[dntbnmpls]

Isaac Newton: "All my discoveries have been made in answer to prayer."

People forget how religious newton was and he believed his physics was the discovery of god's physical laws.

Chemistry comes from mystic alchemy. Astronomy derives from astrology.

Just like there is a thin line between genius and madness, the same seems to apply to science and mysticism. Turn the dial a few degrees, you get mysticism. Turn it a few more degrees, you get science.

History of science is just as fascinating as history of politics. It's a shame we focus on the latter so much.

[psychoslave]

There are no real historical conflict between mysticism and science. Take Russel's essay "Mysticism and logic" for example, Russel having evolved from a more Platonist point of view to a more atheist materialist one over its long lifespan, inventing "neutral monism" on the road.

However there are clear possibility of conflicts between scientific approach and institutional religions. Note that people don't need to be anything close to an atheist to get into trouble when their thoughts are going out of the road promoted by the institutional dogma of the day. Giordano Bruno is one famous case of such a human drama.

Of course religion here is more the mean of political control than anything else, and it can be substituted by other means just as detrimental to independent critical free thought.

[scotty79]

I think the clear border is that if you start to make things up that go against what we solidly measured so far or you have gaps in your derivation then you are well within 'mysticism' part of the dial. I think there's even slightly audible click when you go to that part of the dial.