Divine retribution

Forman extended this theme. Physicians who prescribed without consulting the stars and thereby harmed people were acting as instruments of divine retribution. God sent unrepentant sinners to evil physicians. In his c.1607 tract he ranted,... 

Bayle s advocacy of suspension of judgement on questions of scientific uncertainty or metaphysical obscurity was often misrepresented. His true position was to assert, as a fact of psychology, that suspension of judgement is rare, since the ordinary human reaction to uncertainty is to jump to a conclusion. He shows with what arguments a clever polemicist can convince a magistrate of the truth of the fallacious proposition that persons or communities who are uninstructed in the metaphysical doctrine of divine retribution are a necessary threat to public order.]... 

Plato came from a distinguished Athenian family his father even claimed to be descended from the god Poseidon. Plato s early ambitions were probably political, but perhaps after the death of his teacher, he became convinced that Athenian politics were no place for a person of conscience. He turned to a life of philosophy and teaching instead. However in contrast to his teacher, Plato believed that natural philosophy was a worthy area for study as long as one removed the taint of atheism (and threat of retribution) by making natural laws subordinate to the authority of divine principles. 

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