Science and Religion

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Science and Religion

The Enlightenment was a period when both atheists, deists and theists argued their positions using "mechanistic" arguments. Make a list of some of the leading lights of this period, listing their birth/death date, their religious persuasion (if possible, distinguish among theists by listing their affiliation/denomination), and their principle (mechanistic) argument (e.g. spontaneous generation supports purposeless life)

Name	Birth:Death	Religion	Principal Argument
Isaac Newton	1642-1727	Deist	God=space-time
Blaise Pascal
Rene Descartes
Galileo Galilei
Robert Boyle
Gottfried Leibniz
Joseph Priestly
Matthew Tindal
John Needham
David Hume
Thomas Jefferson
John Wesley
William Paley

After completing this list, do you detect any chronological trends?

honors extra

Stanley Jaki argues that as philosophy adopted the same metaphysics as a mechanistic science, it stopped asking the questions that had typically dominated philosophy for centuries. What was the Enlightenment response to traditional philosophical questions about purpose (Aristotle's Final Causes), or about free will (ethics, morality), or about intelligence (mind, consciousness)?

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