The distance y travelled is proportional to the time t2

x ~ t2

Harold Kroto

http://singapore.cs.ucla.edu/LECTURE/section1/sld004.htmHarold Kroto

http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/student_work/experiment95/paraintr.html

-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

5

1

2

3

4

+t

x

x = at2

6

x ~ t2

Harold Kroto

x ~ t2 x = at2

Harold Kroto

x ~ t2 x = at2

dx/dt = v = 2at

Harold Kroto

x ~ t2 x = at2

dx/dt = v = 2at

v = 2a(x/a)½

Harold Kroto

x ~ t2 x = at2

dx/dt = v = 2at

v = 2a(x/a)½

v = 2a½x½

Harold Kroto

x ~ t2 x = at2

dx/dt = v = 2at

v = 2a(x/a)½

v = 2a½x½ v ~ x½

Harold Kroto

The velocity is proportional to the square root of the distance

travelled

x ~ t2 x = at2

dx/dt = v = 2at

v = 2a(x/a)½

v = 2a½x½ v ~ x½

Harold Kroto

v ~ x½

Harold Kroto

Harold Kroto

Galileo derived the correct kinematical law for the distance travelled during a uniform acceleration starting from rest—namely, that it is proportional to the square of the elapsed time  d ∝ t 2 .

Galileo derived the correct kinematical law for the distance travelled during a uniform acceleration starting from rest—namely, that it is proportional to the square of the elapsed time  d ∝ t 2 .

However, in neither case were these discoveries entirely original. The time-squared law for uniformly accelerated change was already known to Nicole Oresme in the 14th century.

Galileo derived the correct kinematical law for the distance travelled during a uniform acceleration starting from rest—namely, that it is proportional to the square of the elapsed time  d ∝ t 2 .

However, in neither case were these discoveries entirely original. The time-squared law for uniformly accelerated change was already known to Nicole Oresme in the 14th century.

Galileo expressed the time-squared law using geometrical constructions and mathematically precise words, adhering to the standards of the day.

Galileo derived the correct kinematical law for the distance travelled during a uniform acceleration starting from rest—namely, that it is proportional to the square of the elapsed time  d ∝ t 2 .

However, in neither case were these discoveries entirely original. The time-squared law for uniformly accelerated change was already known to Nicole Oresme in the 14th century.

Galileo expressed the time-squared law using geometrical constructions and mathematically precise words, adhering to the standards of the day.

It remained for others to re-express the law in algebraic terms.

Scientists are different from all others

We learn that we must not accept anything without evidence

Question everything

Assess ALL claims without exception on the basis of EVIDENCE

It is taking millennia to overcome power based on the

unauthenticated claims of dogma-based authority

In 1992 after 13 years deliberation and 359 years late the Vatican decided that Galileo was correct, that the Earth did actually circle the Sun and the Bible was wrong

It is interesting to consider how

long it will take for other claims to be recognised as not correct!

The GUARDIAN

The GUARDIAN

We learn that we must be careful – very careful

We learn that we must be careful – very careful

Question everything

De Revolutionibus, Copernicus www.hps.cam.ac.uk

We learn that we must be careful – very careful

Question everything

It may take centuries to dispel false beliefs

in this case till 1992

Vatican Finds Galileo `Not Guilty‘

The Pope Admits Error 359 years ago in condemning Galileo for formulating scientific

theories it considered heresy.

November 1, 1992

Vatican Finds Galileo `Not Guilty'; Pope Admits Error In Rejecting Theory

November 1, 1992

It's official: The Earth revolves around the sun, even for the Vatican. The Roman Catholic Church has admitted to erring these past 359 years in formally condemning Galileo Galilei for formulating scientific theories it considered heresy.

Common Sense

SUN

EARTH

Aristotle’s Universe

Vatican admits Galileo was right 07 November 1992

In 1633, the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church forced Galileo Galilei, one of the founders of modern science, to recant his theory that the Earth moves around the Sun. Under threat of torture, Galileo recanted. But as he left the courtroom, he is said to have muttered, 'all the same, it moves'.

