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The Pros And Cons Of The Scientific Revolution

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The Scientific Revolution was a time of discovery during the 16th and 17th centuries. Because of the fact that both the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution occurred at roughly the same time, there was a significant number of advocates and critics for these new discoveries. Despite the overall growth in support of these new scientific findings, social, religious, and political factors greatly restrained the potential of the Scientific Revolution.
The most challenging problem for the participants in the Scientific Revolution was trying to convince the Church that these new revelations were beneficial. For Nicholas Copernicus, this was a lot more difficult. The Church had already reevaluated their views in accordance to Aristotle’s idea of celestial spheres which established the Earth as the center of the universe (Text 522). Knowing this information, Nicolaus Copernicus tried to gain the Church’s trust by dedicating his book, On the Revelation of the Heavenly Spheres, to Pope Paul III and waited to publish the book until his the year of his death in order to avoid ridicule (Text 522). In his dedication, Copernicus reminded the pope that he had a great love of science and he reassured him that “[his] labors contribute to the well being of the Church” (Doc. 1). John Calvin took a more harsh approach in order to defend himself. Because of the Reformation, Calvin had already experienced a ton of derision and censorship from the Church. He stated, “This study

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