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On this Day: Galileo Sentenced for Believing Sun Is Center of Universe
by Finding Dulcinea
Reposted from:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day--Galileo-Sentenced-for-Believing-Sun-Is-Center-of-Universe.html
On this Day: Galileo Sentenced for Believing Sun Is Center of Universe
On June 22, 1633, a Vatican Inquisition passed down judgment on Galileo Galilei for his writings and teaching of the Copernicus Theory.
A brilliant scientific mind in 17th century Florence, Galileo, was forced to renounce his work and writings concerning the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus, who had suggested that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe.
Directly contradicting Biblical thought in the eyes of dogmatic critics, the Copernicus Theory was a subject Galileo embraced and studied for much of his life.
Promoting it in his writings and lectures early in his life, Galileo was first admonished by the Papacy in 1617.
However, the existence of an official injunction at the time instructing him to remain silent on the subject remains a source of controversy.
It was this injunction that would seal his fate when he was ordered to stand trial before a council of cardinals in the spring of 1633 to explain the publication of a Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—a text that many found to validate the teachings of Copernicus.
Papal critics were especially angry that the text was written in such a way to bring the message to a wider audience, outside the scientific world.
Called to Rome from his home in Florence, Galileo immediately distanced himself from his work, though whether his words came out of necessity or actual regret remains a mystery.
Weak and unhealthy at age 70, Galileo was unable to defend charges that he had contradicted the church's earlier ruling or remember what it had said.
At the mercy of the Inquisition, the Church body charged with seeking out heretics, Galileo endured a trial that lasted months before finally being ordered to renounce his views.
The trial signaled a debate between the church and science that has lasted centuries.
Check the original article for many embedded links.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day--Galileo-Sentenced-for-Believing-Sun-Is-Center-of-Universe.html
On this Day: Galileo Sentenced for Believing Sun Is Center of Universe
On June 22, 1633, a Vatican Inquisition passed down judgment on Galileo Galilei for his writings and teaching of the Copernicus Theory.
A brilliant scientific mind in 17th century Florence, Galileo, was forced to renounce his work and writings concerning the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus, who had suggested that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe.
Directly contradicting Biblical thought in the eyes of dogmatic critics, the Copernicus Theory was a subject Galileo embraced and studied for much of his life.
Promoting it in his writings and lectures early in his life, Galileo was first admonished by the Papacy in 1617.
However, the existence of an official injunction at the time instructing him to remain silent on the subject remains a source of controversy.
It was this injunction that would seal his fate when he was ordered to stand trial before a council of cardinals in the spring of 1633 to explain the publication of a Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—a text that many found to validate the teachings of Copernicus.
Papal critics were especially angry that the text was written in such a way to bring the message to a wider audience, outside the scientific world.
Called to Rome from his home in Florence, Galileo immediately distanced himself from his work, though whether his words came out of necessity or actual regret remains a mystery.
Weak and unhealthy at age 70, Galileo was unable to defend charges that he had contradicted the church's earlier ruling or remember what it had said.
At the mercy of the Inquisition, the Church body charged with seeking out heretics, Galileo endured a trial that lasted months before finally being ordered to renounce his views.
The trial signaled a debate between the church and science that has lasted centuries.
Check the original article for many embedded links.
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Posted: Sunday, June 22, 2008 | PermalinkComments 1 - 40 of 40 |
Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers2. Comment #197688 by Stafford Gordon on June 22, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Who's arrogant!Other Comments by Stafford Gordon
3. Comment #197690 by mordacious1 on June 22, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Yes, and it took 375 years for the pope to issue a half-assed apology.[edited] for bad math, thanks overmann
actually it's probably 372 or something. My math students used to get extra credit when I did that.
Other Comments by mordacious1
4. Comment #197692 by lozzer on June 22, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Stafford Gordon wrote "Who's arrogant! "Whose a lurker!
Other Comments by lozzer
5. Comment #197700 by mordacious1 on June 22, 2008 at 2:05 pm
lozzerAnd I'll add "whooo's a good boy (girl)" to your dog.
Other Comments by mordacious1
6. Comment #197702 by Radesq on June 22, 2008 at 2:09 pm
"The trial signaled a debate between the church and science that has lasted centuries."-- An inquisition and/or trial is not a debate.
Other Comments by Radesq
7. Comment #197703 by moderndaythomas on June 22, 2008 at 2:10 pm
lozzer
Good dog indeed. As long as there's something around that is tastier than your shin. Cookie?
