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© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
Galileo Galilei was one of the truly greatest of scientists of all time. His discoveries and inventions place him up at the top, with Newton, Archimedes, Einstein, Leonardo, and a few more. He discovered the pendulum principle. He measured the acceleration of falling bodies, overturning Aristotle's theory in that field. He made telescopes (which had recently been invented), becoming the first person to study the heavens with one. He discovered sun spots (which were studied by oriental astronomers before the invention of the telescope, but were not widely known), the craters of the moon, the phases of Venus, the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn (although he did not figure out what they were). He had a famous run-in with the Catholic Church, and of course the Church won, until recently.
Nicholas Copernicus deduced the Sun-centered view of the universe. Before him, the entire universe was believed to move around an unmoving Earth, as it seems to do at first glance. The Sun appears to go around the Earth, not the other way around. If the Earth moves, why aren't we all flung off into space? Copernicus' idea simplified the entire solar system, by the way. But, it conflicted with the Catholic Church. The Bible actually implies, in several places, that the Earth does not move. And so, in order to publish without having to fight the Church (and lose), Copernicus modified his book to say that his theory was only a trick to make the calculations simpler, that he was not claiming that the Earth actually moved around the sun.
Well, several of Galileo's astronomical discoveries showed (or suggested) that the Earth actually goes around the Sun. He thought that he could convince the Church to change its view on this, as truth surely will win over superstition. So he wrote a book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. He presented his case in the form of a dialogue. One character (Simplicio) defended the Church's view, and another (Salviati) defended Copernicus' view. The Pope (who was a friend of Galileo), and other defenders of the Church's view on this subject, were insulted by being portrayed as Simplicio, and by having their strongly held views ridiculed, for Galileo was an excellent writer who could easily show another person's folly. Very much like Socrates had done centuries earlier, Galileo made enemies of the people who he could make look like fools. And very much like Socrates, Galileo's "martyrdom" may have been intentional. In 1633, he was found guilty of heresy; his book was banned; he was forced to claim that he had been wrong, that the Earth did not move; and he was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. It is sometimes reported that after admitting that the Earth did not move, he said under his breath, "But it does move."
In 1835, Galileo's book was removed from the famous Index of banned books. And in 1979, Pope John Paul admitted that the Catholic Church had erred in its treatment of Galileo.
Addendum:
A reader of this page doubted that the Bible says the Earth does not move:
1 Chronicles 16:30 - Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.
Psalms 104:5 - Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
1 Samuel 2:8 - ... for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon them.
Also, Joshua commanding the sun to stand still (Joshua 10:13) implied that the earth was already standing still.