The death of female mathematician Hypatia shows the contest between science and ignorance, light and darkness in history

In the thousands of years of human civilization, there have been many battles between darkness and ignorance and light and civilization. In many cases, darkness and ignorance have prevailed. It is the light of civilization that has continuously flashed in the darkness that has led mankind to where we are today.

I have told her story before, but I think it is not enough, so I will tell it again. She was the world's first female mathematician and a scientific angel, but she was brutally murdered by self-proclaimed orthodox believers. Her name was Hypatia.

The rising star of mathematics In 370 AD, Hypatia was born into an intellectual family. This may be her greatest luck, or it may be the beginning of her misfortune.

Her father, Theon, was a famous mathematician and astronomer. Under his influence, Hypatia was full of interest and enthusiasm for mathematics since childhood. Theon also spared no effort to cultivate this gifted daughter. Hypatia had rich knowledge of arithmetic and geometry when she was only 10 years old.

Thus, Hypatia embarked on the path of becoming the world's first female mathematician. If Hypatia was born in an ordinary family and lived a mediocre life, perhaps there would be no misfortune later. Of course, in this case, the world's mathematics field would be missing a piece, and today's scientific development might not be so good.

But there are no "ifs" in history. Hypatia grew up quickly due to her father's teachings and the influence of her father's friends who often visited her home. At the age of 10, she knew how to measure the height of a pyramid with its shadow. At the age of 17, she participated in the city-wide debate on Zeno's paradox and pointed out Zeno's mistakes, which made her famous.

At the age of 20, Hypatia not only grew into a great beauty, but also read almost all the works of mathematicians at that time, including Euclid's "Elements", Apollonius's "Conic Sections", Archimedes' "On the Sphere and Cylinder", Diophantus's "Arithmetic", etc. At this time, she felt that there was nothing more to learn in her hometown, so in order to seek more knowledge, she traveled to the famous Greek city - Athens.

While studying at the Academy of Athens, her rich and profound knowledge quickly won over many scholars; her youthful beauty attracted many handsome young men, and many wealthy and prestigious young men came to her for marriage. However, Hypatia was afraid that love would affect her career, so she rejected all the suitors, saying, "I will only marry one person, and his name is Truth."

She kept this ambition after returning to her hometown. When Hypatia returned to her hometown at the age of 25, she had become a well-known philosopher and mathematician.

Fighting for the truth After returning from studying abroad, Hypatia entered the Alexandria Museum to teach, mainly teaching mathematics and philosophy, as well as astronomy and mechanics. At the same time, she also conducted extensive scientific research and promoted the development of mathematics, astronomy, physics and other disciplines.

During this period, Hypatia and her father revised Euclid's "Elements".

This earliest geometry masterpiece was written 300 years ago by Euclid, the earliest mathematician in ancient Greece. The book consists of 13 volumes. It takes the 23 definitions, 5 postulates and 5 axioms in Volume 1 as the basic starting point, and gives 119 definitions and 465 propositions and proofs, covering plane geometry, solid geometry and elementary number theory.

Because there was no printing technology at the time, this masterpiece had always been circulated by hand. After more than 600 years of copying, Hypatia discovered many errors in it. So, she and her father collected many versions for comparison and verification, and used her own knowledge to do a lot of processing, revision and annotation, and finally formed a brand new "Elements of Geometry".

The "Elements of Geometry" that are circulating in the world today all come from the revised version of Hypatia and her father. Without Hypatia, it is very likely that this earliest scientific civilization of mankind would be difficult to continue, and today's mathematics would be missing a piece.

In addition, she independently compiled "Commentaries on Diophantus (Arithmetic)" and "Commentaries on Conic Sections", and co-authored books such as "Astronomical Principles" and "Commentaries on the Almagest" with her father; she also invented and designed and manufactured the "astrolabe" for observing astronomy and inferring time, instruments for extracting distilled water, spirit levels and fluid hydrometers, etc.

Hypatia was immersed in numbers, lines and curves, and was influenced and enjoyed by beauty, and spread these beauties to the world. She advocated the combination of philosophy with mathematics and science, opposed mysticism and exclusivity, advocated freedom and democracy, and opposed religious constraints and despotism.

Her new ideas attracted a large number of fans. Many young people from Europe, Asia and Africa came from far away to become her disciples and learn under her. Everyone liked to listen to her lectures very much. She was knowledgeable, patient and instructive, which was fascinating.

Gradually, some Christians were attracted to become her students. At this time, Christianity had gradually infiltrated the museum, and the doctrines and ideas it promoted were increasingly in opposition to science. Hypatia's reputation was rising day by day, and she became the most eye-catching scholar in the city of Mount St.

