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Is Galileo A Heretic?

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I do believe that Galileo, by definition, was a heretic. By definition, a heretic is someone who goes against the Roman Catholic Church's teachings. Galileo believed and taught the heliocentric theory, while the Church taught the geocentric theory. I think that the Church did agree with Galileo, but didn't want him to prove the Church wrong. They didn't want this because it would affect their power. For example, a citizen might notice that the Church was wrong about the geocentric theory, so they might start to wonder what other things the Church is wrong about. This would definitely affect the Church's power and their authority over the people. I think a fellow Roman Catholic scientist would answer this question by saying that even though
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Galileo was also an outcast due to his theory of the Earth revolving around the Sun. In his period, it was believed that the opposite occurred. When Galileo presented his ideas, people were outraged and shocked. His scientific notions conclusively brought upon his banishment. Even their deaths were eerily similar, as they were both excluded from the rest of the world upon passing.

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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 rise of Philosophy led to the decline of the church’s influence on the people, which led to a decline of faith and the church labelling philosophers as heretics. The Catholic church was prepared to do anything to crush these heretics in order to preserve the Catholic faith. Also, the inquisition extremely active during this time period, for hundreds of thousands of heretics were killed and/or burned at the stake. Following the advancements in the sciences, Astronomers such as Copernicus discussed new ideas that went against the holy scripture, which were later adopted and improved by Galileo, therefore marking him as a target of the Inquisition. At first Astronomy was accepted by catholics, including the Pope himself, however, following the ideas of Copernicus Christians were quick to label these ideas as acts of heresy for going against the holy scripture.

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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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Galileo was an advocate of Copernicus’ Theory that the Earth orbited the sun, a heliocentric view, which the church believed was in direct contradiction with Scripture as the Church professed that the Bible advocated for a Earth-centered view. Due to the Church’s fear of losing power and influence, members of the clergy warned Galileo to abandon his Copernican worldview and, instead, profess the more traditional, geocentric, worldview in which the Earth was the center of the universe and all matter orbited (Barbour 7). However, instead of obeying the clergy, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which was designed as a conversation between two philosophers, Salviati, supporting heliocentric beliefs, and Simplicio,

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The tangled mess of combined church and state during the Reformation proves the detriment of political involvement in the church. The investment of the government in the church led to difficulties for innovators who found flaws in church doctrine. If the government hadn’t been invested in its own version of Christianity that gave them more control, the doctrinal issues could have been discussed with far less bloodshed and accusations of heresy. As the Catholic Church began to rise after the fall of the Roman Empire, it was adopted and utilized politically.

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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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In this book, he established the imperfection of the heavens by describing dark patches on the sun’s surface. He also said that he preferred the idea that the earth orbited the sun. Galileo also wrote that the words of the Bible had to be interpreted based on modern science and was incorrect. Therefore, the church became mad at Galileo. Galileo was then banned from coming or going back to church.

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This became Galileo’s passion project. It was the culmination of what he had been studying for a long time. All the research he had done with regards to the physics of our expansive universe humbled him to the realization that our tiny planet is not in fact the center of the universe. Galileo realized that the Earth was just another spinning ball of confusion that no one understands. When the church caught whiff of this, they believed him to be a

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245 Words | 1 Pages

When Galileo Galilei proclaimed that the planet Earth revolved around the Sun, he was looked at like a sheer madman. His belief in heliocentricity blew the Catholic Church out of the water, as they thought this view Galileo bestowed upon the public was preposterous, leading them to order that he must turn himself in to the Holy Office and begin trial, as standard practice demanded that someone who was accused of such a thing as this must be ‘imprisoned and secluded during the trial.’ The Catholic Church deemed his beliefs heretical and outrageous, though this was the second time that Galileo expressed his distaste with the belief held by the Church’s orthodox members that the Earth is the immovable central point in the whole universe. The first

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He was immediately called a heretic and burnt at the state, just for proposing a hypothesis that went against pas assumptions, Galileo would soon prove him right, but he too was killed for heresy, showing how afraid of knowledge the Church was. Regardless no matter how hard the Church tried to squash anticlerical teachings, their efforts have failed. Instead, to this day, the Church has been forced to adapt to every time one of their major doctrines was prove

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According to the world history book from Bob Jones University, Galileo was a heretic, when it states “When Galileo published his findings, however, he also came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, which tried him for heresy.” I think the textbook was accurate in its belief that Galileo was a heretic because the definition of heresy is a “belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine.” Galileo was an iconoclast because his theory that stated the earth revolved around the sun disagreed with the Roman Catholic Church’s belief of a geocentric galaxy. Galileo was opposed by cardinals, the Roman Catholic Church, philosophers, scholars, and, according to the holy Fathers, the Bible itself. Galileo was a heretic because his discoveries

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