Towards A New Heaven: The Scientific Revolution

Galileo might be the most famous person in the development of astronomy. He is famous, not only because of the amazing work he did to advance Copernican theory of heliocentrism, but also because of the controversy that surrounded him. Using new methods and instruments, he provided compelling new evidence to support Copernican theory. He also contributed to the development of theories of physics that could account for the movements of bodies in new terms. His observations of the movements of objects in the heavens required different explanations than the old ideas about the heavens. It required him, and others, to begin to understand the reasons to explain these new observations. His efforts to publicize his findings was met by

During the seventeenth century, the scientific revolution in Europe was at its peak, changing people’s lives through the new techniques of the scientific method. Citizens of western civilizations had previously used religion as the lens through which they perceived their beliefs and customs in their communities. Before the scientific revolution, science and religion were intertwined, and people were taught to accept religious laws and doctrines without questioning; the Church was the ultimate authority on how the world worked. However, during this revolution, scientists were inspired to learn and understand the laws of the universe had created, a noble and controversial move toward truth seeking. The famous scientists of the time, such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton, were known to be natural philosophers, intending to reveal God’s mystery and understand (through proof) the majesty of God. Throughout previous centuries, people had hypothesized how the world and natural phenomenon may work, and new Protestant ideals demanded constant interrogation and examination. Nevertheless, some of these revelations went against the Church’s teachings and authority. If people believed the Church could be wrong, then they could question everything around them, as well. As a result, the introduction of the scientific method, a process by which scientists discovered and proved new theories, was revolutionary because it distinguished what could be proved as real from what was simply

Scientists and scholars such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Rene Descartes, and Francis dedicated their lives to scientific progress. Even though much of their careers were spent on improving human understanding of the world, many of their discoveries, due to their aberrative nature, faced challenges from third parties such as the Church. During the period between 1550 and 1750, they, alongside many other scholars, fueled the Scientific Revolution, introduced new perceptions of the universe and mankind to all levels of society, restructured long believed religious views, philosophical ideas, and thus lay the foundation to a new European perspective.

Over the course of the years, society has been reformed by new ideas of science. We learn more and more about global warming, outer space, and technology. However, this pattern of gaining knowledge did not pick up significantly until the Scientific Revolution. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Scientific Revolution started, which concerned the fields of astronomy, mechanics, and medicine. These new scientists used math and observations strongly contradicting religious thought at the time, which was dependent on the Aristotelian-Ptolemy theory. However, astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton accepted the heliocentric theory. Astronomical findings of the Scientific Revolution disproved the fact that humans were

Another important figure in the Scientific Revolution was Galileo Galilei. He was an Italian born professor of mathematics who had a great interest in the workings of the universe. Galileo served as a professor at the University of Padua, and it was during this time that he began to question the accuracy of the Churches representation of the world. Galileo’s approach towards knowledge was much different then the afore mentioned Copernicus. Where as Copernicus presented his finding to the mercy of the church, Galileo wrote his conclusions and left the Roman Catholic Church interpret them as they chose. The very nature of his findings pitted him as an opponent of the church.

Galileo was first to have the use of a telescope to observe celestial bodies, which helped him greatly in making new discoveries. He was able to not only study the motion of other planets, but was able to observe the satellites orbiting those planets. Galileo also discovered an enormous amount of stars by observing the Milky Way giving way to theorizing that there is more to our universe then what was previously thought. Galileo later found himself in trouble with the Catholic Church for publicly announcing his findings, which went against the Church’s held beliefs of the Earth’s place in our universe. Sadly, Galileo had to essentially denounce his findings and was forced to keep his discoveries private for the rest of his days.

Galileo Galilei was also a supporter of the Copernican Theory. Galileo believed the earth, and other planets, rotated on its axis around the unmoving sun. He used his new invention of the telescope to prove Copernicus’ theory. With the telescope, Galileo found sunspots on the earth’s moon, which gave proof to him that the heavens were not perfect and changeless but were more like the changeable earth. iv He also discovered Jupiter and the four moons that revolved around it. He only discovered one moon revolving around the earth. Galileo therefore stated if Jupiter were to revolve around the earth, then the earth would have to have at least four moons, and it doesn’t. v The Church objected Galileo’s theory because the Bible said the sun moved through the sky. Being totally rejected by the church, Galileo was forced to take back what he had written and was also prevented from any further teachings of his theory. Galileo was condemned by the Catholic Church for his ideas. The Church succeeded in silencing Galileo but couldn’t stop the advancements in science.

