Query about the Galileo case

[MG1962]

Thanks to everyone who commented on the Galileo case. I believe that even in light of the information available in his day, Galileo’s arguments were much better than those of his opponents. But Thomas Henry Huxley and Augustus De Morgan thought otherwise, and I just wanted to read their statements in context.

A side issue: Galileo could be abrasive, but the arguments his contemporaries brought against him would try anyone’s patience, including that of a modern reader who tries to sort them out.

Galois

One of the hardest parts of any discussion like this is putting ourselves into the mindset of the people involved as well as the personalities. We only have the writings of the time to base our opinions off - The Church is not going to write anything that puts itself in a bad light and Galileo is not going to talk himself down either.

All up though regardless of your position it is a fascinating moment in history that provides endless musing and complications about events

 

[Craig B]

All up though regardless of your position it is a fascinating moment in history that provides endless musing and complications about events

Here's some musings on the topic by Cardinal Ratzinger, delivered in 1990.

From the point of view of the concrete consequences of the turning point Galileo represents, however, C.F. Von Weizsacker takes another step forward, when he identifies a “very direct path” that leads from Galileo to the atomic bomb.
To my great surprise, in a recent interview on the Galileo case, I was not asked a question like, ‘Why did the Church try to get in the way of the development of modern science?’, but rather exactly the opposite, that is: ‘Why didn’t the church take a more clear position against the disasters that would inevitably follow, once Galileo had opened Pandora’s box?’

http://ncronline.org/node/11541 Perhaps he should have been burned like Giordano Bruno, and then that horrid thing "modern science" would never have come into being.

 

[MG1962]

Here's some musings on the topic by Cardinal Ratzinger, delivered in 1990. http://ncronline.org/node/11541 Perhaps he should have been burned like Giordano Bruno, and then that horrid thing "modern science" would never have come into being.

Na - The English were very well placed to carry the torch - the science of astronomy through to aiding of Newton with his calculations occurred with very little consideration for Galileo's work