Galileo's View of the New World Essay

Galileo is concerned with obtaining the truth about the world we live in, whether religion provides an answer or science. This is evident in the letter when he is discussing the “celestial bodies” concerning the work of Copernicus. Galileo believes that it would be wholly unjustified to ban Copernicus’ work after it has been confirmed over the years, he puts it: “in my judgement to be a contravention of the truth” if this were to occur. Basically Galileo believes if something is true, the basis of the truth either, religious or scientific is equally creditable. He further states that if scientific fact is unattainable, it must be a thing of faith and religion; “where human reasoning cannot reach” and there “is no science but only opinion of faith” the truth must be in the Scripture. This is demonstrated in the letter “whether the stars are animate” or “whether or not the heavens are spherical”. Galileo believes that ultimately that the science behind a phenomena will

Galileo felt that the common opinions of others should not satisfy another’s curiosity and others should not be made to believe the opinions of others. The church as well as others that interpreted or preached from the Bible distorted the information and Galileo thought that those who did this should not be allowed to speak or preach about it.

An important thing to remember is that is the 16th and 17th centuries, there was no separation between State and the Church. Most/all rules in the State had to do something with the Bible and how it had been interpreted, and it anyone had opposed the ideas of the Bible, they would not only get punished by the church, but also by the State. This made it laborious to try to prove an idea with science, just as Galileo was trying to do. Not even the smallest accusation about the church was taken lightly, “As you know, the Council [of Trent] prohibits interpreting the Scriptures contrary to the common agreement of the holy Fathers.” (Document B). At this point Galileo had only just started his discoveries, and sharing them with the public and church. Even though Galileo never explicitly vocalized that the scriptures were wrong, just by throwing the idea out that the Earth revolved around the Sun, caused disagreement from the Church and State. The timing that Galileo started to speak about his discoveries and thoughts about the universe was not the best. He started to say his ideas only a little after Bruno. Galileo supported Bruno’s idea on how the universe worked. This was probably not the best idea for Galileo, considering that Bruno had been burned to death in 1600, for the popular belief that he was going against the Bible. The main difference between

His more relaxed viewpoint on the interpretations of the Bible and scripture allowed him to accept the Copernican theory. He even justified his stance through principals. The first principle was called biblical limitation. “I should judge that the authority of the Bible was designed to persuade men of these articles and propositions which, by science, or by any other means than through the very mouth of the Holy Spirit.” This principle overall explained that the bible could only be understood and interpreted correctly by the Holy Mother Mary. This gave a justification against claims from previous scholars such as St. Aquinas and St. Augustine. These two scholars took ideas for the overall argument from interpretations of the Bible made from either themselves or those before them. Therefore, Galileo believed that the interpretations were false. This allowed for science to not come in conflict with Catholicism as no one truly understood it. Another principle was the priority of physical demonstration. This principle stressed more on the empirical evidence before scriptural evidence. For this principle, Galileo focused primarily on nature and this allowed him to protect the concept of the Copernican theory from the bible. Since he used empirical evidence on nature, it allowed him to determine that the sun was at the center of the universe. Thus, observation, a major part of scientific

Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, more commonly known as Starry Messenger, was published work of Galileo’s discoveries with his telescope. The view of the world at the time was that Earth was the center of everything, everyone believed in this geocentric theory and Galileo managed to throw that all away with his discoveries. Within his observations he was able to show that the earth was not the center of the universe, everything did not revolve around us. At the time this was a huge blow to everything that everyone believed. The views of the people at the time were based off of what the Church was feeding them. Galileo was not trying to attack the bible, he was even trying to compare his findings along with the Bible, but in doing so he was basically

In the midst of this, Cardinal Bellarmine wrote him a letter explaining why his ideas were not going to be accepted. He said: “But to want to affirm that the sun really is fixed in the center of the heavens and only revolves around itself (i.e., turns upon its axis) without traveling from east to west, and that the earth is situated in the third sphere and revolves with great speed around the sun, is a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false” (Document B). The Cardinal explains how Galileo is contradicting the teachings of the theologists, philosophers, and the Bible. Also, he is doing a dangerous deed because the Church was afraid of these contradicting ideas because they could have destroyed the perspective on the Church and caused a major decrease in power. Galileo contradicting the Church impacted the future by causing more people to begin and question the ways of life, leading to new

