ISBN : 9780198747956
When young children first begin to ask 'why?' they embark on a journey with no final destination. The need to make sense of the world as a whole is an ultimate curiosity that lies at the root of all human religions. It has, in many cultures, shaped and motivated a more down to earth scientific interest in the physical world, which could therefore be described as penultimate curiosity. These two manifestations of curiosity have a history of connection that goes back deep into the human past. Tracing that history all the way from cave painting to quantum physics, this book (a collaboration between a painter and a physical scientist that uses illustrations throughout the narrative) sets out to explain the nature of the long entanglement between religion and science: the ultimate and the penultimate curiosity.
PART I: In the Beginning I
1 The First Men
2 Tentasali
3 Watauinawa
4 The Garden of Eden Moment
5 Primate Parallels
6 Horizons of Curiosity
7 Ultimate Curiosity
PART II: God Driven Science
8 The Lions of Miletus
9 The Move to Athens
10 Through the Academy Door
PART III: Encounters in Alexandria
11 Two Students
12 The Divided City
13 Industrious Jack
14 The Creation of the World
PART IV: The Long Argument
15 The Dream of Aristotle
16 Al Ghazali's Pilgrimmage
17 A Tale of Two Cities
18 Imposed Silence
19 Experimental Science
20 The Universal Law
PART V: The Open Book of Heaven
21 Against Aristotle
22 Free Philosophising
23 The Freedom of Intellect
24 Simplicius Reborn
25 The Creation
PART VI: Priests of Nature
26 A New Era
27 A Lutheran Astrologer
28 The Experimental Philosophy
29 The Oxonian Sparkles
PART VII: The Ocean of Truth
30 Le Grand Newton
31 The Beautiful System
32 Mathematical Theologies
33 The Coast of Infinity
PART VIII: Voyages of Discovery
34 Two Journeys
35 The Mystery of Mysteries
36 The Creed of Science
PART IX: In the Beginning II
37 The Literary Inquest
38 Breaking the Seals
39 The Intellectual Picklock
40 In a Strange Land
41 By the waters of Babylon
42 Adan and Adapa
43 Ariadne's Thread
PART X: Through the Laboratory Door
44 Science in a Time of Cholera
45 A Visit to the Museum
46 Experiments of Thought
47 The Unity of Nature
48 The Works of the Lord
PART XI: Epilogue