Galileo vs. The Bible

692 Words2 Pages

Galileo vs. The Bible

Religion and science have always been conflicting studies. Religion, being based on faith, relies on the supernatural to explain life and being. Science, on the other hand, cannot do this. Scientists need to eliminate the possibility of the unexplainable in order to maintain and control group by which to measure other groups. The unexplainable I refer to are the miracles that are commonplace in all supernatural religions. Galileo lived in a time where church was state. The land was ruled according to the words of the bible, and anyone in opposition would be in contempt. Galileo's scientific findings were therefore strongly shunned by the church. In 1615 Galileo attempted to explain how these findings came to be in contradiction with the teaching to the Church with a letter to Christina, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Galileo felt there needed to be a line between what philosophical questions should be answered by science, and which scripture should answer. This does not mean that Galileo himself was not religious. Nor did he feel that the Bible was a complete falsity.

In his letter, Galileo states, "… I think in the first place it is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth—whenever its true meaning is understood." This statement is based upon his contradictive thought that the earth revolves around the sun, rather then the earth being the center of the universe. To Galileo, the Bible seems to bend truths, in order to explain things to men of all intelligence. Nature, however, never changes or breaks rules. Nature is all around us, and we can draw our own conclusions from it, and therefore should not be "called in question upon the testimony of bib...

... middle of paper ...

... unpersuasive to its original audience. For us, it is hard to understand why the clergy, and society quickly shunned an idea that today is widely known and accepted by everyone. Science then is not what science is today. Society studied no more then the Bible, and that was only if they could read. Many of those who couldn't read had the Bible read to them. Government, economy, and basic everyday life were based on this book, and science barely existed. It was only a few years after Galileo's time that the scientific method was developed, and it was not until years later that the scientific method was a recognizable method of study. Had the scientific method been a concept when Galileo's ideas were first brought about, the church may have paid more attention to his scientific ideas, and therefore been more open to the ideas he presents in his letter to the Duchess.

Open Document