The Martyr of Modern Science
Among ten other men dressed in long blood red robes with elaborately decorated gold and jeweled crosses draped around their necks. you are centralized with seamlessly all the attention upon you, as if they were judging you. You are Galileo Galilei and it is 1633, you are being tried by the Roman Inquisition. you have been found guilty of heresy with an abnormal sentencing to confinement within your home.
The fifteenth cold day of February in 1564 is the birthday of Galileo Galilei. His father Vincenzo Galilei and Mother Giulia Deli Ammannati were both nobles but lacking wealth. Galileo was the eldest of the six children, then Virgina Galilei his sister, and a couple years later Michelagnolo Galilei. Galileo was one of the fortunate children to live through infancy among his other four brothers and sisters. He was baptized in the cathedral of Pisa. in 1574 Galileo’s family decided to move to Florence from Pisa. During this transition Galileo decides to stay behind at the monastery of Santa Maria di Vallombrosa. While he is staying at the monastery he takes real consideration of joining the order. It doesn’t take to long for Galileo to decided to return to his Family in Florence sometime in July of 1579. Vincenzio, Galileo’s father was a recognized musician known for his lute play. Likely due to his father's influence Galileo also studied music theory but let his youngest brother Michelagnolo go on to be the noted lutenist successor to Vincenzio. Vincenzio desired for his eldest son to become educated with focus of becoming a doctor, likely contributed to not being wealthy himself and wanted more for his son. Beginning his education at the University of Pisa in 1581, Galileo chooses to enroll as a st...
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Rivkha Feldhay, Galileo and the Church: political inquisition or critical dialogue? Cambridge 1995
Steele Philip, Galileo: the genius who faced the inquistion , Washington, D.C., 2005
Allan-Olney, Mary. The private Life of Galileo: Compiled Principally from his Correspondence and that of his Eldest Daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. London : Macmillan, 1870
Machamer Peter, The many trials of Galileo Galilei, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2005
Maurice Finocchiaro, Retrying Galileo, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2005
Websources:
Albert Van Helden, Elizabeth Burr, http://galileo.rice.edu/, February 16, 2012, Rice University
Dr. Jack L. Arnold, http://www.thirdmill.org/newfiles/jac_arnold/CH.Arnold.RMT.1.html, March 1, 1999, IIIM Magazine Online
Donald Demarco, http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/science/sc0043.htm,
Galileo was born in Pisa Italy on February 15, 1564. Galileo was the first born child to Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. His family moved to Florence Italy after living in Pisa for ten years. In Florence he received education at the Camaldolese monastery in Vallombrosa. Later on in his life he decided to study medicine at the University of Pisa to study medicine. Wh...
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...
The book Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel follow the life story of famed scientist, mathematician and philosopher Galileo Galilei and his daughter Virginia Gamba, later renamed Suor Maria Celeste Galilei when she became a nun of the Convent of San Matteo. Throughout Galileo’s life, it had been as a battle between science and religion where Galileo stood in the thin line in between the warring giants. Religion shorted the range of influence of science by professing heresy towards the few that stood up. Galileo, being a devout Christian, had to choose carefully or risk not only reputation loss but also torture and a ban from ever publishing a book again. However, the pull of scientific discovery for Galileo forced this type of decisions continuously. Galileo’s faith changed every discovery put to paper by him in not so subtle ways.
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.
Galileo Galilei was an italian scientist. He performed a famous experiment that proved mass has no effect on the acceleration of a free falling object. His results disproved a famous theory by Aristotle and is still a major point of discussion and experimentation today. Aristotle thought that when you drop two things with different masses that the heavier one would hit the ground first, his theory of gravity states that objects fall at speed relative to their mass. . Galileo found that the mass of an object does not affect how quickly it accelerates due to gravity.
In the history of the Catholic Church, no episode is so contested by so many viewpoints as the condemnation of Galileo. The Galileo case, for many, proves the Church abhors science, refuses to abandon outdated teachings, and is clearly not infallible. For staunch Catholics the episode is often a source of embarrassment and frustration. Either way it is undeniable that Galileo’s life sparked a definite change in scientific thought all across Europe and symbolised the struggle between science and the Catholic Church.
He took his teaching duties very seriously, while he was preparing lectures for his charge on variety an of topics about science. The first scientific work dates were all from this period. It involves topics, which would continue to occupy him throughout his life. In 1571, he began publication of his track. It was intended to form a preliminary mathematical part of a major study on the Ptolemaic astronomical model. He continued to embrace the Ptolemaic (Parshall 1).
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...
Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist, often referred to as “the father of modern physics”. He was one of the inventors of the telescope and a strong proponent of Copernicanism. Galileo used his invention to make astronomical observations which supported Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe. These discoveries led to a fierce dispute, because they contradicted the theory which was prevalent at the time – that the universe followed a geocentric model, a theory, which had been accepted by the Catholic Church. To address this dispute, Galileo wrote a letter to Tuscany’s Grand Duchess Christina, in which he presented his position on the relation between science and religion, stating that the Bible does not contradict science.
In 1623, a friend of Galileo, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, was selected as Pope Urban VIII. He allowed Galileo to pursue his work on astronomy and even encouraged him to publish it. but it had to be on one condition, it be objective and not advocate Copernican
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...
The monks of Vallombrosa educated Galileo at a boarding school, where he considered becoming a monk himself. At the age of 15, Galileo became a monk. Vallombrosa was 20 miles east of Florence on the top of a mountain. Vincenzo couldn’t afford the indulgence of his son becoming a monk, so Galileo soon returned from Vallombrosa and started in...
Throughout the course of history, from era to era, mankind has been on a continuous attempt to perpetuate what they perceive as the truth; and in doing so, embark on a quest to find their true identity and place in life. One must realize that the common theme in all literature is the search for identity and belonging. Bertolt Brecht, author of "The Life of Galileo," effectively uses the developing character Galileo Galilei to portray a strong message; a message which five hundred years after the fact has still not been completely comprehended. Through Galileo's continuous battle with the Church in prevailing his work, Brecht is telling the readers that in any one man's attempt to propagate the truth, whether it be in terms of literature, discoveries or new technologies, there is always an opposing power to suppress this new found truth. In doing so, it is through such opposing power against the search for truth which suppress our ability to think. In a sincere attempt to eliminate the common generalization that "Science is the devil", Brecht uses Galileo's external struggles such as those with the church. The writer also uses his personal internal struggles as a basis for developing Galileo's character to inform readers of the common yet false misconception of Science and the truth.
The struggle for power and balance between the young, developing academies and the formidable Church affected the lives of prominent Italian Scientists, such as Copernicus and Galileo, during the Scientific Revolution
When his father died in 1591 Galileo had to support his family. He looked for a job that paid more, and became professor of mathematics at the University of Padua where he stayed for eighteen years. He became very interested in astronomy at that time partly because of the discovery of a new star in 1604. (This turned out to be an exploding sun called a supernova). During these years he did more work on his theories of falling bodies, inclined planes and how projectiles travel. This work is still used today, for example in ballistics where computers can predict the path of a shell based on Galileo’s work.