The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-03

1 and was thus destroyed the record of the | hard work of nearly three hundred years. | which record embraced a collection of | what was then known upon all subjects l since history began. Up to about the | beginning of the Sixteenth Century of our
 era there were two ideas concerning the relations of the earth and the other | plants of our system. One was the l Geocentric or that of Ptolemy; the other
 was the Hellocentric or that of Pytha- 1 goras. In as much as the teachings of | Ptolemy did not conflict with either the l Christian or Mohamedian religion it was generally accepted throughout the civiliz-
 ed world. About the year 1897 Coperni-
 GUS, a Persian, completed his book On the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies
 which sustained the Pythagorean school | of Astronomy.
 Copernicus changed the face of Astro- | nomcal Science" His book was con demned by the Inquisition denouncing 1t
 ss heretical. The congregation of the Index denounced his system as that false Pytha gorean doctrine utterly contrary to the Holy Scriptures.
 | About a century later, 1909 Calico in- vented a telescope capable of magnifying thirty times and demonstrated the cor rectness of. Pythagorean and Copernicfan systems.
 He was forced by the church to desist in his teachings under pain or punish
 ment. For a time he thought and studied
 without speaking of his discoveries. but
 in 1892 published his work or the system
 of the world" its object being the vindi-
 ccatfon of the Copernican system. He
 was again summoned to Rome under the charge of heresy. "On his knees with his hand on the Bible, he was compelled to abjure and curse the doctrine of the movement of the earth"
 John Kepler published his "epitome of the Copernican system in 1918. in which
 he published his famous laws governing the motions of the planets. This the con sregation of the Index condemned
 In 1887 Sir Isaac Newton published hls | "Principia" which was the crowning gloria of astronomical science. Thus the Seventeenth Century, which began with
 the burning of Bruno by order of the Inquisition because of his defense Of the Copernican system will live in history
 as the era of astronomical science. The
 names of Pythageras, Copernicus. kepler
 Calico and Newton are the world s great | est immortals in interpretating the great
 Book of Nature as displayed in the
 systems of worlds.
 | From the time of Constantine, the first
 Christian Emperor of Rome. A. D., 3oo.
 and from the time of Mohammed in the Seventh Century to the present time. the |
 the worlds have been the Christian and
 Mohameden.
 Under Constantine the Christian religion
 becamN a State religion. Under the fol-
 lowing of Mohammed the Mohamaden re- ligion was the purpose of the estabhsh-
 ing of the Saracan Empire Thus Chris
 tianity was promulgated by the State and the Saracen Empire was established In the promulgation of the Mohammeden reli- zion.
 The Eclesiastics of both these religions antagonized all science and philosophy
 which they thought brought into ques- :. ton the letter of their sacred writings ; or revelations. Both invoked, to prevent scientific and philosophic investigation and study, the civic power There was this difference however. in the two re- ligions The Christian had adopted part of the modes of worship of the Pa
 gan as a political necessity, and the mode , of worship of Christianity was thereby | greatly modified and changed from its or iginal purity and simplicity. On the oth- CT hand the Mohammedan religion was , wholly Mohammedan, not trace of the old religion of the Arab ancestors re- ; mained. The Christian Roman State {: adopted and promulgated Christianity as a political policy, while the followers of
 Mohammed established their empire to
 promulgate their religion. Thus, Aubu- beker, Khalif, as soon as seated in the :; Khalfate issued this proclamation: Tn the name of the Most Worshipful God! Aububeker to the rest of the true be-
 Iievers, health and happiness. The mercy
 and blessing of God be upon you. praise the Most High God. l pray for . his prophet Mohammed. This is to in- : form you that I intend to send the true
 believers into Syria, to take 1t out of the 7 hands of the infidels. And I would have { you know that the fighting for religion Is an act of obedience to God Thus war
 which overthrow the old Arabian faith
 under the leadership of Mohammed, was
 again invoked to spread the new faith . An idea of the opinions of the early Mo- |, hammedan of Science and secular learn ing Is contained in the following: After ; | Alexandria had fallen into the hands of . the Saracens John the Grammarian ap- pealed to the local authorities for the re- . mains of the great AleXandrlan library The request was submitted to the Khalit who replied: If these books teach the
 same as the Koran they are not needed If they teach things not in the Koran , they are pernicious. Let thcm be de- stroyed." Nevertheless, through the in, ' fiuence of the Nestorian Christians an6 = the Jews. science art and literature owe their revival to the Arabs.
 The Ecclesiastical antagonism to science :; during the whole of the medieval anC !. part of the modern periods constitutes a
 large part of the history of those peri y ods Nor did it end at the time of the
 reformation. Thus spoke Luther of Aris- l. totle: He is truly devil. horrid ca d lumniator a wicked sycophant, a prince
 of darkness. a real ApOllyan, a beast. a
 most horried impostor on mankind, one s in whom there is scarcely any philosophy r a public and professional liar, goat. a
 complete epicure. this thrice execrable
 Aristotle" He also said of Schoolman
 That they were locusts, caterpiilars |. frogs, lice"
 Calvin had pretty much the same opin- e ion, for it must be remembered that he
 had Sercetus burned at Geneva because
 of his opinion In religious matters. Il n therefore appears that there was not 8 much difference between the Catholics s and early Protestants in their treatment . of heretics, that Is to say of those whc f did not agree with them During all this
 time Masonry in Its organized and un- l organized state, believed in the existence l of a deity in His book of Revelation, and l in the immortality of the soul. and was = an inspiration to the study of nature as 0 displayed in the Universe of God. It !n- = voked no civil authority, ecclesiastical in- 0 stitution, or other means to restrain the { investigation of natures truths, their log = lcal explanation, and their promulgatton s Nor could it do otherwise. It Is claimed e that Masonry is itself Cniversal All the