Last week, 359 years later, the Church finally agreed. At a ceremony in Rome, before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II officially declared that

Galileo was right.

Vatican Finds Galileo `Not Guilty'; Pope Admits Error In Rejecting Theory The Washington Post | November 1, 1992| William D. Montalbano | Copyright Ads by GoogleRegina Catholic ToursReligious Tours & Pilgrimages Fatima, Lourdes, Italy & much morewww.Regina-Tours.comStudies in Emergent OrderAcademic articles, reviews open sourcestudiesinemergentorder.comPurgatory & How theTeachings of Purgatory are Found in the Biblewww.mostholyfamilymonastery.comIt's official: The Earth revolves around the sun, even for the Vatican. The Roman Catholic Church has admitted to erring these past 359 years in formally condemning Galileo Galilei for formulating scientific theories it considered heresy. Pope John Paul II himself attended a meeting today of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to help set the record straight on behalf of the 17th-century Italian mathematician, astronomer and physicist who was the first man to use a telescope and who is remembered as one of history's greatest scientists. "The underlying problems of this case concern both the ...

Vatican Finds Galileo `Not Guilty'; Pope Admits Error In Rejecting Theory November 1, 1992It's official: The Earth revolves around the sun, even for the Vatican. The Roman Catholic Church has admitted to erring these past 359 years in formally condemning Galileo Galilei for formulating scientific theories it considered heresy. Pope John Paul II himself attended a meeting today of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to help set the record straight on behalf of the 17th-century Italian mathematician, astronomer and physicist who was the first man to use a telescope and who is remembered as one of history's greatest scientists. "The underlying problems of this case concern both the ...

Vatican admits Galileo was right 07 November 1992 Magazine issue 1846. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. For similar stories, visit the Cosmology Topic Guide In 1633, the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church forced Galileo Galilei, one of the founders of modern science, to recant his theory that the Earth moves around the Sun. Under threat of torture, Galileo - seen (right) facing his inquisitors - recanted. But as he left the courtroom, he is said to have muttered, 'all the same, it moves'.Last week, 359 years later, the Church finally agreed. At a ceremony in Rome, before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II officially declared that Galileo was right. The formal rehabilitation was based on the findings of a committee of the Academy the Pope set up in 1979, soon after taking office. The committee decided the Inquisition had acted in good faith, but was wrong.In fact, the Inquisition's verdict was uncannily similar to cautious statements by modern officialdom on more recent scientific conclusions, such as predictions about greenhouse warming. The Inquisition ruled that Galileo could not prove 'beyond doubt' that the Earth orbits the Sun, so they could not reinterpret scriptures implying otherwise.

Vatican admits Galileo was right 07 November 1992 Magazine issue 1846. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. For similar stories, visit the Cosmology Topic Guide In 1633, the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church forced Galileo Galilei, one of the founders of modern science, to recant his theory that the Earth moves around the Sun. Under threat of torture, Galileo - seen (right) facing his inquisitors - recanted. But as he left the courtroom, he is said to have muttered, 'all the same, it moves'.Last week, 359 years later, the Church finally agreed. At a ceremony in Rome, before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II officially declared that Galileo was right. The formal rehabilitation was based on the findings of a committee of the Academy the Pope set up in 1979, soon after taking office. The committee decided the Inquisition had acted in good faith, but was wrong.In fact, the Inquisition's verdict was uncannily similar to cautious statements by modern officialdom on more recent scientific conclusions, such as predictions about greenhouse warming. The Inquisition ruled that Galileo could not prove 'beyond doubt' that the Earth orbits the Sun, so they could not reinterpret scriptures implying otherwise.The verdict was not one to which the doctrine of papal infallibility applied, and the Vatican was never comfortable with it. Pope Urban approved it, but commuted Galileo's sentence from prison to house arrest. The Church finally admitted he was right in the 19th century.But the Galileo affair still embarrassed the Church, which now maintains an astronomical observatory at the Pope's summer palace at Castelgandolfo. Father George Coine, who heads the observatory, says the affair was 'tragic, beyond the control of any one party'. It was the height of the Church's battle with Protestantism, says Coine, 'and here was a scientist saying he interpreted scripture better than they did.'The trials were not a confrontation between science and faith, says Coine, because 'Galileo never presented his science to the Inquisition. Science wasn't even at the trial.

