Galileo and the Church
The trail of
Galileo by the Inquisition has been seen by many to be the begining of
a tension between faith and reason
that continues today, however, many people remain confused of what he
was really being tried over. It is something that
should be understood by Christians and Scientist alike as the debate
between the two areas continues to this day. Among
the hot-topic issues that emerged through his trial are the
infallibility of scriptures and Church authority vs. Science.
While perhaps the former is only applicable to
Catholics, the latter is something that both Catholics and Protestants
alike
continue to struggle with today. A heliocentric
solarsystem is something that wasn't immediately apparent during the
time
period. Much of the science of Astrology of that time
was structured around Ptolemy's geocentric (earth-centered)
universe theory. It was a theory that seemed to allign well with
literalist interpretations of scripture.
There are a couple
verses in the Bible that appear to teach geocentrism, foremost of which
would be found in Joshua 10:12-13
where the Israelites are fighting the Amorites (a neighboring tribe).
Joshua (the leader of Israel after the death of Moses) says:
"'Sun, stand still over Gibeon; Moon, stop
over Aijalon Valley.' and the sun stood still and the moon did not move
until the
nation had conquered it's enemies" (Joshua 10:12-13).
That passage is
describing a miracle in which the day apparently did not end within the
normal 24 hour day period. The
problem for heliocentrism is that it mechanism for a making a longer
day is described as the sun ceasing it's motion around the
earth. If a miracle like this were to actually occur, we would assume
(through our correct lense of heliocentrism) that the day
got longer because the earth ceased rotating on it's axis for a while.
In his work
"Dialoge Concerning the two Chief World Systems" Galileo sought, in
dialogue form between three fictional
characters to give a description of Copernicus's theory of
heliocentrism. There are some documents in the Vatican archives
that show, though Galileo was apparently ignorant of it's
existence (and there is much suspicion surounding the authenticity of
said
documents), that he was forbidden from teaching, holding and
defending heliocentrism. Galileo had a documented signed by Cardinal
Bellarmine which stated he was only forbidden from holding and
defending the theory, and thus the mathmatician had thought it allright
to teach it as a theory. Those are what the legalities of the trial
were centered around. The overlying issues are of course for the reason
of the trial however is that the Church as well as much of the
rest of the world still held to Geocentrism at this time.
Unfortunately, the
Catholic Church at the time decided to take a word for word literalist
interpretation of that passage, and
assumed that it was to be taken as a scientific proof. That said, lest
we think that
only the Catholic Church among Christendom was
opposed to
heliocentrism, it is necessary to point out that Protestant refomers
had condemened the theory as well. Luther is
quoted
as saying:
"Whoever
wants
to
be
clever must agree with nothing that others esteem. He must
do something of his own. This is what that
fellow [Copernicus] does who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy
upsidedown. Even in these things that are thrown into
disorder I believe the Holy Scripture, for as Joshua commanded the sun
to stand still and not the earth." - Martin Luther 1539
The
Catholic Church under Pope John Paul II formally apologized for the
treatment of Galileo in the year of 1992, and most all
Protestants have abandoned their geocentric views of the
universe, but this whole episode marks a pretty ugly point in the
history of
all Christendom.
Biography
The "Why" of his Trial
Some of his contributions to Science
Bibliography