René Descartes and Francis Bacon

Look up René Descartes and Francis Bacon. WRITE a post on the class blog comparing their approaches and positing a thesis about how their scientific methods might have upended religions doctrine and empowered people in Europe.

René Descartes: René Descartes was a philosopher and mathematician who lived mostly during the 1600s in Europe. As a philosopher, he used a method referred to as "methodical skepticism" which basically means that he did not agree with any ideas that could be doubted. This idea is very powerful because the entire idea of religion is one that could be doubted as a whole. There is no proof for religion. If Descartes had gotten everyone in Europe to think the way he did, he could effectivly get all of Europe to reject religion.

Francis Bacon: Francis Bacon was also a philosopher who lived from the mid- 1500s to the early 1600s. Though he was also a politician, it was his philosophy that he is most remembered for. Bacon proposed that only by experiment could we find out more about the earth and the world around us. He said that we must investigate everything around us. This idea coud have endangered the power of religion because he was asking people to try to investigate everything. if people followed his demands of investigation, then they would have had a hard time trying to explain how biblical events had actually happened.

Both of the methods that Descartes and Bacon respectively put forward could have lead to a religious revololution if followed. Both placed doubt in the events and beliefs having to do with religion. They asked people to think if these things could actually happen, or if they could be proven.