Other Comments by moderndaythomas
8. Comment #197708 by moderndaythomas on June 22, 2008 at 2:12 pm
-- An inquisition and/or trial is not a debate.
Sounds like my marriage.
Other Comments by moderndaythomas
9. Comment #197709 by Vaal on June 22, 2008 at 2:14 pm
The church is still debating that the Earth isn't going around the sun?Mordatious1
Yes, and it took 475 years for the pope to issue a half-assed apology
Yep, not exactly a hot line to God is it? Also, Darth Ratzinger has being trying to absolve the Church of their responsibility recently.
Other Comments by Vaal
10. Comment #197712 by Border Collie on June 22, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I guess it's good that Mr. G didn't live during the Bush administration ... he'd have REALLY been in trouble.Other Comments by Border Collie
11. Comment #197713 by Logicel on June 22, 2008 at 2:15 pm
TeraBrat wrote: Do you ever wonder where we could be scientifically if Christianity never existed? _____
But it is because of Christianity that we have science. Where have you been!!!
*sarcasm off*
Other Comments by Logicel
12. Comment #197716 by infidel_michael on June 22, 2008 at 2:25 pm
TeraBrat: "Do you ever wonder where we could be scientifically if Christianity never existed?"I'm afraid people would invent another bullshit to control other people's minds. Maybe we were lucky that we didn't end up with something like Islam.
Other Comments by infidel_michael
13. Comment #197718 by Overmann on June 22, 2008 at 2:30 pm
"Yes, and it took 475 years for the pope to issue a half-assed apology."Warning! Warning! Bad arithmetic!
Other Comments by Overmann
14. Comment #197719 by Sargeist on June 22, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Having ploughed through the book: "Galileo: Heretic", which I found rather hard going, I was informed that Galileo was actually imprisoned because of his views on molecules, which contradicted the Aristotelian view that one could have an outward appearance of one thing, but a "substance" of another - thereby permitting the utter mindbollocksing nonsense of the transubstantiation.I think, though, that Michael White's (?) recent book on Galileo may include some comments on this suggestion, but I don't know if it backs it up or not.
Other Comments by Sargeist
15. Comment #197721 by Sargeist on June 22, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Overmann,But the integers of God are not as those of man. For, see, how the subtractions of mere mortals pale when compared with the carrying of extra ones into the hundreds column. Praise be!
Other Comments by Sargeist
16. Comment #197724 by kaiserkriss on June 22, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Mordacious 1 "And it took 475 years to issue a half-ass-ed apology"
Vaal "Yep, not exactly a hot line to God is it"
Don't you get it? They have more important things to talk about than some dumb science, or Galileo's ramblings. It was probably all just a misunderstanding.. Just like when we say the sun is out again, when in fact we should say, the clouds have parted. The sun is ALWAYS shining.
JUST KIDDING jcw
Other Comments by kaiserkriss
17. Comment #197737 by Corona Dave on June 22, 2008 at 3:08 pm
>Comment #197690 by mordacious1 on June 22, 2008 at 1:51 pm>Yes, and it took 375 years for the pope to issue a half-assed apology.
>[edited] for bad math, thanks overmann
>actually it's probably 372 or something. My math students used to get extra credit when I did that.
The whole thing is moot anyway since the new pope has rescinded that apology, declaring the persecution of Galileo to have been "reasonable" given the evidence available at that time; apparently Galileo's reasoning and evidence was insufficient to warrant his claims i.e. the new pope has declared Galileo was a bad scientist and was just lucky he turned out to be right.
Other Comments by Corona Dave
18. Comment #197782 by Don_Quix on June 22, 2008 at 5:04 pm
When do we get to put the current leadership of the Catholic Church on trial for crimes against humanity?terabrat:
Do you ever wonder where we could be scientifically if Christianity never existed?
Yes I do occasionally ponder that. I think it might have been Sam Harris or Hitch (although I could be mistaken) who said in one of his books something to the effect of:
If Christianity had not existed to place a stranglehold on knowledge and progress towards the end of the 1st millennium, and there had instead been an awakening of reason and logic similar to what happened during the Renaissance, we may have very well gone to the moon and had the Internet sometime in the 15th century. I'm paraphrasing and more than likely severely mangling that quote and its attribution, but the sentiment is the same. IMHO, western religion (primarily Christianity, and more primarily the Catholic Church) is directly responsible for setting back human progress at least a thousand years.
