Page "Relationship between religion and science" Paragraph 17

While H. Floris Cohen states that most scholars reject crude articulations of the conflict thesis, such as Andrew D. White's, he also states that milder versions of this thesis still hold some sway.

This is because " it remains an incontrovertible fact of history that, to say the least, the new science was accorded a less than enthusiastic acclaim by many religious authorities at the time.

" Cohen therefore considers it paradoxical " that the rise of early modern science was due at least in part to developments in Christian thought — in particular, to certain aspects of Protestantism " ( a thesis first developed as what is now sometimes called the Merton thesis ).

In recent years, Oxford historian Peter Harrison has further developed the idea that the Protestant Reformation had a significant and positive influence on the development of modern science.

A review of alternatives to the White / Draper conflict thesis has been composed by Ian G. Barbour.