Sunday, May 14, 2006

Discussing Creationism Part XIV

*Revised May 15, 2006*

I am still curious about other pre-Darwinian evolutionary ideas.
I've already looked at:
Part XIII Aristotle
Part XII Erasmus Darwin

Using the web site,Pre-Darwinian Theories of Evolution as a time-line guide, I looked at the Middle or Medieval time period which is from the defeat of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance, approximately 500-1450 AD.

During the Middle Ages, the philosophy of Aristotle was rediscovered. Aristotle, a pupil of Plato, was a keen observationalist with a fondness for biology. He developed his own classification system, dividing the animals by the presence or abscence of blood. He believed that living matter had potential to grow into its perfect form.

There was discussion among scholars on how to reconcile the the Biblical account of creation with Aristotle's viewpoint. Debate and study into the matter was discouraged as disagreement with Church doctrine was punishable by death. However, Aristotle had considerable influence over the theologians of this time.

It is interesting that his thoughts should reappear.


Also in this series (Focus on Noah and the Flood):
Discussing Creationism: The Initial Argument
Part II: Two Questions about the Ark
Part III:The Volume of the Ark
Part IV: The Weight and Sturdiness of the Ark
Part V:What is a Myth

Part VI: Gilgamesh
Part VII: The Biblical View of Noah
Part VIII: Gathering of the Animals
Part IX Evolution
Part X The First Evolutionist
Part XI The Notebook

5 comments:

Chrixean said...

Hi! My blog is open today for any special prayer requests. Pls come by if you wish to....

God bless!

... Paige said...

Hi Carol, Red & I would like to thank you for the mention of our Cracked Nuts blog on Friday. We were tied up over the week end & are just now finding out about it. Thanks again it is an honor.

Anonymous said...

You're doing a good job on this series, Carol.

Paste said...

Just as a point of fact the phrase the Dark Ages (or Dark Age) is most commonly known in relation to the European Early Middle Ages (from about A.D. 476 to about 1000). There is a large ammount of knowledge of the period 1000-1450. The Anglo-Norman period was from 1066 - 1215, The Middle Ages from 1216 - 1347 and the
Late Medieval from 1348 - 1484.

Carol said...

Nice idea, Chrixean.

Paige,
Thanks for your reply! You are welcome.

Thanks Aurora. It is very interesting for me too.

Dave,
Most sites referred to the Middle or Medieval (Latin for Middle ) Ages and Dark Ages as synonomous, but the term is also used more specifically (and probably more accurately) to the early Middle Ages.

Dark Ages is not widely used term anymore.

Everyone, How about trying this quiz. There are 20 questions but is very informative.

A Dark Ages Quiz