Andrew Dickson White, a founding member of Cornell University, released
A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom in two
volumes in 1896. The original purpose of White's 1874 lecture on The
Battlefields of Science is stated in the introduction. White expanded on
this idea in a book titled The Warfare of Science that same year. He
traces the growing separation of science from theology in numerous
domains in these books. According to science historian Lawrence M.
Principe, "No credible historians of science now continue to support the
warfare thesis... The foundations of the warfare thesis may be found in
the writings of two persons, John William Draper and Andrew Dickson
White, from the late 19th century. Scientists have known for years that
White and Draper's claims are more propaganda than history, according to
science historian and atheist Ronald Numbers, who wrote in a collection
about errors committed by White and others. The "battle" paradigm was
based on a terrible oversimplification that required all facets of the
history of science and religion to fit into one ill-chosen conceptual
box. As a result, many scholars ignored the vast amount of historical
information that simply didn't fit into that box.