The lectures seek to demonstrate by historical and epistemological analysis the necessary dependence of the rise of science in the West, and its continuation in the whole world, upon the cultural and metaphysical matrix provided by the Judeo-Christian worldview. The key and unique features of that worldview required for science to be born and mature include conviction of the world’s rationality, intelligibility and contingency, summarized by the Thomistic proofs for the existence of God. These convictions serve among science’s permanent and unchangeable metaphysical foundations, and the necessary minimum for its continued success.

KEY WORDS: Aquinas, Proofs of God, Physics, Descartes, Newton, Hume, Idealism, Positivism, Planck, Psychology, Sociology, Einstein