Essay On Galileo Heretic

In a letter to Cristina of Lorraine, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Galileo gives a perfectly sound and rational argument as to why the church should not be charging him as a heretic for his belief in the heliocentric model when the bible is going against what they see with their own eyes. Furthermore, Galileo argues that, contrary to popular belief at the time, the bible should only be used to help us understand abstruse concepts and what is needed for salvation, not to explain the natural world. In a lot of ways, Galileo’s argument paves the way for separation between church and state, as well as the age-old conflict between science and religion that is still discussed even till today. However, what I found interesting here is that Galileo actually believed that his beliefs went hand in hand with the bible. He tries to justify his beliefs according to the bible by arguing that God gave us a brain in order to

Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who disagreed with the Roman Catholic theory of geocentrism. He was not a heretic because he was a Christian and had similar beliefs to the Roman Catholics, but he did not agree with the Church’s theory of the position and movement of Earth in the Solar System.

Galileo Galilei Will Collson 10 November 2015 CP Chemistry A4 Galileo: A Life of Influence A common misconception of today is the belief that science and the Bible cannot work in harmony. A scientist, as a result, cannot be a Christian. However, one of the earliest scientists, astronomer Galileo Galilei, stands in opposition to this supposed fact. Psalm 147:4 states, “He determines the number of the stars: he gives them all their names.”

Analysis of Galileo’s Letter to Grand-Duchess Christina During the time that Galileo wrote the letter to Grand-Duchess Christina, there was much debate about the orientation of the universe. There were two different theories of thought at this time. One was the Heliocentric Universe, which believed the sun was the center of the universe and the Earth orbits it.

In the sixteenth century, the world was divided about Martin Luther. One Catholic thought Martin Luther was a "demon in the appearance of a man." Another who first questioned Luther's theology later declared, "He alone is right!"(Witherington, 1992). Both Catholics and Protestants affirm he was not only right about a great deal, but he changed the course of Western history for the better. Luther saw how the Old Testament law against idols and the New Testament emphasis on justification by faith alone are essentially the same.

Galileo’s Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina argues that Nicholas Copernicus’ idea about the Earth’s rotation orbiting the sun once a year does not in fact have anything to do with the scripture in the Catholic Bible. Galileo is simply stating a theory that he believes is true and scientifically proven. His ideas came to life in a time when many were questioning their beliefs surrounding the church and ideas that they have had in the past. Galileo was very science- oriented and many of his ideas and teachings did not align, and in some cases directly conflicted, with what the Catholic Church preached.

The rise of Philosophy led to the decline of the church’s influence on the people, which led to a decline of faith and the church labelling philosophers as heretics. The Catholic church was prepared to do anything to crush these heretics in order to preserve the Catholic faith. Also, the inquisition extremely active during this time period, for hundreds of thousands of heretics were killed and/or burned at the stake. Following the advancements in the sciences, Astronomers such as Copernicus discussed new ideas that went against the holy scripture, which were later adopted and improved by Galileo, therefore marking him as a target of the Inquisition. At first Astronomy was accepted by catholics, including the Pope himself, however, following the ideas of Copernicus Christians were quick to label these ideas as acts of heresy for going against the holy scripture.

Finocchiaro, Maurice A. “The Condemnation of Galileo (1633).” Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2005, pp. 7–25,

This is an obvious statement now, and is taught in school. In that time though, many of today’s scientific laws would be ludicrous to everyone. If you were to claim any of our “recent” scientific ideas, not only would you be a laughing stock, you could be placed into trial and maybe executed. This is why philosophers were persecuted, because of the fear of the

Copernicus developed the heliocentric theory which claimed that the earth revolved around the sun. This immediately challenged the authorities who believed the opposite. Galileo furthered Copernicus’ argument and promoted that the Bible, that God

In Galileo’s Daughter, Dava Sobel assembles an account of Galileo’s attempt to prove the heliocentric model of the universe in a world where mans’ logical reasoning is potent, yet second to his devotion to God, and by relation, the Catholic Church. Sobel writes about Galileo’s tendency to question the reasoning of those around him. Though it may not be apparent, Galileo was born into a world of great similarity to the modern day. In Galileo’s time, Science was seen as blasphemy and a tool to undermine the construct of God. Moreover, it didn’t help matters that at the time, the Church was the governing body throughout Italy. This made it particularly difficult for scientific advancement, as any theory that suggested conflict with religious teaching

Many people fought over the point that the Sun is the center and this caused a conflict between the Church, Copernicus and Galileo. “The picture that Copernicus made showed the solar system, and showed the way the solar system actually looked.” (Document 1) The diagram made the church get angry because the church didn’t want to be wrong and decided to punish Copernicus and Galileo, who also agreed with Copernicus. The church was a powerful authority and if proven wrong people would start to not believe the Pope’s words and would go against the church.

The open-minded Galileo advocated that the earth revolves around the sun, with which few agreed during his lifetime,

Aah! Gnosticism, Possibly the earliest of all heresies addressed by the church in the 1st century. Rampant thru the 1st and 2nd century see also Docetism and Montanists, Carpocrates, Basilides, Valentinus. Gnosticisms flow into the early church is believed to be the subject of the book of Jude ( Jude a book of scripture canonical, historical very unlike Barnabus). Truly an insidious heresy in that it infects its promoters with a heightened sense of self worth due to their 'receiving' secret knowledge.

Galileo was saying if it is truth than another truth cannot disprove it. Truth is proven, not debatable and can never be disproven. If it is truth than it is a fact and other facts (in this case new discoveries) cannot disprove what is real truth. Even though Galileo we don’t know whether the discoveries or religious beliefs he was arguing are correct the point is the philosophical statement he was making about truth. Once something is known to be truth, it will stay truth and is something to be trusted