Anahi Ortiz Anahi Ortiz Mr. HamptonSocial Studies April 27, 2015Renaissance Essay: Johannes Kepler     Imagine what it would be like to be a great mathematician, who could solve anything involving numbers. This makes me think of Johannes Kepler because he was the renaissance’s innovator who could invent new ideas with math. Johannes Kepler was born in Weil Der Stadt in the holy Roman Empire now Germany. Johannes was known for being able to justify six planets and its distances.     Johannes Kepler had a very rough life growing up. Early on, Johannes was prone to Ill-health. His hands were damaged and his eyesight was diagnosed with a virus called small pox. His grandfathers were amazed with his ability to

Galileo used a telescope and shined the sun’s rays onto a paper to see solar flares emit from off the sun’s surface, through this he proved that the sun was not only spherical but rotated. He found that many other celestial bodies orbiting things other than earth, which destroyed the previously accepted geocentric theory. Galileo wanted to reconcile scripture with his astronomical findings of the time. Galileo wrote a letter to a student to explain how Copernican theory was not going against Biblical passages, but rather that the scripture written was from an earthly perspective and that recommended that science gave an altered, more correct perspective. He faced hatred from the Vatican and was told not to teach of a heliocentric universe even with all of the evidence he had collected at the

Johannes Kepler was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution. Despite him not as well-known as that of his predecessors, Kepler’s discoveries laid the foundation for future discoveries and advancements in the field of astronomy we have today.

Prior to Galileo’s time, the Greek and medieval mind, science was a kind of formalism, a means of coordinating data, which had no bearing on the ultimate reality of things. The point was to give order to complicated data, and all that mattered was the hypothesis that was simplest to understand and most convenient. Astronomy and mathematics were regarded as the playthings of intellectuals. They were accounted as having neither philosophical nor theological relevance. There was genuine puzzlement among Churchmen that they had to get involved in a quarrel over planetary orbits.

This famous scientist was born December of 1571. He was introduced to astronomy at a very young age. He was able to observe the Great Comet of 1577 at age six. He studied at the university of tübingen to become a Lutheran minister. While he was there he also studied the works of Nicolaus Copernicus, who said that the planets orbited around the sun and not the earth even though he had no evidence. Kepler did a lot of research about the planetary motion. He contacted an astronomer, Tycho Brahe, in search for notes or details that could help him with his research. Brahe invited Johannes to work with him. However, Brahe didn't want to share his notes with Kepler. When Brahe died Kepler kept his notes and observations.

In summer of 1609, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) pointed his revolutionary astronomical telescope to the heavens under the starry Venetian sky; his greatly important observations unveiled the mysteries of universe and would end up changing the course of scientific thought forever. Galileo lived in an age where there was much status quo, when scientists and philosophers would accept scientific and religious doctrine that had stood for hundreds, if not thousands, of years instead of challenging the accepted knowledge in favor of intellectual progress. Galileo’s scientific methods lead to significant discoveries explaining key scientific laws, such as the

Galileo Galilei built a telescope in 1609, and he studied the night sky, observing the earthlike features of the Moon, moons orbiting Jupiter, and sun spots. He published his work, which later earned him a trial by the church and a house arrest for life. “According to a story that began to circulate shortly afterward, as he left the court for house arrest he stamped his foot and muttered defiantly, looking down at the earth: Still, it moves” (page 530, Chapter 16). Francis Bacon and René Descartes established standards of practice and scientific evidence, and they were true believers in human thinking. Physician, William Harvey contributed to science by observing dissected living animals and experimented on himself that the blood circulates in our bodies through veins, heart, and arteries. Inventor and experimenter Robert Hooke introduced microscope into the laboratory and studied the structure of plants on the cellular level. Isaac Newton gave us laws of motion, universal gravity, the reflecting telescope, optic theories,

Galileo Galilei was one of the most influential scientists of the Renaissance period. He was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, a philosopher. He integrated the independent sciences of math and physics, and unified them. The popular view of the world, due to the Church overall power, at the time was Aristotle's theory that the the universe was geocentric or that the Earth was at the center of the universe.. Galileo went against that common belief and declared to the world that the Earth is not the center. This idea that humans are only a tiny speck in a boundless universe and that they are not the center of this boundless universe frightened most religious leaders. The use of a telescope to study the skies was an extreme influence on