Vatican should learn from Galileo mess, prelate says

newsdaily ^ | 2009/07/02 | Philip Pullella

[allmendream]

Planetary physics 101. The Earth is in orbit around the Sun.

And no reason to be childish.

[campaignPete R-CT]

no, bringing the Galileo stuff is childish

galileo claimed the sun was stationary. FALSE
he claimed that planets revolve around the sun
in circular orbits. FALSE

Scientists knew that if the Corperican model were correct, that they would observe a parallax effect when viewing stars, yet they did not. Why was that?

[campaignPete R-CT]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2253681/posts
“At the same time, instead of keeping the debate on a theoretical plane involving mathematics, astronomy and observation, Galileo entered the murky post-Reformation waters of theology and Scriptural interpretation. His theory was that nature cannot contradict the Bible, and if it appeared to do so it is because we do not adequately understand the deeper biblical interpretation.

This sounds pretty much like a Catholic understanding of the role of faith and science. How did he get into so much trouble? Essentially, Galileo slipped into trouble on three accounts. First, he was teaching Copernican theory as fact, rather than hypothesis, when there really was no scientific fact to back it up. Second, the popularity of his writings brought an essentially philosophical discussion into the public arena, requiring some sort of church response. Third, by elevating scientific conjecture to a theological level, he was raising the stakes enormously. Instead of merely scientific disputation, Galileo was now lecturing on Scriptural interpretation. Galileo could have avoided trouble if he presented his work as theory and if he had stuck to science rather than elevating the whole issue to a theological dispute over the meaning of Scripture.”
YOU’VE HAD 400 YEARS TO LEARN THERE ARE NO CIRCLES, DUDE. STICK TO YOUR OWN FIELD, PLEASE.

[campaignPete R-CT]

“Most of the early scientific progress, particularly astronomy, was rooted in the church. Galileo would not so much “discover” that the Earth revolved around the sun, but attempt to prove the theories of a Catholic priest who had died 20 years before Galileo was born, Nicholas Copernicus.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2253681/posts

[campaignPete R-CT]

“The myth we have of Galileo is that of a faithless renegade attacked by a church afraid of science. It’s false on all counts. Galileo was a traditional believing Catholic — his daughter was a devout nun — who saw no contradiction between his science and his faith. He had begun to study and write on the Copernican theory and was recognized as the leading astronomer of his day. In 1611, he was honored in Rome for his work, receiving a favorable audience with Pope Paul V, and became friends with Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII, who would celebrate the astronomer with a poem.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2253681/posts

[allmendream]

Galileo was correct that the Earth is in orbit a around the Sun, this is because the Earth (a rather tiny object in comparison) is held in the gravitational orbit of the Sun (a massive object).

Any model that has the Sun circling the Earth is ludicrous.

What force do you think could move the Sun around the Earth while leaving the Earth motionless?

[campaignPete R-CT]

Galileo knew nothing about gravity as one of the forces in physics. That is why he scoffed at the tides being related to the moon. You are confusing him with Newton.

[allmendream]

Not in the slightest. Galileo had the observations and the more correct model that put the Earth in orbit around the Sun rather than the opposite. It was Newton who provided the theory that explained the observation; that theory being the universal gravitational attraction of mass.

[SunkenCiv]

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