Other Comments by Don_Quix
19. Comment #197790 by phil rimmer on June 22, 2008 at 5:23 pm
The utter completeness of that stranglehold on knowledge from the time of Emperor Constantine through until Thomas Aquinas is detailed rather well I thought in-"The Closing of the Western Mind- The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason"
By Charles Freeman.
EDIT "Utter completeness" is a bad choice here. See Cartomancer below.
Other Comments by phil rimmer
20. Comment #197796 by bluebird on June 22, 2008 at 5:27 pm
A tangent: 6/22/08
I was really pleased to see a Neil deGrasse Tyson article in the national section of our Sunday paper:
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_06-22-2008/1New_View_of_Space
He hosts 'Nova-Science Now', which starts 6/25:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/watch/comingup.html
Other Comments by bluebird
21. Comment #197828 by Cartomancer on June 22, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Hmm, I think a thousand years of the history of ideas deserves rather more than idle counterfactual speculations myself, but I'm not really in the mood to lecture people on medieval intellectual history at the moment. Suffice to say the cause of European intellectual decline in the centuries after the collapse of the western Roman Empire had little to do with christianity and much to do with unstable power structures and the decline of the classical city state. That, and isolation from the Greek world, which had always been the intellectual powerhouse of the antique world. The revival of learning during the high and central middle ages (the Carolingian and Twelfth Century Renaissances) is a similarly complex and multifarious phenomenon. It occurred under the auspices of powerful christian rulers who could provide for the needs of an educated elite, in overtly religious monasteries, cathedral schools and universities, but it derived the freshness and vigour of its achievements just as much from the assimilation of non-christian ideas. If one wants to look at why learning flourishes or declines in a society, one needs to look at the infrastructure which supports that learning, not the ideas it comes up with. I doubt I need to point out that the societies which inherited and advanced Greek learning during the early middle ages were muslim societies with all the socially oppressive nastiness that entails.People are too keen to buy in to the rhetoric of renaissance humanists and paint the middle ages as a period of backwardness, which europe had to get over before it could really take off. This is pure nonsense - the renaissance could only happen thanks to the changes in european society which the middle ages wrought. Petrarch did not turn round one day in the fourteenth century and decide that he should really stop fooling around with glosses on the psalter and commentaries on Peter Lombard so he could read Cicero and proper classical authors instead. Francis Bacon did not write the Novum Organum on a whim, and would never have done so had not his medieval predecessors from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries done so much work on the original Aristotelian Organon to demonstrate its flaws. Roger Bacon, mad, strident and lacking in substance though he was, managed to come up with a remarkably modern-sounding list of what was wrong with medieval science in the middle of the thirteenth century, and he wasn't alone in trying to improve matters. Where would we atheists be without William of Ockham's famous razor to swing above our heads? (I love this image so much that I'm having a replica broadsword made up to hang on my wall, with a version of the razor in Latin etched into the blade)
In fact, the very Nikolaus Copernicus mentioned in this article, poster-boy of Renaissance scientific rationalism, managed to get his theories published with little fuss precisely because an anonymous preface was appended to them discussing how they fit in with the partially heliocentric model of the solar system described by the late antique educational allegorist Martianus Capella, whose work was a standard of the medieval schools.
Renaissance rationalism evolved seamlessly from medieval rationalism, and it's about time people recognised the fact.
Other Comments by Cartomancer
22. Comment #197834 by acs on June 22, 2008 at 6:15 pm
TeraBrat: "Do you ever wonder where we could be scientifically if Christianity never existed?"About 1400 years ahead of where we are now?
Anyway, hypotheticals like that are kinda pointless unless you believe in that quantum probability "Avivia" *guess* stuff.
PS: Don_Quix - can you change your picture, that is really starting to disturb me ;).
Other Comments by acs
23. Comment #197837 by Don_Quix on June 22, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I don't claim to be a historian or have any special expertise in history (in fact, I have none). However, doesn't it at least on the surface stand to reason that if the reason-based Greek and Roman philosophies of the ancient world had not been stifled by a combination of political upheaval and religious (specifically Christian) dogmatism during the middle-late part of the 1st millennium, and had instead been allowed to develop unabated, that we would be living in quite a different (and probably more intellectually/technologically advanced) world today? Other Comments by Don_Quix
24. Comment #197840 by TeraBrat on June 22, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I agree that it's not a very useful question as far as changing history is concerned. But it's an interesting intellectual exercise that helps to realize how much Christianity held us back.The point that another, possibly worse religion may have sprung up instead is a valid one to consider. On the other hand, we may not have had Islam either since it was built on Christianity. Muhammed may not have had the idea of declaring himself the prophet of god if he didn't have the example of Jesus. Judaism wouldn't have mattered because Judaism flows with the mainstream of the world, adapts, and keeps to itself.
