Galileo recants - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

GermanStar · #1 06-22-2004, 11:10 AM

Jun 22 1633

The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his scientific view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe: "I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith these errors and heresies, and I curse and detest them as well as any other error, heresy or sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church."

rickg · #2 06-22-2004, 11:40 AM

I heard that he had his fingers crossed behind his back while he was saying that.

KirkVining · #3 06-22-2004, 12:28 PM

I think you misquoted him:

"I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith these errors and heresies, and I curse and detest them as well as any other error, heresy or sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. I also did not inhale, nor did I have sex with that women, and I also have proof of WMDs on other planets."

Honus · #4 06-22-2004, 02:21 PM

Sounds like the Bush administration has taken a page from whatever book the Catholic Church was following back then: Union of Concerned Scientists' website.

kerry · #5 06-22-2004, 08:22 PM

I'm reading Arthur Koestler's The Sleepwalkers. It's an intellectual biography of Copernicus, Kepler, Brahe and Galileo.
It's pretty clear that the Church was correct in thinking that the heliocentric solar system as opposed to a geocentric universe was in fact unproven. There were reasons to believe that heliocentrism was true but the inability of anyone to explain the lack of parallax in reference to the stars was a strong reason against heliocentrism.

This doesn't justify the lack of intellectual freedom at the root of Galileo's trial, but a defense of Galileo does require defense of a man who decided to make claims for a theory which he knew were inaccurate and unproven.