How Is Galileo Related To Religion

Galileo Galilei, a renowned astronomer and mathematician born in 1564, was one of the most controversial people of the Renaissance Period due to his objection with the geocentric theory, which was accepted by the Church. Galileo was persecuted and excommunicated because of his theory that the Sun was at the center of the solar system instead of the Earth. He was even threatened with torture and death unless he renounced his beliefs. He was put on trial on June 12, 1633 in Rome, and was forced to apologize for committing heresy. After the trial, Galileo was placed on house arrest for the rest of his life and one of his books, Dialogue on the Great World Systems, which compared the Copernican heliocentric theory to the traditional Ptolemaic geocentric system, was put on the index of banned books, regulated by the Inquisition. Surprisingly, Galileo was not against his religion's beliefs, in fact, he believed with his findings he would be able to prevent the Church from defending a doctrine that could be disproven.

This is important to learn as well, because this was a significant point in the history of astronomical research, and this was also the point where the Church’s orthodox beliefs were proven wrong. Although Galileo was not the first to suggest a heliocentric theory, others before him suggested it merely as a thought, and they did not have the substantial evidence to back them up, and, because of this, they were not persecuted as Galileo was. Without Galileo, we wouldn’t have considered the idea of the Sun at the center of the solar system instead of the Earth until much later in history, which also would have delayed our evolution in the knowledge of our