Other Comments by TeraBrat
25. Comment #197849 by black wolf on June 22, 2008 at 7:01 pm
The whole thing is moot anyway since the new pope has rescinded that apology, declaring the persecution of Galileo to have been "reasonable" given the evidence available at that time; apparently Galileo's reasoning and evidence was insufficient to warrant his claims i.e. the new pope has declared Galileo was a bad scientist and was just "lucky" he turned out to be right.
Really? I hadn't heard that statement before. It wouldn't surprise me much, given that this is the same pope who liberally selects 'evidence' to support the historicity and divinity of Jesus contrary to what unbiased historians and even many theologians bring up.
Other Comments by black wolf
26. Comment #197853 by AoClay on June 22, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I'm pretty sure that's from The End Of Faith, Don Quix (in reference 197782).I tend to hate them more for their dismantlings of what the Greeks, etc had to offer than I do for Gallileo. Of course, this was terrible and Galileo was a genius but I could imagine a lot of different groups hating him for it. The whole "OMG somebody was moral before Christ? Burn the documents!" seems so much more avoidable (no Christianity). The optimist in me says Thank FSM it wasn't Islam.
Other Comments by AoClay
27. Comment #197885 by 8teist on June 22, 2008 at 8:23 pm
The cato-holic church was right to rescind that apology to Galileo.As the sun actually revolves around me .And by the way, as a matter of fact ,I DO OWN THE ROAD.........
Other Comments by 8teist
28. Comment #197887 by TeraBrat on June 22, 2008 at 8:29 pm
And by the way, as a matter of fact ,I DO OWN THE ROAD.........
I'd hate to be paying your taxes...
Other Comments by TeraBrat
29. Comment #197897 by Don_Quix on June 22, 2008 at 9:18 pm
And by the way, as a matter of fact ,I DO OWN THE ROAD.........
A number of drivers on the Loop 101 in Phoenix, Arizona would beg to differ.
Other Comments by Don_Quix
30. Comment #197918 by Rational_G on June 22, 2008 at 10:40 pm
The Catholic Church - anti-science then, anti-science now.eg. stem cell research
Other Comments by Rational_G
31. Comment #197963 by King of NH on June 23, 2008 at 2:25 am
Of course, Galileo wasn't only persecuted by the church for his scientific studies of the heliocentric orbits. His book 'The Assayer" was a blatant thumbing of the Jesuits. In fact, looking at the entire inquisition of Galileo, it seemed he wanted the controversy. Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the church, I'm just saying Galileo wan't some inocent man dragged from his lab, clueless as to what he had done wrong. Rather, this is why I like the man. I've heard he was a bit of a con-artist, too. Other Comments by King of NH
32. Comment #197965 by phil rimmer on June 23, 2008 at 2:28 am
Comment #197828 by CartomancerThanks for the corrective. Is there any single reference you could cite that provides a more balanced view of the history of western thinking in the first millennium than the Freeman?
EDIT In fairness I think a better rendering of the case would be that not a total stifling of creative thinking had occurred but rather, perhaps, that its rate of occurrence had fallen below some critical threshold. Below this level the "benign contagion" of creativity survives only in little pockets, but cannot thrive.
Other Comments by phil rimmer
33. Comment #198009 by valleystorm on June 23, 2008 at 3:45 am
Galilio's new theories were uspsetting his fellow academics much more than they were the Church. It was the academics who pressured the Vatican to censure and try him, because according to him, they would have to change everything they were currently teaching. Naturally, academics ever since have much preferred the canard that the Church was to blame. Which it was, albeit reluctantly, for caving in to the pressure. (PS...I'm not a Catholic)Peggy
Other Comments by valleystorm
34. Comment #198028 by emmet on June 23, 2008 at 4:26 am
Darth RatzingerI believe he's Pope Palpatine now.
Other Comments by emmet
35. Comment #198047 by PeterMcKellar on June 23, 2008 at 5:27 am
My estimate was 1200 years ahead of now, but I was extrapolating on linear growth - the 1400yrs is probably closer.Whilst I recognise Cartomancer's defence of the period, I tend to regard it as irrelevant to this argument. Its what came before - and where we would be if that whole christian catastrophe had never happened. Imagine if Copernicus and Galileo never had to go and reinvent all this again and we had a contiguous meme? My estimates put the discovery of Ice on Mars at around 808 CE and the first Martian Colony in 837 CE on the alternate, non-christian timeline (long before either). Who knows, maybe the first interstellar colony around 1000-1100 CE?
