Posts Tagged ‘Galileo’

The Gall of Galileo

Posted in General on April 12th, 2010 by Eugene Finerman – 1 Comment

April 12, 1633:  Galileo’s Date With the Inquisition 

At least, it was the Italian Inquisition.  Galileo Galilei would only be tortured and executed after conviction.  In Spain, suspects often did not live through the trial, but their corpses would be re-executed in public.  Of course, Galileo would be found guilty; even the Italians weren’t that lenient.  But with ample groveling and recantation, the scientist was allowed to survive.  He would spend the remainder of his life–nine years– under house arrest.

And he really had committed a form of heresy: tactlessness.  His espousal of the Heliocentric Theory was not the problem.  In fact, the Church knew that the earth evolved around the sun.  It had the proof when Galileo was still discovering girls.  In 1582 the Church had premiered a new and improved calendar and, with rather obvious product placement, named it for Pope Gregory XIII.   But the same mathematical precision that calculated the correct length of the year and the exact date of the equinoces and solstices left the Church’s staff of astronomers with an unavoidable conclusion.  Oops, the Bible was wrong.

Frankly, the 17th century Church was not fond of the Bible, if only because the Protestants were.  A press release from the Vatican could have announced:  “Earth Actually Evolves Around the Sun.  Jews Lied to Us.”  But the Church preferred not to publicize the awkward truth.  (The Church seems to love keeping secrets.)

So the problem with Galileo really had nothing to do with science.  It was all a matter of tact–and Galileo didn’t have any.  Galileo had nothing new to say on the subject, but he just had to say it louder. The Church even gave him permission to publish his conclusions, so long as he followed Pope Urban VIII’s recommendation to be diplomatic to the supporters of the geocentric theory.

Unfortunately, Galileo did not feel like being polite to advocates of idiocy; and he wanted to insult anyone who even tolerated the geocentric club. So instead of a nice, scholarly discourse, Galileo had to write a satire. In his “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”, Galileo has the geocentric theory espoused by a pretentious fool named Simplicius. Apparently overestimating the Church’s sense of humor, Galileo gave Simplicius a remarkable resemblance to the Pope.

And this was in 1632, right in the middle of the Thirty Years War. In the midst of religious genocide, the Church really did not need the distraction of a debate among its parishioners over the sun’s and the earth’s itinerary. On the contrary, everything had to evolve around the Church. If Galileo couldn’t keep a civil tongue, he was lucky to have a tongue at all. The Church had nothing against the actual science; it was just at a really inconvenient time. Yes, the first convenient time turned to be 350 years later.

But it was Galileo’s fault. Did the Church condemn any other scientist or physician?  No, because they were polite.   Newton was willing to give God credit for inventing gravity. Einstein, Heisenberg, and quantum physics were no problem; as long as it is unintelligible, the Church approves. Freud–well, that was just Jewish psychosis.  Edward Jenner never bragged, “Why didn’t Jesus think of this?”  Otherwise, the Church might have had to endorse smallpox. As for Darwin, he and the Church got along fine by ignoring each other.

So, Galileo really was condemned for his bad manners.  And perhaps all those polite scientists learned from his example.

 

The Gall of Galileo

Posted in General on January 18th, 2008 by Eugene Finerman – Be the first to comment

POPE CANCELS SPEECH AFTER PROTEST AT UNIVERSITY

January 16, 2008

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI, in a rare papal acquiescence to protest, has canceled a speech at the prestigious Sapienza University here amid opposition by professors and students who say he is hostile to science.

The pope’s speech at the university, which was founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 and is now public, was to mark the start of the academic year. But professors and students objected, citing specifically a speech that Benedict gave in 1990, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, on Galileo, condemned by the Inquisition in the early 1600s for arguing that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

In that speech, Cardinal Ratzinger, who would become pope in 2005, quoted the Austrian philosopher Paul Feyerabend as saying: “The church at the time was much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself, and also took into consideration the ethical and social consequences of Galileo’s doctrine. Its verdict against Galileo was rational and just.”

Memo from the Pope to Gino:

Hold off on writing that excommunication of Nicholas Sarkozy. We’ll force that lecherous little Frog to go back to his first wife, but it can wait ’til next week.

Now I–that means my speechwriter–must deal with this Galileo thing from 18 years ago. This whole issue never had anything to do with science, you know. It was all a matter of tact–and Galileo didn’t have any. The Church knew that the earth evolved around the sun. We wouldn’t have spent all that money on the Gregorian Calendar without figuring out what made the calendar work in the first place.

Galileo had nothing new to say on the subject, but he just had to say it louder. The Church even gave him permission to publish his conclusions, so long as he followed Pope Urban VIII’s recommendation to be diplomatic to the supporters of the geocentric theory. Unfortunately, Galileo did not feel like being polite to advocates of idiocy; and he wanted to insult anyone who even tolerated the geocentric club. So instead of a nice, scholarly discourse, Galileo had to write a satire. In his “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”, Galileo has the geocentric theory espoused by a pretentious fool named Simplicius. Apparently overestimating the Church’s sense of humor, Galileo gave Simplicius a remarkable resemblance to the Pope.

And this was in 1632, right in the middle of the Thirty Years War. In the midst of religious genocide, the Church really did not need the distraction of a debate among our parishioners over the sun’s and the earth’s itinerary. Let’s face it: everything has to evolve around the Church. If Galileo couldn’t keep a civil tongue, he was lucky to have a tongue at all. We had nothing against the actual science; it was just at a really inconvenient time. Yes, the first convenient time turned to be 350 years later: nostra culpa.

But it really was Galileo’s fault. Did we condemn anyone else? No, because they were polite. Newton was willing to give God credit for inventing gravity. Einstein, Heisenberg, quantum physics–no problem; as long as it is unintelligible, the Church approves. Freud, well, that is just Jewish psychosis and is of no concern to the Church, at least since St. Paul. Did Edward Jenner brag, “Why didn’t Jesus think of this?” No, he didn’t; otherwise, we might have had to endorse smallpox. As for Darwin, he and the Church got along fine by ignoring each other.

So, it was always just a question of good manners. If science wants a grand unification theory, how about the Golden Rule?

Ex Cathedra Yours,

XVI