The Scientific Revolution: Copernicus and Galileo

The Scientific Revolution: Copernicus and Galileo

The scientific revolution brought on new and important change. People began to see things extremely differently. Up to this point religion had been an issue of pure faith. A person could not use any empirically based data or reason to justify or develop ideas on religion. People who contradicted the church were considered heretics and were punished. At this time, people believed in the universe that Ptolemy had theorized: that the earth was the center and everything revolved around it. The church did not approve of this theory or any other opposing opinions because it was not an advocate of change. With the new ideas of Copernicus and Galileo, a merging of faith and reason slowly began.

Nicholas Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who was born in 1473 and died in 1543. When he was young, he studied church law and astronomy in various universities. He did not agree with Ptolemy on his theory that the universe revolved around the sun. He preferred the old Greek idea that was being discussed during the Renaissance that said the sun was the middle of the universe and everything revolved around it. Copernicus theorized that everything revolved around a fixed sun. He knew that this would cause an uproar so he was cautious and did not publish his book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, until 1543--the year of his death. This theory had numerous implications. First, it established that the stars stood still and their movement was due to the rotation of the earth. And second, this theory suggested that the universe was larger that what had been believed. This made people feel that the earth and humans were insignificant to the universe. People began to realize th...

... middle of paper ...

...ways correct. People started using their own intellect and reason to figure out new ideas. This caused the merging of faith and reason and allowed people to see that some things were meant to be left to the scriptures and other things were meant to be scrutinized and discovered by other means.

Bibliography:

- ASI 102 Reader: Human Values in a Pluralistic Culture. Ed. Michael Barns and Paul

Benson. American Heritage, New York: 1995.

- Catholic Dispatch. "Galileo Galilei."

http://www.users.sccoast.net/daustin/galileo.html (9 March 1998)

- McKay, John p., Bennett D. hill, and John Buckler. A History of Western Society.

5th Ed. Houghton Mifflin, Boston: 1995.

- Sherwin, Michael. "Reconciling Old Lovers: John Paul on Science and faith."

http://www-leland.stanford.edu/group/catholic/sherwin.html (14 April 1998)