The Starry Messenger: Question #1 Other than the Venetian Senate being very reliable, Galileo

Galileo demonstrated his telescope to some Venetian merchants. The Venetian merchants saw the telescopes value for spotting ships. They gave Galileo a salary so that he could produce some telescopes for them. Galileo’s ambition however made him go further. He made a decision to aim the telescope towards the heavens. He published a small booklet, The Starry Messenger, in which he told about his discoveries. He told that the moon was not flat and smooth but that it is round like the earth and had mountains and craters. He saw Venus had phases like the moon, which proved that it rotated around the sun. He also saw that earth was not the only planet to have a moon, but that Jupiter had a moon that did not revolve around the earth.

The Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany was written by Galileo Galilei in 1615. Galileo was an Italian scientist that began making new discoveries in the heavens in 1609. He discovered many things that did not coincide with the teaching of the church.

During most of the 16th and 17th centuries, it was not easy for scientists to make new discoveries and present them to the world. The Catholic Church, a dominating force during that period, persecuted anyone who would spread ideas and opinions that contradicted what the Bible stated. Both Copernicus and Galileo believed in the heliocentric theory, also called Copernicus theory, which stated that the sun was at the centre of the universe and the earth revolves around it. However, the Catholic Church did not agree with this idea because the Bible stated that the earth was at the centre of the universe and the sun revolved around it, which is the complete opposite. Due to this disagreement, Copernicus and Galileo were threaded by the Catholic Church and

Galileo has been credited with the confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and the observation and analysis of sunspots. He also worked in mathematics and with technology, helping to improve the military compass. Galileo was a renaissance man.

However, he was able to earn a place as an instructor within the University of Pisa, teaching mathematics and performing some of his most famous experiments. According to Unknown, 2008, “In 1586 he composed a short work, La bilancetta, in which he reconstructed the reasoning of Archimedes in the detection of the goldsmith’s fraud in the matter of the crown of Hieron and described an improved hydrostatic balance.”(Early Years). He was also able to study physics and publish works such as The Little Balance and Du Motu(On Motion), beginning to oppose Aristotelian views about the behaviour of moving objects. As Galileo grew to reject Aristotelian concepts, he became more unpopular and eventually lost his position in the University of Pisa. Fortunately, he had many students who helped him earn another position within the University of Padua. It was near this time that his father, Vincenzo, passed away and Galileo was forced to become the leader of his family and caretaker of his younger brother, Michelagnolo (The Famous People website, 2015; Biography.com Editors, n.d.; Fermi, L., & Bernardini, G., 1961; Unknown,

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

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

There were many who cited portions of scripture such as Joshua 10:13, which states “So the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven” (Joshua 10:13), and Isaiah 40:22, which states “he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” (Isaiah 40:22), as pieces of holy evidence to refute and definitely disprove the heliocentric theory as truth. However, Galileo could not easily be written off as a rambling, heretical madman either, seeing as his theories were first proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, who was “not only a Catholic, but a priest and a canon.” (Galileo, Letter to Christina, 2) Even if Galileo was not a respected member of the Church, Copernicus was, and if his theories had originally been proposed by a Catholic canon, then it was harder to dismiss his ideas as heretical. Additionally, Galileo himself frequently offered to present others with evidence of the truth of his theories, stating “to the leading philosophers of the faculty here…I have offered a thousand times of my own accord to show my studies…” (Galileo, Letter to Kepler).

Galileo was the first European to make systematic observations of the heavens through his improved invention of the telescope. Through his telescope, Galileo made a series of discoveries. Galileo’s observations demolished among the traditional cosmology of what the universe seemed to be composed of. Not only did Galileo make astonishing discoveries, but he was also offered a new position from Grand Duke Cain II of Florence, as his court mathematician. During this time, Galileo was told that he could continue to discuss Copernicanism, as long as he would maintain everything as mathematical supposition, and not as facts. Due to the Inquisitions response, the church attacked the Copernican system since it threaten the Scripture and its’ entire conception of the universe. The new system rose'd much uncertainty that seemed as prudent to simply condemn it. In 1633, Galileo was found guilty of teaching the condemned Copernican system and was then forced to be placed under house arrest. He spent the remaining eight years of life studying mechanics. The principal of motion was the one of the problems that fell under the heading of mechanics. At the end, Galileo made two contributions to the problem of motion. He demonstrated by experimenting uniform force to accelerate

These intellectuals significantly influenced the world leaders and institutions of the time, although the Catholic Church refused to accept most of the newly discovered scientific laws/theories as legitimate, as they opposed the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith. An example of the bigotry of the Catholic Church in this time, is the persecution of Galileo Galilei, which occurred due to his discoveries regarding a heliocentric solar system conflicting with the geocentric views of the Church. This conflict of beliefs led to the Church convicting Galileo of heresy, sentencing him to banishment, despite ample amounts of evidence and the approval of a variety of intellectuals supporting his

Galileo's condemnation held by the Roman Catholic Church has been regarded as wrong, 350 years after he was charged with heresy. The many years it has taken for the Church to recognize its wrongdoing may have been due to the Church's resistance to admit their misdeed and their need to stand firm on recognizing past beliefs and practices. This unique apology sparsely occurs, with "The Vatican's formal acknowledgement of error...is a rarity in an institution built over centuries on the belief that the Church is the final arbiter in matters of faith," (Cowell 1). After years of contemplating whether or not to publicly announce the rightness of Galileo, the Vatican may have wanted to finally apologize on behalf of the Church to set it straight

Galileo was a coward Galileo was an Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy and strength of materials and to the development of the scientific method. His discoveries with the telescope changed astronomy and paved the way for the acceptance of the copernican Heliocentric system. Galileo, using his own telescope he discovered that the moon has mountains and creators. Galileo found a new position at the university of Padua, teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy.

Galileo’s initial divulging into the science world began with a power-hungry family living in Tuscany. To the

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.

He was an Italian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, and engineer who played a large role in the scientific revolution (1564-1642). Galileo was often faced with controversial arguments about his findings. Based on the shared knowledge of the Catholic Church, it tried to compress the personal knowledge of Galileo. This is where the idea of personal and shared knowledge shaping each other comes into perspective, as Galileo was continuously faced with the knowledge of the Church. Continuously his personal knowledge was rejected, because shared knowledge had such an influence among the people. His hypothesis frightened both the Protestant leaders and Catholic Church because it went against their teachings and authority. If people believed that the church could be wrong about this, they would question the church teachings as well. The Church warned Galileo of his theories, however silently he continued to research. The Church's greatest fear was that Galileo's personal knowledge would ultimately change the shared knowledge of the Church. In 1632, he published a book which presented both of the ideas of Copernicus and Ptolemy, and it was clear that Galileo supported the Copernican theory which stated that the Earth moved around the Sun. Galileo was sentenced to court and found guilty. Under torture, he admitted his findings were false. Only in 1992, the Catholic Church