To What Extent Was Galileo A Heretic?

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.

Galileo does not support religion because he is more focused on science. Galileo was going against the Holy Scripture and religion in general. This supports the connecting of science to religion negatively. Many people agree that science and religion were the same thing and if one idea parted from the other, it was considered

The letter was made public and Church Inquisition consultants pronounced Copernican theory heretical. In 1616, Galileo was ordered not to “hold, teach, or defend in any manner” the Copernican theory regarding the motion of the earth. Although it stopped Galileo from teaching what he believed for a few years, seven years later he would be right back on the same track.

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

He also made some of the first observations of nature with long-lasting implications for physics (biography.com). He is known for developing the telescope and stood by the Copernican theory, which is based on a sun-centered solar system where the planets revolve around the sun (biography.com). Galileo’s biggest issue was supporting Copernican’s theory, because it went against society (biography.com). Society once thought that the Earth was flat and they thought that the sun revolved around us. When Galileo went against that, people looked down upon him. Galileo did conform so he could make life easier (biography.com). “Church reaction against the book was swift, and Galileo was summoned to Rome. The Inquisition proceedings lasted from September 1632 to July 1633. During most of this time, Galileo was treated with respect and never imprisoned. However, in a final attempt to break him, Galileo was threatened with torture, and he finally admitted he had supported Copernican theory, but privately held that his statements were correct. He was convicted of heresy and spent his remaining years under house arrest (biography.com).”

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

It is evident that the Catholic Church realized their inaccuracy of their theory of the function of the solar system. After several centuries, the church accepted the truth in the theory of Galilei’s heliocentrism theory. The Timeline further explains that in, “1939: Pope Pius XII called Galileo a hero of research”(Doc A: Line 14). Galileo was no longer known as heresy of the Catholic religion but rather a hero that drew the line between reality and belief.

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).

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.

Religion and science have always been conflicting studies. Religion, being based on faith, relies on the supernatural to explain life and being. Science, on the other hand, cannot do this. Scientists need to eliminate the possibility of the unexplainable in order to maintain and control group by which to measure other groups. The unexplainable I refer to are the miracles that are commonplace in all supernatural religions. Galileo lived in a time where church was state. The land was ruled according to the words of the bible, and anyone in opposition would be in contempt. Galileo's scientific findings were therefore strongly shunned by the church. In 1615 Galileo attempted to explain how these findings came to be

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.

to have people accept his hypothesis, as a fact is one of the major problems

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.