Position Paper.
“Concerning the Use of Biblical Quotations in Matter of Science”
1) Is Galileo right that Joshua passage cannot be taken literally, and that some interpretation is necessary no matter which system of the world is being considered?
Yes. Literal reading of Joshua will bring us to unpleasant consequences. If only Sun’s and Moon’s spheres will be stopped, laws of Ptolemy will be broken (f.ex. relationship between planets and Sun-Earth line).
In Copernican Universe, with modern discoveries of Galileo’s, sudden stop of Earth will be at least as destructive as the Deluge. But as there’s no doubt that the event took place, and there are no records about something strange that happened on that day. We need some interpretation.
2) Is the literal reading of Joshua incompatible with either system of world?
Yes. Ptolemy: If just Sun’s and Moon’s spheres were isolated from the rest and stopped, spheres of planets and star ball will continue to rotate (and they should as they weren’t asked to stop and it’s their nature to rotate) Heavens perfection will be either disturbed (centers of epicycles of inferior planets will no longer lie on Sun-Earth line, Sun may appear in other constellation of zodiac), or planets and starball will violate principle of uniform motion (moving in a special way to compensate for Sun’s behavior).
Copernicus: Sudden stop of Earth will probably destroy entire civilization as everything including waters of oceans, buildings and, finally, people will attempt to continue to move in the same direction with the same speed.
3) Must Joshua passage be interpreted?
Yes. Literal reading leads us to nowhere. That means that Holy Scripture provided us with false information what is a critical hit on the most sacred values of mankind. This is a catastrophe. But interpretation may save the situation.
4) If the passage must be interpreted, then can it be interpreted to fit the Copernican system as well as the Ptolemaic system?
Ptolemy: Joshua just didn’t say the whole thing. Considering position, reputation and experience of the Executant of the pray, concerns about side effects must be rejected. Due to God’s authority mortals may trust God on doing the most important things, asking just for the final result, assuming that God will do all necessary actions so the result will have divine quality. So, most likely, all spheres were stopped.
Copernicus: If something is staying still it simply means that location of the object with respect to us stays the same.
Galileo had many problems trying to introduce the Copernican theory to be relevant. Scripture from the Holy Bible was one problem that Galileo had to face. Ca...
In his letter, Galileo shifts his focus to arguments that would potentially defend the Copernican theory, and himself as a believer. One of the subtle arguments made by Galileo was that the Copernican theory is a matter of opinions. Galileo is arguing that everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and ideas. His opinions just so happened to go against the teachings from the Bible. Thus, the church declared his ideas and opinions to be heretical. In the letter, Galileo asks, “can an opinion be heretical and yet have no concern with the salvation of souls?”(Galilei). Which basically Galileo is saying, “so what if my opinions are heretical, does that have anything to do with receiving salvation from God”. Galileo utilizes this argument to develop a bigger argument. Galileo says “That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes”(Galilei). Meaning the Bible has nothing to do with teaching people how the universe works. The whole point of the Bible in the first place was to teach people how to receive salvation from God. Therefore, the Copernican theory doesn’t interfere with people from reaching salvation. Thus, it is not an excuse for the church to claim, that the Copernican theory is against the teachings of
In papal Rome in the early 16th century the “Good Book” was the reference book for all scientists. If a theory was supported in its holy pages, or at the very least not contradicted, then the idea had a chance of find acceptance outside the laboratory. Likewise, no theory no matter how well documented could be viewed with anything but disdain if it contradicted with the written word of, or the Church’s official interpretation of scripture. For these reasons the Church suppressed helio-centric thinking to the point of making it a hiss and a byword. However, this did not keep brave men from exploring scientific reason outside the canonical doctrine of the papal throne, sometimes at the risk of losing their own lives. While the Vatican was able to control the universities and even most of the professors, it could not control the mind of one man known to the modern world as Galileo Galilei. Despite a wide array of enemies, Galileo embarked on a quest, it seems almost from the beginning of his academic career, to defend the Copernican idea of a helio-centric universe by challenging the authority of the church in matters of science. Galileo‘s willingness to stand up for what he held to be right in the face of opposition from Bible-driven science advocates set him apart as one of the key players in the movement to separate Church authority from scientific discovery, and consequently paved the way for future scientific achievement.
Clarke, Leonard W.‘Greek Astronomy and Its Debt to the Babylonians' The British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 1, No. (Cambridge University Press. 1962)
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.... Throughout the book Ptolemy compared his own observations with those of Hipparchus, regarding the motion of the sun; Ptolemy found the lengths of the seasons and introduced a simple model for the sun which was a circular motion of uniform angular velocity however the earth would be displaced from the center referred to as eccentricity. He also used his own observations and those of Hipparchus to show that the fixed stars always maintain the same position relative to each other. Concerning his planetary theory, according to his model the path of a planet consisted of a circular motion on an epicycle while the center of the epicycle moving around a circle whose was offset from the earth. It is important to mention that the planetary theory introduces by Ptolemy was considered to be a noticeable achievement, since it predicted the motion of the planets fairly well.