Medieval Ages and The Roots of Modern Science

Walking In The Desert ^ | Arturo

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Galileo had these same rights, from God. The church trampled upon them.

Does anyone have a God-given right to promote an unproven theory as fact?

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Freedom of speech is a civil right, not a natural right or a God-given right. If the opposite were true, we would have to say that we have a God-given right to lie, detract slander, and spread false ideologies, which is absurd. These evils represent an abuse of God-given free will.

The reason why we, as a society, allow freedom of speech (still within limits) is because we have judged that the damage to society caused by the suppression of lies, slander, calumny and false ideologies is greater than the damage to society from the promulgation of these things. Consider the devastation caused by the spread of false ideologies like Communism and Islam.

Moreover, the Church that Christ established has the God-given authority to settle intra-Church controversies.

“If your brother sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Galileo was obedient to Christ in subjecting himself to the decision of the Church court.

The Church had no objection to research into heliocentrism. Most theological objections came from Luther and Protestant astronomers, because they interpreted Biblical passages that seemed to support geocentrism literally.

"And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed . . ." (Josh. 10:13).

Cardinal Bellarmine, who headed the tribunal, took a classically Catholic position regarding the interpretation of Scripture:

If there were a real proof that the sun is in the center of the universe, that the earth is in the third heaven, and that the sun does not go round the earth but the earth round the sun, then we should have to proceed with great circumspection in explaining passages of Scripture which appear to teach the contrary, and rather admit that we did not understand them than declare an opinion to be false which is proved to be true. But as for myself, I shall not believe that there are such proofs until they are shown to me."

Although the Church had no objection to the research of Copernicus, Galileo or Kepler, Galileo demanded that the Church teach his theory as fact. In fact, Galileo's evidence was erroneous.

Nevertheless, Galileo petitioned the Holy Office, and Cardinal Bellarmine issued a certificate that forbade Galileo from promulgating his theory, but allowed him to conjecture it.

Galileo met with the new pope, Urban VIII, in 1623, and he received permission to write a work on heliocentrism, but the new pontiff cautioned him not to advocate the new position, only to present arguments for and against it.

Galileo rejected the Pope's decision, and the rest is history.

In an age when Protestants were burning witches in Salem, the Pope subjected Galileo to house arrest for a brief period of time, a very mild punishment.

"The pope told me that he had shown Galileo a favor never accorded to another" (letter dated Feb. 13, 1633); " . . . he has a servant and every convenience" (letter, April 16); and "[i]n regard to the person of Galileo, he ought to be imprisoned for some time because he disobeyed the orders of 1616, but the pope says that after the publication of the sentence he will consider with me as to what can be done to afflict him as little as possible" (letter, June 18).

[samtheman]

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[PIF]

Article is filled with historical inaccuracies based on references also filled with historical inaccuracies:

Arabic numerals were not Arabic but Hindu. The Muslims introduced Hindu numerals to the Europeans during their bloody war of conquest against the Europeans, which they had gained in India during their bloody wars of conquest against the Hindus.

The Europeans of that age were attempting to recover much of the classical knowledge that the muslims had either destroyed or were attempting to do so. As the ISIS JV is doing now.

There is ample archeological evidence that ground and polished lenses were in use going back to the Old Kingdom in Egypt for use as eye pieces (sort of a pince-nez style), magnifiers, and telescopes - 2800-3000 BC. Later, both the Romans and the Greeks used lenses in the same ways. They also knew the power of healing and magnification from colored glass balls filled with water.

The Sumerians, the Old Kingdom Egyptians, Greeks, and the Romans all knew the world was round and had developed ways to navigate accurately using sun shadow techniques; all knew the Earth revolved around the Sun.

Their theories of the Universe were far more sophisticated than anything the Europeans came up with and even rivaling what we believe today.

Basically all the Europeans did was reinvent the wheel from the little knowledge that had escaped the wholesale destruction of classical civilization by the Varsity team led by Mohammed and his disciples in their hundred year rein of murder, genocide and terror (632-728 AD) where most of what were Christian lands and bastions of classical civilizations and knowledge were utterly destroyed - millions murdered, enslaved, women en mass sent to harems.

The end of the Dark Ages is roughly 1000 AD, but could be stretched through the Middle Ages (Medieval Ages) to the end of the 15th century and the expulsion of the muslim hoards from Europe. By the start of 15th century there had been some 528 battles against the muslims, most waged on Spanish soil. It was against this background that Galileo began his efforts in rebuilding and reconstructing knowledge of lenses and astronomy, previously known to the then Ancients.

Galileo efforts were made easier with the execution of Girolamo Savonarola, 1452-1498 who lead the Christian effort in burning those books missed by the muslims (The Bonfires of the Vanities).

[Montana_Sam]

Galileo’s big sin was attempting to re-write the Bible to fit his theory. That is what got him into the mess with the Church. Also, the single biggest argument against the heliocentric model that Galileo espoused was the lack of proof of stellar parallax. The astronomers of that era were far from the provincial hillbillies some revisionist historians describe.

[Montana_Sam]

Nonsense. Galileo attempted to usurp Church authority and rewrite the Bible to suit his contentious theory. It wasn’t until he pulled that stunt did the Church put the brakes on. Remember, it was university professors who first brought charges against him.

[TalBlack]

“In conclusion it is most definitely true that the Galileo case could have been handled better, but the fact is that Galileo is not altogether blameless. The Church allowed Galileo to express his scientific theory with the only provision that he treat them as such and not as anything more without sufficient proof. For this reason Galileo went against this provision with a lack of proof and solid arguments to defend his position. Furthermore his personality was noted to be quite rude in general.”

He also published his DELIBERATELY insulting (to the Pope) dialog UNDER THE IMPRIMATER OF THE CHURCH. The guy seems like a real pain in the ass, to be honest.

[Montana_Sam]

Your anachronistic argument totally misses the mark. The politics of the time were not the politics of a democracy. The university professors who first brought the charges against Galileo (because the Copernican model threatened their position) took the case to the only tribunal that could have had any jurisdiction in the era of splintered nationalities.

And even then, the Church refused to act until Galileo attempted to rewrite the Bible AND he wrote a play that mocked the Pope for supporting him. At that point the Pope, who had been one of Galileo's supporters, told him basically that he was on his own. So get a grip of the facts before you make wild accusations. Good grief!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks.

[Jeff Chandler]

Anything else made them no better than Stalin, ISIS, King George, the democrat party, or the Nazis.

Do you know what his punishment was? He was confined to a luxury apartment with all his equipment so he could further his research. Some Nazis, eh?

[Steve0113]

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