonides, in a later medieval painting What does "rabbi" mean? Rabbi means "great one" in Hebrew, or "respected one". It's a Hebrew word related to the Arabic word rabb, [...]
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08, 2017
Jews in the Islamic Empire
Jews in the Islamic Empire: The synagogue where Maimonides worked in Cairo, Egypt (1100s AD) Did Jewish people help the Arab conquest? The Arabs first began to attack the Roman Empire in the 630s AD. [...]
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08, 2017
Ancient philosophy: ethics, fate, and science
Weighing the souls of the dead Philosophy means the love of wisdom. But what does that mean? It's hard to separate philosophy from religion. And it's also hard to draw a [...]
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08, 2017
What is a pilgrimage? Middle Ages
The first view of the pilgrimage: Chartres on the horizon Who went on pilgrimages? In the Middle Ages, many people - both men and women - went on short or long [...]
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08, 2017
Thomas Aquinas – Medieval philosophy
A book in Thomas Aquinas' handwriting For many years before Thomas Aquinas was born, men like Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd in the Abbasid Empire had been reading the Quran, and reading Aristotle, and trying to find ways to [...]
4
08, 2017
Thomas Aquinas – Dominican monk
Naples, with Mount Vesuvius in the background Like Ibn Rushd and Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas was a great thinke who tried to figure out the relationship between science and religion. But unlike Ibn Rushd [...]