Common Sense

SUN

EARTH

Aristotle’s Universe

Common Sense

SUN

EARTH

Aristotle’s Universe

Senses

3

Common Sense

EARTH

Aristotle’s Universe

----------------

●

Galileo proposed that a falling body would fall with a uniform acceleration, as long as the resistance of the medium through which it was falling remained negligible, or in the limiting case of its falling through a vacuum.[125] He also derived the correct kinematical law for the distance travelled during a uniform acceleration starting from rest—namely, that it is proportional to the square of the elapsed time ( d   ∝ t 2 ).[126] However, in neither case were these discoveries entirely original. The time-squared law for uniformly accelerated change was already known to Nicole Oresme in the 14th century,[127] and Domingo de Soto, in the 16th, had suggested that bodies falling through a homogeneous medium would be uniformly accelerated.[128] Galileo expressed the time-squared law using geometrical constructions and mathematically precise words, adhering to the standards of the day. (It remained for others to re-express the law in algebraic terms).

He also concluded that objects retain their velocity unless a force—often friction—acts upon them, refuting the generally accepted Aristotelian hypothesis that objects "naturally" slow down and stop unless a force acts upon them (philosophical ideas relating to inertia had been proposed by John Philoponus centuries earlier, as had Jean Buridan, and according to Joseph Needham, Mo Tzu had proposed it centuries before either of them, but this was the first time that it had been mathematically expressed, verified experimentally, and introduced the idea of frictional force, the key breakthrough in validating inertia). Galileo's Principle of Inertia stated: "A body moving on a level surface will continue in the same direction at constant speed unless disturbed." This principle was incorporated into Newton's laws of motion (first law).

Harold Kroto

The motion of Venus www.splung.com

Harold Kroto

Harold Kroto

Harold Kroto

If the geocentric model were correct it would be impossible

to observe the full disk of Venus with the sun in this

positionHarold Kroto

Harold Kroto

http://www.exo.net/~pauld/workshops/Galileoscope/Galileo.htmlHarold Kroto

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/retrograde/aristotle.html

Geocentric epicycle explanation

Harold Kroto

Harold Kroto

Here Galileo discusses the Ptolemaic and Copernican Solar Systems.

Harold Kroto

In the end the Inquisition, ordered Galileo not to "hold or defend" his this claim

Harold Kroto

The telescope magnifies only 14

times and gives a very restricted field of view.

Galileo published 'Sidereus Nuncius'

('The Starry Messenger') in 1610craters on the Moon, the phases of Venus

and the moons of Jupiter.

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

Harold Kroto

Harold Kroto

Harold Kroto

In the end, Cardinal Bellarmine, acting on directives from the Inquisition, delivered him an order not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the centre.

By 1616 the attacks on Galileo had reached a head, and he tried to persuade the Church not to ban his conclusions that the Earth rotates around the Sun

In the end Evidence was the final arbiter and the separation of Science from both Philosophy and Religion took place.

Galileo’s case was the turning point and a major justification for his description as

“The Father of Science".

By 1616 the attacks on Galileo had reached a head, and he went to Rome to try to persuade the Church authorities not to ban his ideas.

Although he tried to remain loyal to the Catholic Church, Galileo's adherence to experimental results, and their most honest interpretation, clearly contributed to the rejection of blind allegiance to authority, both philosophical and religious, in matters of science.

