Nuggets of History: The Galileo Affair

"The church hates science and always has!"

This is a common objection people usually raise when religious organizations like the Catholic Church make pronouncements on things that involve anything slightly related to science like evolution or life on other planets.

People are then quick to point out the Galileo affair and how the ignorant church persecuted Galileo for even proposing that the Earth is the center of the solar system. This, however, is a twisting of the facts which involved Galileo and the Catholic Church.

In the common telling of the tale, Galileo first proposed the heliocentric view (where the Earth revolves around the sun) to the church. The church, which then still held on to the geocentric view of the solar system saw this as going against Church teaching. The church then tried to force Galileo to recant his view and when he didn't was tried by the church, found guilty of heresy and imprisoned until he died. Galileo is often called a martyr of science as he was persecuted for his beliefs. The story goes on to tell of how this is how religion and science became two forces which cannot agree with each other.

This is a total myth. This myth was first mentioned 

The true story is more interesting as it was essentially the story of two men who got into a squabble which only escalated in the same way a fight between children usually escalates.

Here's the real story. While the Church did hold to the geocentric model, what most storytellers fail to mention is that everyone, including all leading scientists during that time, held to the geocentric model. As it was the status quo at the time, any competing theory about how the celestial bodies are arranged in space would have to have more explanatory power than the standing theory. It would have to explain everything we already knew up to that point in time that was explained sufficiently by the previous model - and more! Such is the case with any scientific inquiry.

As it so happened, Galileo was not the first person to introduce the heliocentric model. It was Nicolaus Copernicus. He first proposed the model but could not prove it. His model was able to account for the movements of the planets better than the geocentric model but it couldn't explain the tides. As such, the heliocentric model was a competing theory but with lacking explanatory power, that's the most it could ever be at that point in time.

Galileo, at the time thought (correctly, I might add) that the heliocentric model was the correct model for the solar system. Just as Copernicus before him couldn't explain the problems his model posed, Galileo couldn't explain them sufficiently as well. Galileo was working with a group of Jesuits (Catholic priests) to work out the kinks in his model when he wanted to teach as fact the heliocentric model.

Notice that his model, although correct, still had a lot of inaccuracies and so the church was hesitant to give him the go signal for this. Pope Urban VIII, who was a friend of Galileo's decided on a compromise. Galileo could write defending the heliocentric model as long as he cited its problems and that he should also do the same with the geocentric model. Galileo agreed and soon published his work on this entitled Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. And this is where the story hits a very interesting historical point.

Galileo's work involved a conversation between three main characters - Salviati, Sagredo, and Simplicio. Simplicio's character is portrayed as an intellectually inept fool. What Pope Urban VIII saw, however, was his own words being put in the mouth of the fool, Simplicio. For even more context, the Catholic Church at this time did not want to make any definitive statements especially in the field of science as just a century prior, the Reformation occurred in Europe and any false proclamation could be used against the Catholic Church.

It's for these reasons that Galileo was arrested and put on trial. He was eventually found guilty to be "vehemently suspect of heresy," which just means, "preaching things he has no proof for." To be fair, Galileo didn't have proof for his theory. Even the scientific community wasn't convinced by his explanations. Remember that during this time, the geocentric model was the status quo and the heliocentric model was only an alternative model.

For his punishment, Galileo was put under house arrest until he died. While it sounds gruesome, it should be noted that he could leave anytime. He was even provided a chauffeur and could be visited anytime. It was during his house arrest where Galileo was able to further work on the heliocentric model with the help again of the Jesuits.

So the story of Galileo was simply one of one man insulting another and being put on house arrest for it. It had little to do with his actual views on heliocentrism. It was a story of a man who pushed too hard something he could not prove.