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Galileo controversy
Galileo point of view in science
Galileo galilei essays
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During an important time in European history, Galileo played a key role in the scientific revolution. He challenged widely accepted ideas and gave a new face to philosophy, astronomy and physics. While he was alive, though, he was much more than just a philosopher. Galileo Galilei had passions and values, which were portrayed throughout his life and accurately written down in Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter. He applied these values in his career as a mathematician and a teacher of physics, in his passion of astronomy and philosophy, in his loyalty to his church and country, and most of all to his daughter, whom he conversed with in the many letters of Galileo's Daughter. Unlike most of the history that is read in books, Galileo's story is of a real man with real values and faced with very controversial decisions.
Some of these controversies involve the clash of his passion of philosophy with that of the most widely accepted Aristotelian teachings. An example of this is when Galileo looked into his telescope and saw the moon, with its large mountains and deep valleys (31). This discovery proves contrary to what was taught by Aristotle, that the moon was shaped as a perfect sphere. In addition to this, determining how objects accelerate during free fall consumed him for some time. He was known to test his theory by carrying cannonballs up Pisa?s eight story spiral staircase to see if an object?s weight and acceleration during free fall were not related as he had thought (19). This challenged another one of Aristotle?s teachings, which was that an object?s acceleration was directly proportional to its weight.
His most significant controversies involved his passion of science and his loyalty to the Catholic Church. Religion...
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...d because it offers a look into the life of a real man in history. Instead of painting a picture of a scientist in the 17th century, it tells the story of a man and his passions and values. Galileo was a man who loved mathematics and physics and was devoted to teaching his theories to others. He was a religious man who feared the extreme Catholic Church?s power as much as the next European. Still, he wrote his controversial astronomical and philosophical studies down on paper where they would be explored and researched decades after his death. Most importantly, though, the book Galileo?s Daughter portrays him as a man who loved his family, and still made time for his daughter during all of his ordeals. Galileo was not only a man of great influence to science, but also a man with passion, belief and conviction, and this is unfortunately forgotten in most history books.
Galileo’s contributions to the science of Physics and Astronomy were many. His conviction was legendary. His willingness to suffer for his beliefs exemplify true courage in the name of truth, and has inspired others to venture intellectual independence from the Church‘s creeds, edicts, and proclamations. Perhaps these contributions led to the call for an investigation into Galileo's conviction, eventually calling for its reversal, in 1979 by Pope John Paul II. But regardless of his standing in the annals of the Catholic church he will always be the man who began the separation of science and religion.
...nclusion, Galileo Galilei’s heliocentric theory created tension with the church since they thought he was contradicting their beliefs, but in actuality, he was a religious man recognizing the new scientific era and gaining knowledge and sharing his knowledge. The Church was feeling like their beliefs were threatened since they refused to look at Galilei’s ideas and reconsider the understanding of their own. Galileo Galilei’s ideas and publication of the heliocentric theory represented the new ideas of the scientific revolution which clashed with the old ideas of the Church, based on religion and philosophy.
Galileo Galilei (Physicist, Scientist, Mathematician) – He is the 7th most influential people in history. He was often called as Galileo and was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Dutche of Florence, Italy. Galileo is an Italian physicist, engineer, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher. During the Renaissance Period, he played an important part on the scientific revolution. He is called as the Father of Physics, Science and Observational Astronomy. Galileo’s father was named Vicenzo Galilei who was a composer, music theorist and a lutenist. And his mother was named Giulia Ammannati.
Galileo's objections to using the bible where very clear. He objected to using the bible as a source of knowledge of physical things because it would not always speak the truth on the surface. He feels that the truth and meaning lie underneath what is actually written down on the page. He believes we must use our senses God gave us to find the truth in the bible. He thinks the bible leads us to the abandonment of reason and our senses.
In his Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo challenged the widely accepted religious beliefs of the time, claiming that the conflict lies in their interpretation, not the context. In Galileo’s eyes science was an extremely useful tool that could and should have been used in interpreting the Scriptures. He argued that “the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven not how heaven goes” (Grand Duchess). The purpose of science was not to counter what the bible teaches; rather its purpose was to help explain the teachings of the scriptures. Furthermore, it was “prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth-whenever its true meaning is understood” (Grand Duchess). However, because of the terminology in which the bible was presented the perception of what the Scripture defined as truth was skewed. The Bible was written so that the common man could understand it and follow its commandments. The people also showed a greater inte...
