Science is Aristotle. The unique contribution of the Christian church is that the church was open enough to thought and debate to produce thinkers who liked Aristotle, assimilated him, and went on. This says more about the CONFIDENCE LEVEL of the church than anything else, as opposed to, say, Islam. And this confidence level rises and falls along with her closeness to Jesus, who eschewed all coercion in the certainty He was living the truth and that truth — lived — will conquer all hostile thought.
The caricature of the entire church as a closed society, squashing all dissension, is largely a modern fiction. This is not to defend the Galileo moments, of course. As the church’s SPIRITUAL VITALITY diminishes she becomes INTELLECTUALLY oppressive, much like a short man bullies.
So science is Aristotle’s brain, flourishing only in the freedom that the Gospel engenders.
TimothyOne 