Galileo Galilei Rough Draft
Who discovered most of the astronomic knowledge that humans have today? Who revised and improved the laws of physics? Galileo Galilei was one of the most important, if not, the most important scientists of the Renaissance. His discoveries have influenced science from the Renaissance up to the modern era. Galileo was one of the most influential men during the Renaissance. His contributions to science, and his mission to help the Church understand God’s universe still impact the world today.
The Renaissance was one of the best eras in human history. The Renaissance was a long, successful time in history filled with new interest in the arts (Ramirez 439) such as art, religion, science, and music. The word Renaissance
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But, now that he was an astronomer, he wanted to help the Church understand God’s universe, and he wanted to convince the Church of his theories. Galileo had a mission to stop the church from believing in the Earth-centered universe, because he thought that when people found out that he was right, they would question the Church’s knowledge (Swisher 22). But convincing the Church wasn’t easy, because even expert astronomers didn’t know, comprehend, or believe the amount of evidence that Galileo possessed (Swisher 22). Galileo didn’t think that the Bible should be taken exactly; he believed that most of the stuff written in in the Bible was metaphorical (Hakim 110). He also thought that science, reason, and studying God’s creation could be used to comprehend, enhance, and to even interpret the Bible (Hakim 110). He wrote about nature in relations with math and atoms in his book The Assayer (Hakim 111). He even wrote in Italian, not Latin, so that normal, everyday people could read and try to comprehend his theories (Hakim 111). This greatly upset the Church. Furthermore, because almost all of Galileo’s theories upset most people, and the church, he was placed under house arrest (Ramirez 441). Galileo’s theories weren’t accepted until after his death. That was why Galileo was so important to the Renaissance, he made so many discoveries, and he tried to help the Church in any way he could, but his ideas weren’t
In the midst of this, Cardinal Bellarmine wrote him a letter explaining why his ideas were not going to be accepted. He said: “But to want to affirm that the sun really is fixed in the center of the heavens and only revolves around itself (i.e., turns upon its axis) without traveling from east to west, and that the earth is situated in the third sphere and revolves with great speed around the sun, is a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false” (Document B). The Cardinal explains how Galileo is contradicting the teachings of the theologists, philosophers, and the Bible. Also, he is doing a dangerous deed because the Church was afraid of these contradicting ideas because they could have destroyed the perspective on the Church and caused a major decrease in power. Galileo contradicting the Church impacted the future by causing more people to begin and question the ways of life, leading to new
It is plausible that Galileo may have been trying to expand, or change the way that the church had interpreted the Bible. A main point in this was that in his letter, he never outright said that the church was wrong, or that the Bible was wrong. He did, however, constantly imply that there was something wrong with the ideas. As a devoted Catholic who was high ranking, an influential power, and having political connection in the Catholic Church, it would have been unimaginable that Galileo would say the the Bible was wrong.
He felt it was the Bible’s intent to separate the most intelligent people from the common people to make discoveries based on intelligent thoughts created from reading the Holy Scriptures. Galileo thought that new discoveries would then bring interpretations based on proven truths rather than interpretations based on the opinion of the interpreter. Galileo also believed that the Bible had multiple interpretations to insure everyone would understand.
There are countless scientists that contributed to the scientific revolution; however, Copernicus’ work was instrumental to the development of modern science. Galileo and Newton’s discoveries were still very important, but they were shaped by Copernicus’ ideas. Without Copernicus, Galileo never would have been able to collect the evidence that supports a heliocentric universe and without Galileo’s work, Newton would not have been able to discover the Laws of Motion and Law of Universal Gravitation. Galileo invented a telescope and used it to study the moons of Jupiter, refuting Ptolemy’s geocentric ideas.
