KOLMOGOROV COMPLICITY AND THE PARABLE OF LIGHTNING

Published: Oct. 24, 2017, 8:07 p.m.

A good scientist, in other words, does not merely ignore conventional wisdom, but makes a special effort to break it. Scientists go looking for trouble.

\u2014\xa0Paul Graham,\xa0What You Can\u2019t Say

I.

Staying on the subject of\xa0Dark Age myths: what about all those scientists burned at the stake for their discoveries?

Historical consensus declares this a myth invented by New Atheists. The Church was a great patron of science, no one believed in a flat earth, Galileo had it coming, et cetera.\xa0Unam Sanctam Catholicam\xa0presents some of these stories and explains why they\u2019re less of a science-vs-religion slam dunk than generally supposed. Among my favorites: