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Franz Cumont
(3 Jan 1868 - 25 Aug 1947)
Belgian archaeologist and philologist who studied Roman pagan cults, and in particular Mithraism. He actively researched their practice of astrology on his expeditions to Syria and Turkey.
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Science Quotes by Franz Cumont (2 quotes)
After a duration of a thousand years, the power of astrology broke down when, with Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, the progress of astronomy overthrew the false hypothesis upon which the entire structure rested, namely the geocentric system of the universe. The fact that the earth revolves in space intervened to upset the complicated play of planetary influences, and the silent stars, related to the unfathomable depths of the sky, no longer made their prophetic voices audible to mankind. Celestial mechanics and spectrum analysis finally robbed them of their mysterious prestige.
— Franz Cumont
Franz Cumont, translated by J.B. Baker, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (1912, 2007), 6.
True science is at length disencumbered of the empirical determinations which had accumulated in the course of many centuries.
— Franz Cumont
Franz Cumont, translated by J.B. Baker, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (1912, 2007), 6.
See also:
- 3 Jan - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Cumont's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
