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I wouldn't credit the religion ( fundamental or not ). After all, much of modern science was created by "fundamental" priests, clerics, adherents, etc ( from co

I wouldn't credit the religion ( fundamental or not ). After all, much of modern science was created by "fundamental" priests, clerics, adherents, etc ( from copernicus to newton to mendel ). Rather, the jewish scientists benefited from living in wealthy colonial europe which provided opportunities ( though there were anti-semitic roadblocks as well ) for research. There is a reason why most of the prominent jewish scientists are from germany, britain and US. You need wealth, infrastructure and research instutions. Jews in the middle east, china, africa, etc haven't as much due to instability, lack of wealth, infrastructure, etc. The same goes for chinese scientists. The US has produced a couple of chinese noble prize winners ( in sciences ). China has produced none since they were going through colonization and the unstable post-colonialism periods. Now that they are getting wealthier, developing infrastructure, etc, I'm going to guess that in the next couple of decades, china will produce a few noble prize winners. Science, like art, is a "liberal" pursuit which stems from ancient greece where the wealthy "liberals" had time to think because they were free ( liberal ) from work because their slaves did most of the work. In modern times, excess wealth is a prerequisite for most research. When you or society is desperately trying to survive and feed its people, nobody has the free time for "liberal" pursuits.

ajuc 7y ago
I don't know about the others, but Kopernik was hardly a "fundamental" priest. He organized the defense of Prussian towns who sided with Poland against a Teutonic Knights army who had the permission of the pope to "baptize" these "pagan" lands. Polish/Prussian side (which Kopernik supported, even including participation in the defence of the besieged city) argued that pagans had the right to live and defend their land, and that faith alone is not a sufficient justification to conquer foreign countries. And it's not even sure if Kopernik was a priest at all. He was a canon at Frombork Cathedral, but at the time you didn't have to be a full-blown priest, he could have just been a deacon or even a subdeacon (and that's the currently favoured theory).
dmitryminkovsky 7y ago
> There is a reason why most of the prominent jewish scientists are from germany, britain and US. You need wealth, infrastructure and research instutions. Jews in the middle east, china, africa, etc haven't as much due to instability, lack of wealth, infrastructure, etc. Thanks for mentioning not all Jews are European. Most Jews in Israel, for example, are not European. Nearly the entire ancient communities of Iraqi, Yemeni and Persian Jews are almost in Israel. If not for modes of dress (and even then), the casual foreign observer would often not easily tell apart Jew from Arab in Israel. At least, I often cannot.

ajuc 7y ago

I don't know about the others, but Kopernik was hardly a "fundamental" priest. He organized the defense of Prussian towns who sided with Poland against a Teutonic Knights army who had the permission of the pope to "baptize" these "pagan" lands. Polish/Prussian side (which Kopernik supported, even including participation in the defence of the besieged city) argued that pagans had the right to live and defend their land, and that faith alone is not a sufficient justification to conquer foreign countries. And it's not even sure if Kopernik was a priest at all. He was a canon at Frombork Cathedral, but at the time you didn't have to be a full-blown priest, he could have just been a deacon or even a subdeacon (and that's the currently favoured theory).

dmitryminkovsky 7y ago

> There is a reason why most of the prominent jewish scientists are from germany, britain and US. You need wealth, infrastructure and research instutions. Jews in the middle east, china, africa, etc haven't as much due to instability, lack of wealth, infrastructure, etc. Thanks for mentioning not all Jews are European. Most Jews in Israel, for example, are not European. Nearly the entire ancient communities of Iraqi, Yemeni and Persian Jews are almost in Israel. If not for modes of dress (and even then), the casual foreign observer would often not easily tell apart Jew from Arab in Israel. At least, I often cannot.