Question #b988b
2 Answers
Public perception of the natural world changed from one of uncontrolled effects from capricious gods to one of mechanistic determinism.
Explanation:
Neither view was correct, as the understanding of our world progressed through the scientific investigations. The initial and major change brought about by the Scientific Revolution was that Mankind could understand and explain natural phenomena without resorting to myths or external powerful beings.
This realization went too far, with people beginning to think that the universe was thus a "clockwork" mechanism, and if only all of the "Laws" were known, everything could be predicted. We know now that it is not the case, and we cannot really prove or disprove the existence of "God" by science.
We have continued to use science to better understand the world and universe we live in, but many people still adhere to different perceptions of reality.
The scientific revolution created a view of natural world as something that was rational that made sense.
Explanation:
Kepler kept trying to find a solution to the observations of the solar system that was rational and mathematical because he believed that the solar system was created by a rational God.
In a similar manner Newton sought to understand the mind of God in formulating his equations defining gravity and the laws of motion.
The rational world proposed by the scientific method morphed into a mechaniclistic universe that functions totally by itself and was self sufficient.
The major change in people's world view was accomplished by the French Enlightenment. The French Enlightenment proposed that only naturalistic explanations could be considered. The Anti Theistic bias of the French Enlightenment made any reference to any thing outside of natural cause anti scientific. This world view of material realism ( only matter and energy are real) became the dominate world view of the natural world.
The scientific revolution with its reliance on rational explanations based on observed natural cause and experimentation, became the basis of the philosophy of the French Enlightenment