Harold Kroto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phases-of-Venus.svgHistory Diagram of the orbit of Venus in relationship to the Earth.The first known observations of the full planetary phases of Venus were by Galileo at the end of 1610 (though not published until 1613). Using a telescope, Galileo was able to observe Venus going through a full set of phases, something prohibited by the Ptolemaic system (which would never allow Venus to be fully lit from the perspective of the Earth or more than semi-circular). This observation essentially ruled out the Ptolemaic system, and was compatible only with the Copernican system and the Tychonic system and other geoheliocentric models such as the Capellan and Riccioli's extended Capellan model.

http://www.vikdhillon.staff.shef.ac.uk/teaching/phy105/celsphere/phy105_ptolemy.html

http://singapore.cs.ucla.edu/LECTURE/section1/sld004.htm

Galileo

http://singapore.cs.ucla.edu/LECTURE/section1/sld004.htm

GALILEAN EQUATION

d ~ t2

It is hard for us to appreciate today how strange that idea sounded in 1638, barely 50 years after the introduction of algebraic notation by Vieta. To proclaim algebra the UNIVERSAL language of science, would sound today like proclaiming Esperanto the language of economics. Why would Nature agree to speak Algebra? of all languages? But you can't argue with success. The distance traveled by an object turned out indeed to be proportional to the square of the time.

pds.jpl.nasa.gov

www.rpi.edu

Heliocentrism Evidence

He took Augustine's position on the Scriptures:

Not to take every passage literally!

http://singapore.cs.ucla.edu/LECTURE/section1/sld004.htm

A Just Condemnation Recognized by Many

Galileo at the process of the Inquistition

Prof. Nicola Cabibbo, ex-president of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics summarized the case: “Galileo was not condemned for his scientific theses, but because he wanted to formulate theology” (19).

Therefore, there is no reason to say that the Inquisition and the Church erred when they condemned Galileo. There is even less reason to say that such condemnation demonstrates the Church is not infallible. Also, the hasty consequence that the door should open to a scientific interpretation of Scripture is not conclusive.

Science lacks the competence to interpret Sacred Scripture; if it were otherwise, we would end by denying all the revealed mysteries, which are far beyond the capacity of physical and experimental sciences to explain. To introduce scientific criticism in questions of Faith would be to reduce them to human stature, which is the same as denying them. 17. Joseph Ratzinger, Corriere della Sera, March 30, 1990; 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 34.18. Vittorio Messori, Avvenire, October 19, 1989.19. Nicola Cabibbo, 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 33.

A Just Condemnation Recognized by Many

The Holy Inquisition, therefore, acted correctly in condemning Galileo. That action was consistent with its mission of guarding the integrity of the Catholic Faith. It was justly defending the Catholic Theology and Philosophy attacked by Galileo Galilei.

In a speech delivered in Parma, Italy, March 15, 1990, even Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger endorsed the opinion of philosopher P. Feyerabend against Galileo. Ratzinger stated: “At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just” (17). Italian author and journalist Vittorio Messori was also critical of Galileo: “Galileo was not condemned for the things he said, but for the way he said them. He made statements with a sectarian intolerance, like a ‘missionary’ of a new gospel …. Since he did not have objective evidence for what he said, the things he said in his private letters to those men [of the Roman College] made him suspect of dogmatism supporting the new religion of science. One who would not immediately accept the entire Copernican system was ‘an imbecile with his head in the clouds,’ ‘a stain upon mankind,’ ‘a child who never grew up,’ and so on. At depth the certainty of being infallible seemed to belong more to him than to the religious authority” (18).

