Galileo Goes to Rome for Inquisition - February 13, 1633
Did you know that Galileo was a philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer all at the same time? He was born in Pisa, Italy (think 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'. He held to the theory of Copernicus, which stated that everything revolves around the sun, not the earth as everyone wanted to believe. Do you see how easy it is for people to accept a comfortable thought or belief system, yet when it is challenged, anger rises? Anyway, Galileo was now being accused of heresy (and this is in the science field!) and is going for inquisition in Rome! Here is part of the article from www.history.com
On this day in 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo officially faced the Roman Inquisition in April of that same year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642.
You can read more on this from : www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Note: I also didn't realize that the sun-centered solar system conflicted with the Roman Catholic Church at that time. The Roman Inquisition was the judicial system established by the papacy to regulate church doctrine. That is why it was considered heresy. It was not only violating what was known (or thought of to be true) but it also went against church doctrine, which was essentially tied in with the governing powers. I always thought that the theory of the earth being the center of the solar system was strange. It appears to be a little 'self-centered'. Remember too, that this was only a theory. At some point it was disproved. Evolution is like that today. People accept it as fact, when it is only a theory, a theory with a lot of loose ends. Many features point to the opposite of evolution being valid, but people will scream that those features are not real, or they will come up with another confusing theory that will supposedly disprove that as well. You can have something right in front of your eyes, but if you don't want to believe, you will come up with anything to believe it's not true, for the sole reason that you don't want to accept it as true. The whole issue comes to choice. What are you going to believe?
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