alt Hacker NewsThe shift probably happened earlier than this. Roger Bacon and others kick started the scientific revolution in the Christian west. Some argue that modern science is a uniquely Christian undertaking as Christianity provided a philosophical foundation for a rational and predictable world. See Stanley jaki or more recently Tom Holland.
More surprising perhaps is the removal of religion from education. Culture without a cult (other types of cult tend to fill the void, for example pledging allegiance daily to a constitution)
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Except that Christianity inherited this philosophical concept of a rational and predictable world, and the concept of natural laws from Greek philosophy, which was thoroughly pagan. The dominant philosophical movement in the ancient world was Stoicism, which was deterministic. They certainly didn't get it from Judaism.
What do you make of Christianity persecuting those who would place the Sun at the center of our cosmology? Or the relentless advocacy they're doing, even to this day, to fight the theory of Evolution? How can you explain their support of completely ascientific theories of 18th century racism and phrenology? Or how they supported a myriad of wrong theories over the ages, from a flat earth to the theory that if rocks fall down, it's because they like the ground?
Look, every religion touts itself as "the religion of science". Ultimately, I don't believe any of these cults incarnate any set of rigid philosophical principles. What Christians and other religious people believe shifts over time and space, and that's a good thing. They are slowly adapting to our modern understanding of the world, even if religious people tend to lean more on the reactionary side themselves.
But enlightenment was achieved in spite of religion. The French Revolution was very anti-religious because the Clergy was perfectly content enjoying its privileges in the feudal system, keeping peasants poor and uneducated. Only when the over-bearing Church was weakened were we able to explore radical new ideas of how the world works, and establish new scientific theories and knowledge.
1500 years of an all-powerful Catholic Church left Europe in a worst place than it was under Rome. Only since its power began to wane were we able to grow again.
I agree, abrahamic religions tend to produce intellectuals that try to rationalize the religion to some extent, which in turn eventually generates the split between religion and science. Especially christianity tends to cope with this pretty well, there are things that you must agree with "on faith" and contradictions tend to be not only allowed but to some degree reinforcing the own faith of the individual.
I have no doubt that a St Thomas Aquinas born in this age would have made for a great scientist.