Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Galileo was no more correct scientifically than the church

So, you think the world is the center of the universe and the sun revolves around it instead of the other way around? Galileo said that the earth revolves around the sun and that is correct. Galileo was correct and the church imprisoned him for it.

22 posted on 08/28/2012 5:09:37 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Biden: "HOPE and CHAINS for all 57 states".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies ]


To: BipolarBob
You clearly do not understand the issues.

Pope Urban VI asked some very reasonable questions about the treatment of tides in manuscript of Dialogue. Galileo told him he would clear it up in the print edition. Galileo put the Pope's question in the mouth of the doltish character Simplico, only to have them swatted aside dismissively by the the wise interlocutor, Salvati. It is embarassment to Galileo's supporters that he exhibits absolutely no understanding of the mechanism of tides, the Pope's question was reasonable, Galileo's answer was not.

Galileo was something of a hot head and a contraversalist. When his enemies accused him of heresy he might have counted on support from the Pope, but the Pope let the trial go on.

A further embarassment is that Galileo did not understand the details of either Copernican nor Ptolemaic astronomy. As Owen Gingerich points out ("The Eye of God" - read it) Copernican astronomy does not represent any improvement over Ptolemaic as a scientific theory. In a sense it is somewhat retrograde: Its appeal lies in the fact that Copernicus could obey the Aristolean dictum that planetary motion must be resolved into uniform circular motions. Copernicus achieved this, but only at a cost of greater complexity and, at best, no more accuracy.

Koestler ("The Sleepwalkers") thinks that heliocentricist in the Vatican (and he believes Jesuits were overwhelmingly heliocentricist) were alarmed by Galileo's hamfisted and half cocked advocacy of heliocentricism. Sort of like the way a pro-lifer might be alarmed by the pronouncements of Rep. Akins.

28 posted on 08/28/2012 5:45:11 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (The Democratic Party strongly supports full civil rights for necro-Americans!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies ]

To: BipolarBob

Galileo got imprisoned for being a smart ass to the pope. He wasn’t very “politic” and it got him into trouble. I’ve read that the church officials at the time weren’t necessarily against Galileo’s notion, but he challenged the church’s authority and the leadership’s reputations. In the end it was Galileo’s pride verses the pope’s pride and in the end all of the people at the time lost!


33 posted on 08/28/2012 6:02:14 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (Not left wing! Not right wing! But....CHRIST WING!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson