Galileo And Demonlogia Essay

The lives of English translator and poet Edward Fairfax and Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilie were drastically different despite living in roughly the same time period, a time of scientific revolution and witch hunts. Fairfax's manuscript Demonlogia: A Discourse on Witchcraft and Galileo's letter to the Grand Dutchess Christina on the surface have nothing in common with each other. They both illustrate the drastically different world views of their author and each one's different approaches in providing evidence for their claims. Ultimately despite their individual attempts at providing evidence to support their claims each one was denied and in Galileos case he ended up being charged as a heretic. Edward Fairfax was a reasonably

With a talent in math and science he used his skills to build the first telescope and use it to view the moon in a way it never had been before. Galileos continued observations of other planets reaffirmed his belief in the Copernican theory which posits that the Earth and planets revolve around the sun. However, the catholic church's teachings at the time supported a geocentric worldview based on Ptolemy and the works of philosopher Aristotle. They taught that the Earth was the center of the universe and the realm of imperfection and sin. The heavens were the realm of perfection where objects move in perfect eternal circles without beginning or end, and that the sun and these planets revolved around the Earth. In 1610 when Galileo published his findings in support of a heliocentric universe in his book Starry messenger, the Catholic church became increasingly concerned that if bible scripture based on Aristotelian philosophy was undermined, it would cast doubt on Aristotle's credibility and the church's theological doctrines. With the assertion that "in questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual" he managed to upset the powerful and influential peoples in the church and was called to answer charges brought against him by the Inquisition.(Coudert PPT) In 1615 Galileo's letter was written in an