Galileo at the process of the Inquistition

The idea that the Church had acted “more rationally” in its dealings with Galileo was given its most detailed defence by Feyerabend in his talk to the Crakow Conference of 24-27 May 1984, entitled Galileo and the Tyranny of Truth (reprinted in Farewell to Reason). A severe treatment of Poupard’s (non-)resolution can be found in Annibale Fantoli’s work, particularly his Galileo and the Catholic Church: A Critique of the “Closure” of the Galileo Commission’s Work (Specola Vaticana, 2002). I myself have discussed why Feyerabend’s argument fails here (with more detail here), but the basic point is that the interpretive principle arrived at by Bellarmine in his Letter to Foscarini rendered any thought of development in the Church’s attitude towards heliocentrism or geokineticism impossible due to his insistence that the Bible passages ostensibly contradicting either were to be considered a matter of faith ex parte dicentis. Feyerabend appears to have been unaware of this, given that he remarked that Ratzinger’s position was “similar” to Bellarmine’s when instead only the instrumentalism of the early parts of Bellarmine’s letter are supported by his caution, not the later declaration that all Scriptural passages are authored by the Holy Spirit (with its consequences). Both Feyerabend and Ratzinger were mistaken on this issue, then, since calling this approach - leading invariably to stagnation in astronomy and physics, as Galileo and senior Jesuits like Grienberger foresaw - more rational than Galileo’s is absurd. Like most others who have come into contact with the Galileo Affair, they have simplified the events to fit their own preconceptions.

The Pope, the ex-Grand Inquisitor

Lest you think that our new Pope is not the sort to burn people at the stake, in 1997 Ratzinger said that Buddhism is ‘autoerotic spirituality’ that offers ‘transcendence without imposing concrete religious obligations’. 'Hinduism,' he added, offers ‘false hope’; it guarantees ‘purification’ based on a ‘morally cruel’ concept of reincarnation resembling ‘a continuous circle of hell’. The Cardinal predicted Buddhism would replace Marxism as the Catholic Church’s main enemy this century. Barbequed Buddhists anyone?

Pope Ratzinger believes that only the Catholic Chutch is a true church. That make all other Christian denominations fake churches, in Ratzinger's eyes, and Ratzinger believes that as Pope, his eyes are the same as the eyes of God. Posted 4/22/2005 8:26 AM - email it

Psalms 93:1; 96:10; 104:5, 1Chronicles 16:30 and Ecclesiastes 1:4,5 speak of the (in some sense) "firm" and "established" position of the earth. Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages.

The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and from that vantage point the sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the earth's rotation which gives the impression of the sun in motion across the sky.

The decree did not prevent Galileo from discussing heliocentrism hypothetically. For the next several years Galileo stayed well away from the controversy.

Date: 1632Made In: FlorenceIn this book Galileo compared the Earth-centred Ptolemaic and Sun-centred Copernican systems. He wrote in Italian, rather than the Latin of scholars, to reach a wider audience.

Galileo clearly favoured the Copernican system, but he misjudged the reception the book would receive from the Catholic Church. He was tried for heresy, forced to recant his ideas, and ended his life under house imprisonment.

He took Augustine's position on Scripture: not to take every passage literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history.

This lead to the separation of Science from both Philosophy and Religion,

a major justification for his description as “The Father of Science".

A Just Condemnation Recognized by Many

Galileo at the process of the Inquistition

Prof. Nicola Cabibbo, ex-president of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics summarized the case: “Galileo was not condemned for his scientific theses, but because he wanted to formulate theology” (19).

Therefore, there is no reason to say that the Inquisition and the Church erred when they condemned Galileo. There is even less reason to say that such condemnation demonstrates the Church is not infallible. Also, the hasty consequence that the door should open to a scientific interpretation of Scripture is not conclusive.

Science lacks the competence to interpret Sacred Scripture; if it were otherwise, we would end by denying all the revealed mysteries, which are far beyond the capacity of physical and experimental sciences to explain. To introduce scientific criticism in questions of Faith would be to reduce them to human stature, which is the same as denying them. 17. Joseph Ratzinger, Corriere della Sera, March 30, 1990; 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 34.18. Vittorio Messori, Avvenire, October 19, 1989.19. Nicola Cabibbo, 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 33.

The Pope, the ex-Grand InquisitorIn a speech delivered in Parma, Italy, March 15, 1990, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XIV endorsed the Catholic Church's persecution of the great astronomer Galileo. Ratzinger stated: “At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just.”

