Science as religion

This chapter uses Marin Mersenne’s thought and work in seventeenth-century Paris as a lens through which to examine the continued presence of religious issues within scientific research. In particular, it shows how important Mersenne’s Parisian circle was to the mixture of atomism with Euclidism within European thought. Among other thinkers considered are René Descartes (1596–1650), Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), and Marin Mersenne (1588–1648).