The Day The Universe Changed (1985)

Episode 2. In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict - Faith & Reason (4/5)

During the Middle Ages, most of Europe was dominated by religious beliefs and it was through this frame of mind that people explained the world around them. After the Crusaders invaded Moorish Spain, they discovered an advanced civilization]] and thousands of years of knowledge. After spending 150 years translating thousands of texts, the Crusaders returned to northern Europe with vast amounts of knowledge, including the works of the Ancient Greek philosophers who had pioneered logical thinking. Thus, the Dark Ages ended as secular knowledge and logical thinking took precedence over religious superstition.  Europe overruns Moorish Spain, discovering libraries, universities, optics, mechanics, and natural philosophy, as well as table manners and dessert. The rediscovery of classical knowledge leads to the founding of universities and the overthrow of Augustinian by Aritstotelian beliefs.

1. Saint Augustine- the material world is unimportant
2. Rise of monasteries and the Dark Ages
3. Charlemagne's brief candle
4. Carolingian miniscule writing
5. more dark ages
6. Emeris's glossing of law texts
7. Moorish Spain and height of culture, knowledge and standard of living
8. Cordova's mosque and libraries
9. fall of Toledo to El Cid's mercenaries
10. rediscovery of Greek knowledge
11. Aristotle's logic
12. logic and Church don't mix
13. two truths - everyday and religious
14. letting some light in
15. study of optics
16. Theodoric of Freiburg's experiments to explain the rainbow

The Day the Universe Changed (subtitled "A Personal View by James Burke") is a British documentary television series produced by and starring science historian James Burke, originally broadcast in 1985. It was released in DVD form in 2009. A companion book of the same title, also written by Burke, was published the same year, presenting the same general premise of the television series in expanded detail. A revised edition subsequently appeared in 1995.

The series' primary focus is on the effect of advances in science and technology on western philosophy. The title comes from the philosophical idea that the universe essentially only exists as you perceive it through what you know; therefore, if you change your perception of the universe with new knowledge, you have essentially changed the universe itself.

To illustrate this concept, James Burke tells the various stories of important scientific discoveries and technological advances and how they fundamentally altered how western civilization perceives the world. The series runs in roughly chronological order, from around the beginning of the Middle Ages to the present.

Episodes

1. The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks
2. In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict - Faith & Reason
3. Point of View: Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance
4. A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge
5. Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens
6. Credit Where It's Due: The Factory & Marketplace Revolution
7. What the Doctor Ordered: Social Impacts of New Medical Knowledge
8. Fit to Rule: Darwin's Revolution
9. Making Waves: The New Physics - Newton Revised
10. Worlds Without End: Changing Knowledge, Changing Reality

Source: Wikipedia