New Dogmatics?

After the Reformation started 1517 science began to move, although cautiously. Copernicus died 1543 and some say the manuscript for the heliocentric theory lay on his death bed together with him. He had known at least 10 years prior to that but did not dare to publish when alive.

In Sweden things moved even slower. According to Tore Frängsmyr's Svensk Idéhistoria Carl XI made the church into a subsidiary of the state by a law in 1686. 1689 the king decided that philosophy was to be separate from theology. Philosophy should be completely free at the universities, if it did not compromise Christian faith or Biblical content. This compromise was necessary at the time because science was not stoppable nor was orthodoxy assailable.

Part of science have today disappeared into a new kind of misty dogmatics by a Church unknown. For how long? As far as I can see serious progress has been prevented by this mistake. Is Sweden in the shadows of world science again? This is important to ponder now as we celebrate the Nobel prizes of 2009.