...cided to condemn Galileo’s work. While it does not discredit God’s power or the Bible, the overall tone of the scientist’s letter is quite sarcastic towards the clergy. While defending his first argument, Galileo appears to undermine the intellectual capabilities of his opponents. He implies that those who interpret the Holy Writ word for word belong to the “common people” whom he describes as “rude and unlearned”, and that other “wise expositors” should be the ones who search for the true meaning of the Bible. Galileo makes a similar implication while presenting his second argument, when he writes that the purpose of the Holy Scriptures is “infinitely beyond the comprehension of the common people”. The Catholic Church likely viewed these claims as an attempt to weaken its authority, which would explain why Galileo’s discoveries were condemned for nearly 300 years.
The condemnation of Galileo by the Catholic Church is a prime example of the vast dispute between religion and science. It is widely believed that his support of Copernicanism, the theory that the earth rotates on its own axis, led to his condemnation by the Catholic Church. However, modern historians disagree with this belief and as a matter of fact they do not believe that indeed there is warfare between religion and science. Under the content of condemnation of Galileo are subjects such as Copernicanism, Eucharist, Popes Paul 5 and atomism.
Galileo was condemned because he could not keep his opinions to himself and could not resist the
Galileo’s struggle with the Catholic Church is the essence of the problems people had introducing new ideas to the world. This was a time period during which people were often killed for what they believed by either the state or the church. Perhaps by not killing Galileo outright the church showed that times were starting to change, or maybe not. The episode will no doubt go down in history, however, as a turning point in science, and in religious thought.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian philosopher born in 1564. As an adult, he didn’t believe the universal geocentric theory of the planets and heavens which was established by the Catholic Church. The church taught that the Earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around our planet. Another theory that the Church supported was that the Earth stood still while the sun rose and set every day. Society in the 1500’s believed that the Pope spoke for God through a divine connection and to against the church was to go against God. To speak out against the church in this time was strictly taboo. If one was to speak against the church was considered to be heresy, which is exactly what happened to Galileo. Galileo invented the telescope and began studying the heavens above and noticed that changes within the stars and planets. He noticed that the “stars” that surrounded Jupiter moved. He came to the conclusion through rational thinking, that the Copernicus’ heliocentric theory was correct. Copernicus was a scientist and philosopher whose theory proposed that the sun was stationary and the heavens orbit around the sun. Galileo tried to convince the church not to aboli...
Galileo Galilei was an outstanding figure in the Renaissance. Through his work as an astronomer, Galileo was able to prove Copernicus’ theory of the existence of the heliocentric model. The heliocentric model is the depiction of the earth rotating around the sun, rather than the geocentric model that depicts the sun revolving around the earth. Galileo’s observations were subject to harsh criticism by the Roman Catholic Church because it was thought that Galileo was contesting the infallible truths of the Bible. In his Letter to Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo defends his research by making the argument that his research is not opposed to the message that is prescribed by the Bible. Galileo states that if one were “to confine oneself to the unadorned grammatical meaning, one might fall into error” (Galilei, FYP Handbook, 167). Galileo is arguing that it is not man’s job to interpret God’s creation and likeness, nor is the Bible describing God. Rather, Galileo believes that through examining the physical world that God created, man can come to understand the inner workings of God’s creation.
After Galileo found out the moon wasn't flat, he began mounting a body of evidence that supported Copernican theory and contradicted Aristotle and Church doctrine. In 1612, he published his Discourse on Bodies in Water, refuting the Aristotelian explanation of why objects float in water, saying that it wasn’t because of their flat shape, but instead the weight of the object in relation to the water it displaced.
Galileo was probably the greatest astronomer, mathematician and scientist of his time. In fact his work has been very important in many scientific advances even to this day.
...t science is not merely a group of 'inventive dwarfs'. Instead, science is a way of life. The book of discourses (dealing with the laws of motion), that was published after Galileo's recantation, represents a way in which Galileo can contemplate for his unethical and immoral acts by generating knowledge to the public. Although Galileo reassures the making of science by making the book of discourses, nothing can ever bring compensation to the harm which he brought on humanity and the way in which he destroyed the meaning of sacrifice.
Humbled at last by his enemies, the father of modern science wasn’t wholly subdued. His discoveries impacted the world as we see it. Without his sacrifice and motive to fight for what he believed in, we wouldn’t be as advanced as we are today in modern science. Although society advanced by increased knowledge, having more scientific answers, and increased new developments because of the freedom to deviate from established theories, there were some negative effects. Society had lost their innocence and belief in their traditional faith. Galileo’s battle against the Church was worthwhile for generations to come. Without his inventions, theories, or introduction to the concept of theory experimenting, the world of modern science wouldn’t exist as we know it today.