The Scientific Revolution changed society with the birth of “modern science”; it changed the way people thought about the physical world around them. The same spirit of inquiry that fueled the Renaissance, led scientists to question traditional beliefs about the workings of the universe. The conflict all began with Copernicus’ heliocentric model being introduced to the world- going against the Church’s traditional teachings. Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric model of the universe- stating that the sun is the center, and that other planets revolve around it. Despite his calculations, people disagreed and kept on believing in Ptolemy’s geocentric model.

In the history of the Catholic Church, no episode is so contested by so many viewpoints as the condemnation of Galileo. The Galileo case, for many, proves the Church abhors science, refuses to abandon outdated teachings, and is clearly not infallible. For staunch Catholics the episode is often a source of embarrassment and frustration. Either way it is undeniable that Galileo’s life sparked a definite change in scientific thought all across Europe and symbolised the struggle between science and the Catholic Church.

Towards the conclusion of Galileo's letter he offers an argument of truths. The argument basically states this: if the truth of the Bible conflicts with the truth of fact, and two truths cannot contradict, then one or the other is wrong. Since the truth of fact cannot be wrong, except for ignorance, then the scientific interpretations found in the Bible may therefore be in err. Galileo's doesn't exactly feel that the Bible is wrong, he is just providing one more argument towards the difference in science and the Bible. The errors themselves, he states, are most likely due to the inability to "affirm that all

Even though Galileos beliefs were held in practicing Catholicsim, his writings were showing evidence for “Copernican heliocentrism.” The Catholic Church, however, disapproved of heliocentricity, feeling that it was contrary to the statements in the Bible: if God created human beings as His supreme creation, He would place man at the center of His cosmos. (At that time the more literal Biblical interpretation was prevalent with the church fathers, especially among the Dominican Order, facilitators of the Inquisition)2 However, real power layed with the Church, and Galileo's arguments were most fiercely fought on the religious level. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine insisted that Galileo furnish more adequate proof of his new theories before he would be allowed to teach them as true or even as probably true.

There have been many famous scientists throughout the course of history. Perhaps one of the most important of these is Galileo Galilei. His discoveries led to new advancements in the field of science on an astronomical level. He revolutionized the world with new findings that highly contradicted the conventional beliefs put in place by the Catholic Church. He was so influential, he was nicknamed “the Father of Modern Science.” Because of this, Galileo was one of the key scientists of the Scientific Revolution.

In parroting the principles of Aristotle, they “do not notice how much damage they do to his reputation, how much discredit they bring him, and how much they diminish his authority instead of increasing it” (199). These men take Aristotle’s good name and drag it through the mud by claiming that every one of his sayings is absolute truth, rather than the best possible hypothesis he could have made with his level of technology. By undermining the arguments of his opponents in this way, Galileo frees himself up to defer to Aristotle’s logical principles without invoking quotations of his conclusions.

for people to accept. But when the actual facts are looked at it is very easy

His discoveries made him infamous in the eyes of the Church and changed how people look at the earth with respect to the Universe. Being so proud of his remarkable discoveries he decided to Duchess Christina. “I discovered in the heavens many things that had not been seen before our own age.” (Ch 16, Doc 4) He writes of his findings and how they were criticized and he was ridiculed for his findings. They denounce his new perception of the world, but Galileo knew that new discoveries would have “consequences” and that people would turn against him.

Galileo was just trying to show how the heliocentric theory was right. The heliocentric theory states that the earth is actually circling around the sun. However, the Catholics believed that the Sun circled around Earth (plato.stanford.edu). Since he believed that the Earth circled the sun, the "religious authorities” came to him “in 1616 and again in 1633"(www.History.com). In 1633 after