God said that the earth stood still, and Galileo said that the sun stood still. Cardinal Bellarmine knows that what Galileo said goes against the church, and says “Nor may it be answered that this is not a matter of faith... it is on the part of the ones who have spoken. It would be just as heretical to deny that Abraham, had two sons and Jacob twelve, as it would be to deny the virgin birth of Christ, for both are declared by the Holy Ghost through mouths of the prophets and apostles” (Cardinal Bellarmine). This excerpt from Bellarmine’s letter proved that Galileo is a heretic. The Bible is not a matter of faith, it is made up of those who have spoken. This means that the Bible isn’t something that you can choose to believe or not; it is actual words that have been spoken, which contain facts. Because other things stated in the Bible are true, like the virgin birth of Christ, the heliocentric universe must also be true. The Bible is full of spoken words and truths, and what Galileo spoke against those things, in turn making him a
First of all, Galileo began selling the proportional compass in 1596. The proportional compass helped complete arithmetic calculations and geometric operations more easily. It helped in the military field to calculate where to launch weapons. It also helped architects draw more accurate blueprints. Galileo changed the way people could design and fight with this invention, it was incredibly helpful to them, making him the number one BMOC of that time. Galileo was also a mathematics professor at the university of Padua, and he taught many students during his time there. In addition to deepening his own understanding of mathematics, he was also deepening his students’ understanding of mathematics. His teachings might have sparked ideas in his students, and they might have been affected positively by him. During the Renaissance, lots of things changed, and Galileo might have changed the way that his students thought about mathematics, or even the world. His change towards them might have brought about more change through them, demonstrating that Galileo was a BMOC. Next, Galileo wrote a book in Italian that demonstrated his view on Copernicus’s theory of the heliocentric universe. It showed a supporter of the Copernican universe discussing with a supporter of the Ptolemaic universe, both trying to convince a third party that their stance on the matter was correct. The one who
He came to accept Copernicus’ views of heliocentricity and would spend a lifetime trying to fit pieces of the truth together in order to create a clearer image for society. He constantly encounter opposition about his views and worked under the unforgiving hand of the catholics (Ironic…..Unforgiving Christians). A lot of those who read his pieces found clarity in its contents, but it contradicted the Bible, and as such an internal acceptance of the its contents would have to suffice. Galileo's later works on motion were unlike any other seen before. This was due to a combination of his love for mechanics as well as his love for scientific enlightenment. As he could not accurately measuring instances in a raw setting, he created model from which he could derive accurate data. Prior to this, data was mainly collected through the observation of subjects in nature. Galileo’s process is still used today and would become a stepping stone for experimentation in the
Written near the time of the letter to Madame Christina, the letter was sent to the Holy Office, who at first did not consider it heresy, but later did. Galileo claimed that his publishings on Copernican theory were merely interpretation of data and not theoretical: “through the Scripture cannot err, nevertheless some of its interpreters and expositors can sometimes err in various ways" Nonetheless, the Church imposed their first condemnation of Galileo at this time (Finocchiaro). This sudden change of heart was due to the fact that certain leaders within the church were offended by his so-called interpretation, claiming that it was in actual fact support of Copernican science. There was no proper investigation done as to whether Galileo’s finding held truth, and the Church accused him of going against Scripture without properly understanding the topic of which Galileo spoke (Langford). The Church had failed to see the difference between Catholic and Aristotelian teachings and saw any attack on Aristotle’s philosophy as an attack on the Church. Therefore, under the rule of the Catholic Church, Galileo was no longer allowed to publish nor teach Copernican
The Renaissance, a gorgeous, outstanding, time period of many greats, and brave noble men and woman. Wouldn’t you like to know more? The Renaissance had many artist like Leonardo da Vinci, and many other great discoveries such as the human body. Humanism influenced many people in different ways through literature, and astronomy.
In summer of 1609, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) pointed his revolutionary astronomical telescope to the heavens under the starry Venetian sky; his greatly important observations unveiled the mysteries of universe and would end up changing the course of scientific thought forever. Galileo lived in an age where there was much status quo, when scientists and philosophers would accept scientific and religious doctrine that had stood for hundreds, if not thousands, of years instead of challenging the accepted knowledge in favor of intellectual progress. Galileo’s scientific methods lead to significant discoveries explaining key scientific laws, such as the
The people who could read his works, mostly the upper class and the clergy, did not trust him and ignored his works. Many of the people who did read his works deemed Galileo as a heretic and lunatic. Within a couple of years, he was put on trial in front of the Inquisition and they convicted him of heresy, but since Galileo was already in his late sixty’s, the Inquisition put him under house arrest for the rest of his days (“Galileo
One of Galileo’s main issues was the purpose of scripture with regards to interpretation. Galileo makes the argument that Scripture cannot be wrong but it is up to the interpretation of it. For example, he stated, “Though the scripture cannot err, nevertheless some of its interpreters and expositors can sometimes err in various ways” . Furthermore he states that if we were to take the literal meaning of what the scripture states – we would be personifying God by giving him human characteristics of a body and emotions. In essence the literal interpretation would give God the right to make mistakes, which of course would not be accepted by anyone in the church.
The scientific revolution was one of the greatest times in the 16th century and its ideals have proved to last to this very day. The great minds of the scientific revolution brought forth new concepts and vastly complex while each one is rooted in a basic fundamental. Some of these ideas and fundamentals were of the outside world, aka space, the planet and the stars, motion, and physics. One of the best minds of this time was, of course, Galileo Galilei. This great astronomer was a marvel at his work, he introduced controversial concepts that the church did not accept but those that he believed were to be true. Written by Galileo himself, this letter to the Grand Duchess professed his great discoveries and how they changed old ideas and
“That moment when the Church excommunicates you for being right.” In 1564 on February 15th in Pisa, Italy, Galileo Galilei was born. Throughout his life he had numerous accomplishments including being the first person to study the sky with a telescope, which led to numerous other astronomically astronomical discoveries. If he would not have existed we may never have uncovered many of the truths about space and astronomy. Galileo Galilei was a man of thought and curiosity, these characteristics led him to be one the most well known and influential scientists in the world today.
The Earth was not the center of the universe. Galileo had seen far into the heavens with the telescope he had designed and created an even more accurate mold of the universe. He trumpeted his views everywhere, and condemned anyone who