Allan Chapman
Gods in the Sky
Published March 2002 by Channel 4 Books at £18.99
ISBN: 0 7522 6164 9
Although Columbus is credited with discovering that the world was round, Pythagoras came to the same conclusion two thousand years earlier. Similarly Copernicus’s theory that the Earth revolved around the sun was first suggested by Aristarchus in the fourth century BC… Gods in the Sky reveals that, despite the common presumption that astronomy started with Galileo, the ancient civilisations were acutely conscious of the night sky - the Babylonians began to record and predict the movements of the planets, or `gods in the sky’, as early as 1000 ac. Concealed beneath the colourful mythologies that surrounded their interpretation of the stars was a surprisingly accurate awareness of celestial movements - it was the Egyptians who first standardized the day and night as twelve hours each, and the Babylonians who divided the circle into 360 degrees. By demystifying the mythologies of these civilizations, we see how their understanding of the heavens led to the development of complex calendars, sophisticated navigational techniques, and the grasp of deep mathematical principles.
Central to the development of astronomy as an exploratory science was the emergence of the idea not of many gods, but of one creator God who designed both the universe and human intelligence in accordance with rational principles - an idea found in ancient Jewish thought as well as the Greek idea of the logos. And when these ideas came together in early Christianity around AD 200, and then in Islam four centuries later, they made possible a radical new understanding of nature as a rational whole that human intelligence could comprehend. Gods in the Sky traces this journey from Egypt and Babylon through Jewish thought and Greek science and philosophy. Allan Chapman describes the extraordinary rise of science first in medieval Islam and then in Christian Europe, which exploded with new intellectual energy after AD 1100. He demolishes the popular myth that religious belief has always been an enemy of science and shows that, on the contrary, without religious awareness, science would never have come into being in the first place. Gods in the Sky accompanies the series of the same name, made by Stellarvision for Channel 4.
About The Author Dr Allan Chapman is a native of Manchester, and a historian of science at Oxford University. His main research interests lie in the history of astronomy and medicine, and his books include Dividing the Circle, Astronomical Instruments and Their Uses, The Victorian Amateur Astronomer, The Medicine of the People and Mary Somerville and the World of Science. He was also co-author with Patrick Moore of Patrick Moore ‘s Millennium Yearbook. He has extensive interests in history, music, architecture, railways and modern science, as well as in the relationship between science and religion, being an active member of the Church of England. Allan Chapman is both series consultant and presenter of Gods in the Sky. He lives in Oxford with his wife Rachel.
Allan Chapman
Gods in the Sky