Christianity is a branch of ancient Judaism. Its founder was a carpenter's son named Jesus, who was crucified on a wooden cross because he opposed the Roman authorities. But since then, his followers have increased, and Christianity has become increasingly powerful. After the 3rd century AD, the Roman rulers also became Christians, and Christianity became the state religion.

In 392 AD, Constantine the Great of the Roman Empire announced a ban on paganism and launched a crackdown and persecution of pagans and so-called "heresies". In 412 AD, Cyril from Jerusalem became the Archbishop of Alexandria. He was a fanatical Christian with great ambition. He made his fortune by killing "pagans" and tried to gradually usurp the power of the chief executive as soon as he arrived in Alexandria.

Cyril implemented a city-wide plan to eradicate "heresy". He and his followers rushed into the library, burned books, and destroyed thousand-year-old cultural relics. Hypatia felt that she was too weak to stop it and could only cry silently.

The Neoplatonism promoted by Hypatia was also among the "heresies". He saw that Hypatia rejected love between men and women and opened the door to all those who were eager to learn, whether rich or poor. He saw that among the people crowded at the entrance of the academy expecting to hear Hypatia's lectures, there were slaves, nobles, and even many Christians. Cyril's uncontrollable envy and jealousy burned in his heart.

At this time, Cyril had already gathered a large number of fanatical supporters around him, and he could stir up the people's violent emotions with just a glance or a word. He could not bear the anger towards Hyperia in his heart, and began to spread rumors that she was a "pagan" and a "witch", and that she was using "devil" magic to play with the chief executive.

At the same time, there were constant lobbyists coming to Hypatia to "persuade" and bribe her. In the face of these religious forces, the "untimely" Hypatia did not give in, refused to give up her philosophical ideas, and often silenced those Christians who came to cause trouble. As a result, Cyril's followers began to plot to harm Hypatia.

The death of the beautiful mathematician This may be one of the darkest days in history. The conspiracy of the extremists to kill Hypatia was implemented. On a certain day in March 415 AD, Hypatia went to the museum to give lectures as usual. When the carriage passed the door of a church, it was intercepted by the mob who had been lying in ambush there.

This group of thugs, whose bodies and minds were stimulated by testosterone like pit bulls, under the command of a liturgical reader named Peter, tore off Hypatia's clothes and wantonly tortured this beautiful female mathematician. They cruelly pulled out Hypatia's hair, cut her body with sharp clam shells, and tore off her flesh piece by piece.

When Hypatia's legs were cut and shattered, with her bones exposed, they still did not let her go, and scraped the remaining flesh from her bones alive. Soon Hypatia was dying, and the demons asked with a grin: "Do you want mathematics or life?" Hypatia was in so much pain that she could hardly speak, but she still tried her best to say two words: "Mathematics".

Although the voice was very soft, it shocked the mob like thunder. They could not understand the perseverance of this great woman. The angry and violent mob finally lost their patience. They dismembered the still trembling Hypatia and took her scarred limbs to a place called Cinaron to burn.

A generation of heroes died just like that. Hypatia was only 45 years old that year, when her career in mathematics, philosophy and science was at its peak. If this bright flower had not been extinguished by ignorance and darkness, how much progress would she have brought to the world? It is immeasurable.

All these crimes were committed under the broad and kind gaze of the images and statues of Jesus Christ in the church. How incompatible this scene is with the infinite love preached by this great God. In the past, today and in the future, darkness and ignorance have never disappeared. All darkness, ignorance and tyranny are carried out under the cover of beautiful paintings and are crowned with the most beautiful words.

The saying "saying good things and doing bad things" probably describes such a period or scene.

Cyril tried his best to cover up the truth by giving gifts and bribes and using his own influence to prevent the authorities from investigating the brutal murder. Therefore, the murderer and the mastermind behind the murder did not receive the punishment they deserved. However, the buds of science and democracy have been growing strongly in the ravages of wind and rain, and Cyril and other beasts have been nailed to the pillar of shame in history.

The death of Hypatia led to the exodus of many scholars. From then on, Alexandria, the symbol of the ancient academic center, began to decline and its civilization was destroyed. Will this tragedy happen again? No one knows.

Perhaps this kind of tragedy has never stopped from ancient times to the present. Looking at what some online mobs and keyboard warriors are doing now, the answer is self-evident. But I believe that science and democracy are always on the road, light will always defeat darkness, and civilization will always get rid of ignorance. I am sticking to my conscience and hope to encourage all my friends.

Let us remember this beautiful and great woman and let her spirit illuminate us as we move forward.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to discuss.

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