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How Did Galileo Put An End To Galileo's Silence?

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Prior to the publication of Galileo Galilei’s (1564-1642) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632), the Congregation of the Index issued a public decree which condemned the heliocentric model along with any books supporting or seemingly supporting the tenets of the Copernican model. Consequently, Galileo, who was already in conflict with the church over letters he sent to the Grand Duchess Christina (1565-1637) and Benedetto Castelli (1578-1643) which depicted him as a supporter of the Copernican model, could no longer express his support or publish evidence supporting the Copernican model. The election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (1568-1644) as Pope Urban VIII in 1623, though, “put an end to Galileo’s silence” because he was …show more content…

There is no way that the earth was immobile. In fact, the entirety of Day 3 was a discussion about the earth’s motion in which he proves that a geokinetic universe makes much more sense than a geostatic universe which shows that Galileo was trying to show support for the Copernican world system. Galileo did not intend for everyone to read the Dialogue as support for the Copernican, though, and tried to use tactics that would hide the fact that he was supporting the Copernican view. One of the tactics he used was the dialogue form. The use of the dialogue form distances him from what the characters in the dialogue are claiming. It allows him to say things that would have immediately caused him trouble had he written them down as fact or opinion in a book. Although Galileo had no intention of explicitly expressing his opinion about the Copernican world system, the dialogue form allows for the author to clearly illustrate the ideas presented as opposed to them being compiled into a lengthy and complicated work. Stephan Clucas states that “what Galileo sought in his dialogues was the ability to present his reasonings outside of the more restrictive literary modes”. With the dialogue form, Galileo was able to present his arguments clearly while also distancing himself from what the characters in the Dialogue were

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Galileo Galilei was believed to be a heretic for opposing the belief of the Catholic Church, despite him being scientifically correct. With the invention of the telescope, Galileo Galilei had the ability to study the function of the universe and publish his scientific observations, raising the attention of the Catholic Church. Heliocentrism and the Catholic Church Timeline, states “The Catholic Church told Galileo to stop sharing his theory in public in the year of 1615. Along with that, the Catholic Church added Copernicus’s work (and others supporting the heliocentric model to its list of banned books)” (Doc A :Timeline).

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The second was the Ptolemaic or Earth-centered Universe, were the sun orbits the Earth. Galileo faced much opposition from the Catholic Church, and was repeatedly harassed and condemned by his contemporaries. The letter he wrote to Christina was to clearly state his view of mixing science and religion. He projected himself as a man that was only trying to expose the truth, but he was also trying to

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Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who disagreed with the Roman Catholic theory of geocentrism. He was not a heretic because he was a Christian and had similar beliefs to the Roman Catholics, but he did not agree with the Church’s theory of the position and movement of Earth in the Solar System. Document A is an excerpt of a letter to Duchess Christina of Tuscany written by Galilei, counter-arguing the heresy claims. In the letter, Galileo wrote, “Can an opinion be heretical and yet have no concern with the salvation of souls?” Although he did not believe in the astronomical theory of the Church, he believed that his scientific thoughts should not interfere with his religious beliefs.

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Copernicus’ previous statement is continued with, “...although I know that the meditations of a philosopher are far removed from the judgement of the laity, because his endeavor is to seek out the truth in all things, so far as this is permitted by God to the human reason I still believe that one must avoid theories altogether foreign to orthodoxy.” (Doc 6.) Copernicus did not need validation from the Church for his ideas. He knew his scientific ideas could be proved without religion endorsing them. Another rationalist thinker, Francesco Petrarch, felt as if he should form opinions after looking at things rationally and from different perspectives.

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The Church was in need of a new calendar in order to have a specific time each year for religious holidays because with the current calendar it was hard to tell what day the Bible was depicting a certain holiday on. As a result, Nicolaus Copernicus started researching astrology in order to find out more about the heavens. Nicolaus Copernicus was very grateful to the Pope, as supported by Document 1, because he dedicated a book about astrology to him. Copernicus himself was a very religious man who was very much driven by the Catholic Church to study the heavens. On the contrary, Galileo did not have the same gratitude towards the Catholic Church as a result of his discoveries.

