Isaac Newton wrote that while sitting in his garden one day, he watched an apple fall to the ground. (518) That apple led to his theory of gravity. If the Renaissance and Reformation had never happened the Scientific Revolution would not have occurred. The Renaissance and Reformation encouraged individual thinking, made exploration possible, and caused people to doubt the Catholic church.

First of all, individual thinking was one major thing that came out of the Renaissance. Individual thinking is what enabled people like Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton to discover and make their theories in the field of science. If they had never bothered to think for themselves they wouldn t have been able to do any of the great things that they did. Individual thinking, an idea from the Renaissance, is the basis of all the scientific discoveries during the Scientific Revolution.

Secondly, the Renaissance brought forth many new forms of technology. The compass and the map made it possible for explorers to venture out into the oceans. Two such explorers are Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. They both provided solid evidence that the world is not flat but in fact round, an idea that was not excepted before. That discovery is something that caused many people to wonder what else they do not know about the world. Many were then inspired to make new discoveries which became part of the Scientific Revolution. This is an example of how the Renaissance was one of the causes of the Scientific Revolution.

Lastly, the Reformation was when the Church reformed or changed. The Church eliminated many abuses and clarified it s theology or what they believed in. The Reformation itself proved that the Church is not always 100% correct. This caused people to not always believe the Church and especially its view on how the universe works because the Church had no proof to back it up. The only possible proof might be in the bible but people already know how corrupted the Church is and they weren t going to trust their bible either. That is the whole idea behind the Scientific Revolution, people wanted proof the back everything up. This is why the Reformation was another one of the causes of the Scientific Revolution.

In conclusion, the Renaissance and Reformation were important to history. The Renaissance and Reformation partly caused the Scientific Revolution, therefore, if the Renaissance and Reformation had never occurred the Scientific Revolution would not have taken place.