ManusJustus said:
How could the view that answers should be obtained from reason and not from God not be a retreat from Christianity? Yes, Renaissance thinkers were religious people, but they didn't get their answers from God and the Bible, they developed their answers without God. Which is why they were being punished by the Church, or publishing their works on their death bed. A good example would be a Christan who use to believe in Creationism but now believes in Evolution. Instead of getting their answers from God, the Bible, or religious leaders, they are getting their answers from the methods outside of Christianity. How could that not be a retreat from Christianity? |
Yeah... funny thing about Galieo.
A) He wasn't killed because of Heliocentrism. He was killed because he called the pope a simpleton, in his book the pope specifically allowed him to publish by his own authority at a time when the pope was considered "weak" and feared assassanation.
Pope and Galieo were usually good friends.
B) Scientifically he was wrong.
His basic entire premise for the earth's rotation was that a High Tide only happens once a day. Which it doesn't. It happens twice a day. He KNEW this was the case but chalked it up to the meditranian being so small or some other factor that could explain why there were two tides here instead of one like there was no doubt anywhere else in the world.
Talking about heliocentrism as a theory was fine with the church, they were fine in general changing their beliefs in concordance with science. However they demanded you have actual... you know proof. Which Galieo didn't have. He challenged the accepted scientific theory of with another, that was actually less correct at the time then the established based on what they know of the world. Since the model already inplace actually was as observably correct as helicentrism AND allowed things such as dual tides... like actually existed.
It wasn't just the Church that though Galieo mad, but pretty much all of science. In fact a large number of those calling for his persecution inside the church were in fact... scientists. Galeio was perscuted in fact, by fellow scientists for bad science.
Galieo basically fell victim too "I want this to be true, so how can I rationalize it as true." His only saving grace was that he was actually right, and that the basis the world.... and he was working on was wrong. Only he didn't know it.
Should he have been killed? No, would it of mattered? No. Nobody would of believed him anyway since his theory was less demonstrably true then the actual theory until more powerful telescopes were created... in i believe the 1800's. The church wasn't killing someone because of their idea. They were killing someone with an unproven, unscientifically decided on opinion who called the pope an idiot.