Ratzinger wss under the last pope, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the official organization that was known prior to 1908 as the Sacred Congregation for the Universal Inquisition. That's right folks, Ratzinger was prior to becoming Pope, the Grand Inquisitor.

The Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition was founded in 1542 by Pope Paul III, its duties originally included tourturing people and burning people at the stake.  The Pope had thus been the titular head of the organization that had persecuted Gslileo.  Ratzinger was still fighting the good fight in 1990.  Of course the Church was right to persceute Galileo for saying the earth circled the sun.  Galileo was irrational, even though we are now foced to admit that those Catholic Churchmen who refused to look throuugh Galileo's telescope and pronunced him a heritic did make a mistake.

In the end, Cardinal Bellarmine, acting on directives from the Inquisition, ordered Galileo not to "hold or defend" his claim that the Earth moves round the Sun.

Science lacks the competence to interpret Sacred Scripture; if it were otherwise, we would end by denying all the revealed mysteries, which are far beyond the capacity of physical and experimental sciences to explain. To introduce scientific criticism in questions of Faith would be to reduce them to human stature, which is the same as denying them.

17. Joseph Ratzinger, Corriere della Sera, March 30, 1990; 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 34.18. Vittorio Messori, Avvenire, October 19, 1989.19. Nicola Cabibbo, 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 33.

He took Augustine's position on Scripture: not to take every passage literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history.

A Just Condemnation Recognized by Many

Galileo at the process of the Inquistition

Prof. Nicola Cabibbo, ex-president of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics summarized the case: “Galileo was not condemned for his scientific theses, but because he wanted to formulate theology” (19).

Therefore, there is no reason to say that the Inquisition and the Church erred when they condemned Galileo. There is even less reason to say that such condemnation demonstrates the Church is not infallible. Also, the hasty consequence that the door should open to a scientific interpretation of Scripture is not conclusive.

The Pope, the ex-Grand InquisitorIn a speech delivered in Parma, Italy, March 15, 1990, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XIV endorsed the Catholic Church's persecution of the great astronomer Galileo. Ratzinger stated: “At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just.”

Ratzinger wss under the last pope, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the official organization that was known prior to 1908 as the Sacred Congregation for the Universal Inquisition. That's right folks, Ratzinger was prior to becoming Pope, the Grand Inquisitor.

The Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition was founded in 1542 by Pope Paul III, its duties originally included tourturing people and burning people at the stake.  The Pope had thus been the titular head of the organization that had persecuted Gslileo.  Ratzinger was still fighting the good fight in 1990.  Of course the Church was right to persceute Galileo for saying the earth circled the sun.  Galileo was irrational, even though we are now foced to admit that those Catholic Churchmen who refused to look throuugh Galileo's telescope and pronunced him a heritic did make a mistake.

A Just Condemnation Recognized by Many

Galileo at the process of the Inquistition

Prof. Nicola Cabibbo, ex-president of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics summarized the case: “Galileo was not condemned for his scientific theses, but because he wanted to formulate theology” (19).

Therefore, there is no reason to say that the Inquisition and the Church erred when they condemned Galileo. There is even less reason to say that such condemnation demonstrates the Church is not infallible. Also, the hasty consequence that the door should open to a scientific interpretation of Scripture is not conclusive.

Science lacks the competence to interpret Sacred Scripture; if it were otherwise, we would end by denying all the revealed mysteries, which are far beyond the capacity of physical and experimental sciences to explain. To introduce scientific criticism in questions of Faith would be to reduce them to human stature, which is the same as denying them. 17. Joseph Ratzinger, Corriere della Sera, March 30, 1990; 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 34.18. Vittorio Messori, Avvenire, October 19, 1989.19. Nicola Cabibbo, 30 Dias, January 1993, p. 33.

He took Augustine's position on the Scriptures:

Not to take every passage literally!

