JDG said: > Strangely? Catholics basically founded the science of genetics a > long time ago to name but one example....
I see that David has already responded to this, but I thought I would repost my response to your last email claiming that Catholics invented genetics in case you never read it the first time: For all practical purposes, genetics was discovered in 1900 by the botanists Hugo de Vries (at the University of Amsterdam), Carl Correns (at the Wilhem Institute for Biology in Berlin) and Erich von Tschermak (in Vienna). We all know of Gregor Mendel because scientists are very good at acknowledging pioneers, no matter how obscure they were. Which is not to say that Mendel wasn't an excellent scientist; and he was certainly supported in his studies by the Church, at least until he was promoted and had no time for science. I don't suppose anyone in positions of ecclesiastical power realised that he'd come up with one of the most important and potentially far-reaching ideas to come out of the whole history of the Church! (Although the scientists of the time didn't do much better: Darwin himself had done experiments very much along the lines of Mendel's and even discussed them with Wallace without realising that he'd found the missing piece of the evolutionary synthesis, which is especially sad as he knew that there had to be some kind of particulate inheritance or else evolution wouldn't work.) Rich _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