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However, the characters were each supposed to be interpreted as representing a model and the conversations were meant to prove the author’s underlying argument. With this, Galileo was able to put forth his theory, which would change how people viewed the world, without fear of punishment from the Catholic Church. This is because if his objectives were questioned, he could argue that his book had no intent of dissenting from the church and supporting the heliocentric model if he was

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By using his eyes, Galileo confirmed the heliocentric theory and created his own in reply: the Copernican theory. His theory stated that the sun was at the center of the universe, with the earth and other planets rotating around it in elliptical paths and at uniform speeds. Copernicus had used Bacon’s implications that “seeing is believing.” He also theorized that the other planets were made of substances similar to those found on earth. These two ideas even furthered the notion that humans were not special to God because they inhabited an earth that looked like all the other planets.

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He published these observations in the book Sidereus Nuncius (1610). The Catholic Church had formerly opposed Copernicus already in 1543, and met Galileo with the same opposition. The Church declared any documents on heliocentric theory were to be banned and considered heretical in 1616. That same year, Galileo proposed a new theory regarding tides, and three years later one regarding comets, claiming these as proof of the earth’s motion. Eventually in 1632, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which became very popular, much to the alarm of the Catholic Church.

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Going against the Ptolemaic model of the universe, especially in the way Galileo articulated it, was highly offensive. However, in this statement, he is showing how confident he is of this hypothesis and he is willing to prove it with his experiments and figures. The passage also denies the idea of a “perfect” heavens and the notion that the moon is made of quintessence. It directly disproved the Ptolemaic view that the heavens are a perfect entity. He does this by describing how the moon looks at different stages of the moon cycle; you can see different variations as the sun casts shadows across the face of the moon.

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From Galileo's observations, it strengthened his belief in Copernicus’s theory that Earth as well as other planets revolve around the Sun. People in Galileo’s time believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and that the Sun and planets revolved around it. Newton was taught the standard curriculum but was fascinated

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The open-minded Galileo advocated that the earth revolves around the sun, with which few agreed during his lifetime,

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He also discovered that objects move with a parabolic curve. Finally, He also observed the moons of Jupiter with his invention, The Telescope. He never gave up even once because he still felt like there is a way he can help out even more. . Galileo

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For example, the New York Times Article “Vatican Science Panel Told by Pope: Galileo was Right” mentions, “Moving formally to rectify a wrong, Pope John Paul II acknowledged in a speech today that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in condemning Galileo 359 years ago for asserting that the Earth revolves around the Sun.” This excerpt states that Galileo’s theories about the sun centered universe was correct. The church admits to their mistake and have recognized the truth in Galileo’s beliefs. In addition, the article includes a comment form Pope John Paul, “This led them to unduly transpose into the realm of the doctrine of faith, a question which in fact pertained to scientific investigation.” This means that the Roman Catholic Church at the time was in the wrong and had interpreted the scriptures incorrectly.

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Copernicus developed the heliocentric theory which claimed that the earth revolved around the sun. This immediately challenged the authorities who believed the opposite. Galileo furthered Copernicus’ argument and promoted that the Bible, that God

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In a letter to Cristina of Lorraine, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Galileo gives a perfectly sound and rational argument as to why the church should not be charging him as a heretic for his belief in the heliocentric model when the bible is going against what they see with their own eyes. Furthermore, Galileo argues that, contrary to popular belief at the time, the bible should only be used to help us understand abstruse concepts and what is needed for salvation, not to explain the natural world. In a lot of ways, Galileo’s argument paves the way for separation between church and state, as well as the age-old conflict between science and religion that is still discussed even till today. However, what I found interesting here is that Galileo actually believed that his beliefs went hand in hand with the bible. He tries to justify his beliefs according to the bible by arguing that God gave us a brain in order

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