1970 Geloof en Wetenschap : Orgaan van de Christelijke vereeniging van natuur- en geneeskundigen in Nederland - pagina 115

A. H. ESSER

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generally accepted image that each scientific idea had to fit into a hierarchy of science in which concepts of theology were uppermost; therefore, theologians were the most powerful in determining images. (It is interesting that Copernicus' work was published only after Osiander had written a preface which emphasized that the hypothesis of a heliocentric universe was but a convenient means for simplifying planetary computations. This careful cloaking of a revolutionary image did not succeed; in 1616 the Church rejected Copernicus' theory.) Such distortions were of course minor compared to the pollution of thoughts and loyalties resulting from the Vatican's treatment of Galileo. For his elaborations of Copernicus' theory after the 1616 rejection, Galileo received a censure which was only recently lifted in 1968, more than 300 years too late. The effects of social pollution are longlasting and crippling; it may take years to undo the damage caused by our spontaneous conservative reactions to creative innovation. Since most images come into being in the individual's childhood before he is able to use his mind independently and to judge for himself, it may take ages to obtain the freedom a new idea can provide for us. Today, mankind cannot afford 300 years to undo polluting thoughts and actions. We will have to examine the image-changing processes of our psychosocial evolution and thereby influence the speed with which they take place. 3. Man's Emancipation imagery

from Nature: the first radical change in

Let us consider some aspects of man's actions on the world around him, his deliberate behavior. In the beginning, man must have felt himself to be part of Nature and, as we can still find in some animistic religions, the inanimate world was treated as if it had personality. The difference between spontaneous and planned behavior was nebulous: for example, the process whereby spontaneous expressions of joy for Nature's bounty (jumping around because it finally rained after a dry spell), were being turned into planned interferences with Nature (a ritual dance to make the Gods give us rain). It is clear that at an early time in our viTitten history man felt the

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