Compare and contrast the influences of culture and religion in Essay

Compare and contrast the influences of culture and religion in sciences in ancient Greece and the Islamic empire - Essay Example elf is quite vast and it will probably be very difficult to cover all the points which can be made about the similarities and differences of how culture and religion affected the scientific developments of the ancient Greeks or the early Muslims. In fact even a brief retelling of their combined histories can take up many pages but I shall endeavor to cover the salient points which I came across while researching this topic. To better understand the differences and common elements it would be easier if each civilization is examined in detail on an individual basis while providing links to the other. Ancient Greece is rather difficult to pinpoint in terms of historical timelines since there is little agreement on the exact dates of the existence of this culture (Bower, 1991). The historians are in general agreement that all Greek history which came before the Roman Empire is a part of Ancient Greece. There are several periods in this society which are depicted by the art and culture as it existed in those times. Pottery samples and statues have often been of use in marking timelines for various periods of ancient Greek culture. But while the start of the Greek civilization may be questioned, its end is generally taken as the death of Alexander the Great. Amongst the many achievements of this culture are wonderful advancements made in the field of science. The made many discoveries of importance particularly in the areas of mathematics, agriculture, animal husbandry, economics and (perhaps most importantly), philosophy (Magner, 2002). Greek culture itself laid a very high value on the ability to speak to an audience and motivate them to do something or the other (Goldstein, 1995). This was the fundamental art of verbal and written rhetoric which basically had someone prove something to others. This cultural influence can be clearly seen in the way the philosophy and the mathematics of the Greek culture operates where very little abstraction is used and most of the