All previous civilisations began roughly where the previous civilisation ended (technologically). The knowledge growth rate trended steadily up through Egypt, Greece and Rome. Then a hole is gouged out where the libraries where burned and all the free-thinkers executed. Regardless of if we were still speaking latin or under some other national flag, christianity is a ghastly anomaly, a blight upon humanity.
Other Comments by PeterMcKellar
36. Comment #198167 by LaurieB on June 23, 2008 at 9:54 am
A couple weeks ago while visiting Florence Italy I stopped by the Santa Croce church to see Galileo's tomb. It's just across the nave of the chuch from Michelangelo's tomb. Both tombs are excessively embellished and ostentatious. With all the problems that Galileo had with the church at that time, how did this come about? There must have been a reconciliation at some point. Irregardless, It was a moment of mixed emotions. That's my kind of "pilgrimage". Other Comments by LaurieB
37. Comment #198188 by aussieatheist_111 on June 23, 2008 at 10:34 am
A couple weeks ago while visiting Florence Italy I stopped by the Santa Croce church to see Galileo's tomb...Irregardless, It was a moment of mixed emotions. That's my kind of "pilgrimage".
I can relate to this, having recently paid homage to David Hume's resting place atop a hill in Edinburgh. It was certainly a strange feeling, paying homage to someone I'm reasonably sure can't hear me. But it was ethereal at the same time, and I'm glad to say I felt proud to be an atheist amongst such a great thinker!
Other Comments by aussieatheist_111
38. Comment #198214 by jshuey on June 23, 2008 at 11:39 am
The incredible fact about the entire saga is that two hundred years earlier representatives of Admiral Zheng He had met with then Pope Eugenius IV and presented him with a massive collection of Chinese technical and scientific information, including the fact that the earth (and several other planets)orbited the sun in an eliptical path.
The Vatican had independent information in its library that Copernicus and Galileo were right, and chose to protect the faith rather than expand man's knowledge. And, unfortunately, nothing much has changed since then.
Other Comments by jshuey
39. Comment #198222 by huzonfurst on June 23, 2008 at 11:49 am
Galileo knew what he was doing. In his Dialogue, the defender of the Church's position was named Simplicio and made to sound that way.Other Comments by huzonfurst
40. Comment #198231 by black wolf on June 23, 2008 at 12:03 pm
LaurieB,"After Galileo's death in Arcetri in 1642, his remains were deposited in a small room adjoining the chapel of Saints Cosmas and Damian, in the basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, pending the construction of a monumental tomb. The project encountered the hostility of the ecclesiastical authorities, who pointed out to Grand Duke Ferdinand II (1610-1670) the inappropriateness of building a monument to a man condemned by the Church for "vehement suspicion of heresy." In the following decades, Vincenzo Viviani (1622-1703) campaigned strenuously for the memorial, but failed to overcome ecclesiastical resistance. Only at the end of the reign of Gian Gastone (1671-1737), in 1737, did circumstances permit the inauguration of the monumental tomb of Galileo, visible today on the left when entering the basilica. The sepulchre received the mortal remains of Galileo and of Vincenzo Viviani."
from
http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/museum/esim.asp?c=100359
Scientist:
Vincenzo Viviani
Italian mathematician (1622â€"1703)
"Viviani, who was born at Florence in Italy, was an associate and pupil of Galileo, although his chief interest was in mathematics rather than in physics. After the condemnation of Galileo's ideas by the Catholic Church it was unsafe for Viviani to pursue his work on Galileo's mathematics. Accordingly Viviani devoted himself to the thorough study of Greek mathematics, in particular geometry, and in this field of work he achieved wide fame. In 1696 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. Viviani was particularly interested in trying to reconstruct lost sections of works by ancient Greek mathematicians, such as the missing fifth book of Apollonius's Conics. He also published Italian translations of the works of classical mathematicians including Euclid and Archimedes. He was an associate of the physicist Evangelista Torricelli and collaborated with him in his work on atmospheric pressure and in the invention of the mercury barometer."
from
http://www.answers.com/topic/vincenzo-viviani?cat=technology
So, it was unsafe to pursue mathematical work? And the current Pope harps on about how logical and reasonable his faith is? Hypocrites.
Other Comments by black wolf
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1. Comment #197685 by TeraBrat on June 22, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Do you ever wonder where we could be scientifically if Christianity never existed?Other Comments by TeraBrat