Orthodox Christianity cultivated obscurantism in Russia and suffocated the light of science

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleПравославие сеяло на Руси мракобесие и душило свет науки
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Scientific theories and disciplines > Biology - Modes of interaction > Conflict - Ecumenism and dialogue > Education - Scientific theories and disciplines > Biology:evolution - Modes of interaction > Orthodox critique of science - Ecumenism and dialogue > Westernism and anti-westernism - Education, Science and Orthodoxy
6. Publication date 05-01-2017
7. lemma work Дулуман, E. [Author]. Православие сеяло на Руси мракобесие и душило свет науки
8. lemma manifestations Sotref.com - Свобода от религиозного фундаментализма
9. Keywords Censorship - Russian education system - Science - Russian Empire - Russian history - Schools - Darwinism
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <p>Дулуман, Е. (2011). Православие сеяло на Руси мракобесие и душило свет науки. <em>Sotref.com - Свобода от религиозного фундаментализма.</em> Retrieved from: <a href="http://sotref.com/nauka_i_religija/kreacionizm/1074-pravoslavie-i-nauka.html">http://sotref.com/nauka_i_religija/kreacionizm/1074-pravoslavie-i-nauka.html</a> </p>
12. Lemma body

    1. According to Duluman, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is currently creeping into the Russian school system, bringing obscurantism into its curriculum. The Church approved the exclusion of Astronomy from the school program as well as the merging of Maths, Physics, and Chemistry into one subject. All of this is happening, the author argues, following the assumption that since the Middle Ages the ROC has been ahead of its time in its attitude toward science. Duluman mentions a number of “obscurantist measures” of the Church in the past to prove that in reality the Church has always attacked science.

       The author then provides an overview of censorship coming from the Russian Orthodox Church over the centuries. To begin with, the Stoglavy Synod of 1551 banned astrological literature, which was viewed as hellenic heresy. The English diplomat Fletcher, who lived in Moscow in 1588, wrote that the Church rulers were ignorant and afraid of scientific knowledge because autocratic rule could function only with the help of ignorance. He added that the Church had ordered to burn the printing press brought from Poland and had forbidden inviting foreign teachers and scientists. The 16th century founder of the first printing house, Fedorov, left Moscow for Lithuania because of pressure from the Church.

       Attacks on science continued in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 17th century, a Church schoolbook prohibited reading Ancient Greek philosophy books on science. The Patriarch’s decree of December 1, 1627 ordered to expropriate all Lithuanian books in Russia and to archive them in Moscow with a ban on selling them. In 1757, the Synod banned a number of scientific books in Russia and ordered to expropriate Fontenelle’s book on the plurality of worlds. The 1796 censorship law got stricter on literature and ordered burning all books perceived as anti-religious.

       The same dynamics characterized Church-science relationship in the 19th century in Russia. In 1820, the Ministry of Education demanded the Kazan University to restrict any antireligious sentiment among students. In 1824, Tzar Alexander I addressed the Ministry of Education, ordering it to strengthen faith in God among Russian people through education. In 1848, the Metropolitan Bishop Filaret of Moscow criticized the historian Granovsky for not talking about the God’s will in his books. In 1850, the Ministry of Education forbade the teaching of certain philosophy subjects such as metaphysics; moreover, it combined the teaching of philosophy with God’s Law. Darwinists were strongly criticized by the Church; these views led leading biologist and Nobel Prize winner I.I. Metchnikov to feel forced to leave Russia. Several dissertations and books of Russian religious scholars were censored and copies were burnt for praising Enlightenment philosophers. After the European revolutions of 1848-49, the censorship committee banned the mention of Prophet Muhammad and the laws of nature in school books.