A Just Condemnation Recognized by Many

The Holy Inquisition, therefore, acted correctly in condemning Galileo. That action was consistent with its mission of guarding the integrity of the Catholic Faith. It was justly defending the Catholic Theology and Philosophy attacked by Galileo Galilei.

In a speech delivered in Parma, Italy, March 15, 1990, even Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger endorsed the opinion of philosopher P. Feyerabend against Galileo. Ratzinger stated: “At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just” (17). Italian author and journalist Vittorio Messori was also critical of Galileo: “Galileo was not condemned for the things he said, but for the way he said them. He made statements with a sectarian intolerance, like a ‘missionary’ of a new gospel …. Since he did not have objective evidence for what he said, the things he said in his private letters to those men [of the Roman College] made him suspect of dogmatism supporting the new religion of science. One who would not immediately accept the entire Copernican system was ‘an imbecile with his head in the clouds,’ ‘a stain upon mankind,’ ‘a child who never grew up,’ and so on. At depth the certainty of being infallible seemed to belong more to him than to the religious authority” (18).

Galileo at the process of the Inquistition

The idea that the Church had acted “more rationally” in its dealings with Galileo was given its most detailed defence by Feyerabend in his talk to the Crakow Conference of 24-27 May 1984, entitled Galileo and the Tyranny of Truth (reprinted in Farewell to Reason). A severe treatment of Poupard’s (non-)resolution can be found in Annibale Fantoli’s work, particularly his Galileo and the Catholic Church: A Critique of the “Closure” of the Galileo Commission’s Work (Specola Vaticana, 2002). I myself have discussed why Feyerabend’s argument fails here (with more detail here), but the basic point is that the interpretive principle arrived at by Bellarmine in his Letter to Foscarini rendered any thought of development in the Church’s attitude towards heliocentrism or geokineticism impossible due to his insistence that the Bible passages ostensibly contradicting either were to be considered a matter of faith ex parte dicentis. Feyerabend appears to have been unaware of this, given that he remarked that Ratzinger’s position was “similar” to Bellarmine’s when instead only the instrumentalism of the early parts of Bellarmine’s letter are supported by his caution, not the later declaration that all Scriptural passages are authored by the Holy Spirit (with its consequences). Both Feyerabend and Ratzinger were mistaken on this issue, then, since calling this approach - leading invariably to stagnation in astronomy and physics, as Galileo and senior Jesuits like Grienberger foresaw - more rational than Galileo’s is absurd. Like most others who have come into contact with the Galileo Affair, they have simplified the events to fit their own preconceptions.

The Pope, the ex-Grand Inquisitor

Lest you think that our new Pope is not the sort to burn people at the stake, in 1997 Ratzinger said that Buddhism is ‘autoerotic spirituality’ that offers ‘transcendence without imposing concrete religious obligations’. 'Hinduism,' he added, offers ‘false hope’; it guarantees ‘purification’ based on a ‘morally cruel’ concept of reincarnation resembling ‘a continuous circle of hell’. The Cardinal predicted Buddhism would replace Marxism as the Catholic Church’s main enemy this century. Barbequed Buddhists anyone?

Pope Ratzinger believes that only the Catholic Chutch is a true church. That make all other Christian denominations fake churches, in Ratzinger's eyes, and Ratzinger believes that as Pope, his eyes are the same as the eyes of God. Posted 4/22/2005 8:26 AM - email it

Although he tried to remain loyal to the Catholic Church, Galileo's adherence to experimental results, and their most honest interpretation, clearly contributed to the rejection of blind allegiance to authority, both philosophical and religious, in matters of science.

Psalms 93:1; 96:10; 104:5, 1Chronicles 16:30 and Ecclesiastes 1:4,5 speak of the (in some sense) "firm" and "established" position of the earth. Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages.

The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and from that vantage point the sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the earth's rotation which gives the impression of the sun in motion across the sky.

The decree did not prevent Galileo from discussing heliocentrism hypothetically. For the next several years Galileo stayed well away from the controversy.