An early 1990s engineering professor made the memorable comment that if a person who knew absolutely nothing about cars were asked to build one from scratch, it is unlikely that they could produce a vehicle as good as the Ford Model T.[1] It’s an interesting point—absent the learning which results from observing the work of others, a designer or builder will be stuck with a laborious and time-consuming process which may not succeed. Continuing with the professor’s line of thinking, we may add that people with only a passing knowledge of cars today would be aware of automotive technologies that probably never occurred to Henry Ford. The common phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” sums up the acknowledged power of building on others’ prior achievements.
Standing on the shoulders of giants not only enables better work, it also accelerates technological or scientific progress. In recent times, for example, China has transformed itself, in a matter of decades, from a manufacturer of cheap consumer items to an industrial powerhouse. The main driver of this transformation was the technology transfer that occurred from more advanced countries. Considering the ease and pace of development made possible by cherry-picking the work of others, another well-worn phrase comes to mind: “Don’t reinvent the wheel”. This is sage advice—why go to the trouble of developing technologies that are already available?
These issues are not new—the ancients were just as driven by the prospect of free knowledge as any nation today. As a civilization came to an end, scholars from up-and-coming people groups were always on hand to access the knowledge base of the outgoing group. It is widely believed today that Western civilization can trace its lineage back to the ancient Greeks via the Romans. Certainly, the Greek influence on science, mathematics, philosophy, and literature is profound. But what does the Bible say about the lineage of Western civilization, and what lessons can we derive as we trace the lineage of scientific development?
In this chapter we will examine the broad-brush scheme of civilizational history given in the Bible and draw important lessons from the historical process of knowledge transfer. We will compare two case studies—the Copernican revolution, which saw the emergence of an empirical causal model of planetary motion, and Darwinism, an example of origins science. This history encompasses a succession of empires over a span of 2500 years, and key scientific developments that occurred over this lengthy period.
[1] The Ford Motor Company, founded by American industrialist Henry Ford (1863–1947), mass-produced the Model T automobile from 1908 to 1927.