Why did the Roman Catholic Church dig in its heels over an elegant
but wrongheaded theory of the universe? Why drag Galileo before the
Inquisition? Why take an often friendly and fruitful relationship --
the cooperation between Western religion and science -- and turn it
into a power trip?
Galileo was no iconoclast. He was the favorite scientist of the
bishops in Tuscany. In fact, he was an old friend of Maffeo Barberini,
now known as Pope Urban VIII. Hadn't the two of them, Galileo and the
pope, met several times to discuss the motions of the spheres?
True, they disagreed. Galileo, with his revolutionary telescopes
and his mastery of mathematics and pre-Newtonian physics, was sure
that the Polish radical Copernicus had been correct. The Earth was not
the center of the universe; it was a satellite spinning around the
sun. The pope held to the old belief: Man -- God's image on Earth --
was the center of all creation, and therefore it was obvious, as a
matter of reason and faith, that everything visible must revolve
around us.
They disagreed, yes, but it seemed like an amiable argument.
Galileo enjoyed the patronage of the church and wished to keep it. He
agreed to write about his theories only as a notion, just one
hypothesis, no better or more certain than the old model. The pope was
happy. But when Galileo's book came out, Galileo's theory was
presented in compelling terms, while the pope's views were expressed
by a character named Simplicio.
The pope was a very proud man.
So there was Galileo, on trial before the Inquisition.
Was he threatened with the rack? Sort of. People still argue about
this, but it makes not a whit of difference anymore. What matters is
this: Galileo was right about the universe, but he was forced publicly
to confess error. He became the first great martyr for the scientific
method, which was, even then, becoming the most important way of
thinking in our millennium.
What if . . . ?
What if the pope had said the smart thing, the true thing?
"Galileo Galilei, my old friend, I'm in the religion business, not the
science business. Like all men, I wonder about the stars -- but
whether they move, and how, has nothing to do with our souls. There
are questions for telescopes, and questions for faith."
The pope did not.
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