Influence of culture and religion on the development of science - Essay Example

Although we are often willing to acknowledge our debt to the ancient Greeks for giving us the basics of modern science, we are less likely to even be aware of our debt to Islam for preserving and building upon the knowledge the Greeks had developed. Far from working to suppress the development of science, it was the religion and general culture of the ancient Greeks and Muslims that helped shape the development of modern science. The religion of the ancient Greeks had a significant impact upon their view of how society should operate.

With a Pantheon of Gods on high, each having his or her own specialty, participating in regular meetings to discuss what’s right and wrong with the world, it was not unusual for the Greeks to have a more diplomatic democratic society. They considered their gods to be very much like themselves but with greater powers to control the elements around them. It was important to keep them happy if one wanted good weather for productive crops or healthy livestock and a plague in the land could be an indication of a god unhappy with a particular ruler or policy.

The people took their clues about what was necessary to keep the gods happy from the stories and legends that were told about them. When that wasn’t sufficient, they made it a habit to consult an oracle (Martin, 2006). This questioning of the mysteries eventually led to greater efforts to foretell the future and to guess the will of the gods. This required careful observations, study and training which eventually led to the development of scientific thought. By the end of the Greek period, many significant achievements had been made in science and philosophy.

Greek thinkers had gained a view of a universe in which the world was round and participated in an intricate dance through the heavens with other bodies named after the gods they revered. Sophistication in mathematics led to the development of geometry which enabled the ancient Greeks to