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Roger Bacon: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Roger-bacon-statue.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=caption|Statue of Roger Bacon in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History]] | <languages /> | ||
[[File:Roger-bacon-statue.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=caption|<translate>Statue of Roger Bacon in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History</translate>]] | |||
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[[Saint Germain]] was embodied in thirteenth-century England as '''Roger Bacon''' (c. 1214–1294). Reenter [[Merlin]]—scientist, philosopher, monk, alchemist and prophet—to forward his mission of laying the scientific moorings for the age of Aquarius his soul should one day sponsor. | [[Saint Germain]] was embodied in thirteenth-century England as '''Roger Bacon''' (c. 1214–1294). Reenter [[Merlin]]—scientist, philosopher, monk, alchemist and prophet—to forward his mission of laying the scientific moorings for the age of Aquarius his soul should one day sponsor. | ||
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The atonement of this lifetime was to be the voice crying in the intellectual and scientific wilderness that was medieval Britain. In an era in which either theology or logic or both dictated the parameters of science, he promoted the experimental method, declared his belief that the world was round, and castigated the scholars and scientists of his day for their narrow-mindedness. Thus he is viewed as the forerunner of modern science. | The atonement of this lifetime was to be the voice crying in the intellectual and scientific wilderness that was medieval Britain. In an era in which either theology or logic or both dictated the parameters of science, he promoted the experimental method, declared his belief that the world was round, and castigated the scholars and scientists of his day for their narrow-mindedness. Thus he is viewed as the forerunner of modern science. | ||
But he was also a prophet of modern technology. Although it is unlikely he did experiments to determine the feasibility of the following inventions, he predicted the hot-air balloon, a flying machine, spectacles, the telescope, microscope, elevator, and mechanically propelled ships and carriages, and wrote of them as if he had actually seen them. Bacon was also the first Westerner to write down the exact directions for making gunpowder, but kept the formula a secret lest it be used to harm anyone. No wonder people thought he was a magician! | But he was also a prophet of modern technology. Although it is unlikely he did experiments to determine the feasibility of the following inventions, he predicted the hot-air balloon, a flying machine, spectacles, the telescope, microscope, elevator, and mechanically propelled ships and carriages, and wrote of them as if he had actually seen them. Bacon was also the first Westerner to write down the exact directions for making gunpowder, but kept the formula a secret lest it be used to harm anyone. No wonder people thought he was a magician! | ||
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[[File:Friar Bacon in His Study (Roger Bacon).jpg|thumb|''“Friar” Bacon in His Study (Roger Bacon)'', Howard Pyle (1903)]] | [[File:Friar Bacon in His Study (Roger Bacon).jpg|thumb|<translate>''“Friar” Bacon in His Study (Roger Bacon)'', Howard Pyle (1903)</translate>]] | ||
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However, just as Saint Germain tells us today in his ''Studies in Alchemy'' that “miracles” are wrought by the precise application of universal laws, so Roger Bacon meant his prophecies to demonstrate that flying machines and magical apparatus were products of the employment of natural law which men would figure out in time. | However, just as Saint Germain tells us today in his ''Studies in Alchemy'' that “miracles” are wrought by the precise application of universal laws, so Roger Bacon meant his prophecies to demonstrate that flying machines and magical apparatus were products of the employment of natural law which men would figure out in time. | ||
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Bacon was a vigorous proponent of astrology. In his day, the words ''mathematician'' and ''astronomer'' were interchangeable with ''astrologer''. Although astrology flourished in the Middle Ages inside and outside the Church (several popes had court astrologers), it had earlier been condemned by the Church Fathers. | Bacon was a vigorous proponent of astrology. In his day, the words ''mathematician'' and ''astronomer'' were interchangeable with ''astrologer''. Although astrology flourished in the Middle Ages inside and outside the Church (several popes had court astrologers), it had earlier been condemned by the Church Fathers. | ||
In his ''Opus Majus'' Bacon argues that the Church Fathers did not denounce astrology as a whole but rather the fatalism of some practitioners. According to Bacon, the problem exists in “lying or fraudulent mathematicians, full of superstition,” who “imagine that necessity is placed upon those things in which there is choice, and particularly in matters which proceed from free will.”<ref>''The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon'', | In his ''Opus Majus'' Bacon argues that the Church Fathers did not denounce astrology as a whole but rather the fatalism of some practitioners. According to Bacon, the problem exists in “lying or fraudulent mathematicians, full of superstition,” who “imagine that necessity is placed upon those things in which there is choice, and particularly in matters which proceed from free will.”<ref>''The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon'', trans. Robert Belle Burke, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1928), p. 268.</ref> In other words, those who claim that astrology is predestination are misusing it. | ||
He says that on the other hand “true mathematicians and astronomers or astrologers, who are philosophers, do not assert a necessity and an infallible judgment in matters contingent on the future.”<ref>Ibid.</ref> | He says that on the other hand “true mathematicians and astronomers or astrologers, who are philosophers, do not assert a necessity and an infallible judgment in matters contingent on the future.”<ref>Ibid.</ref> | ||
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