A few hundred years ago most people still believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe, and that the Sun orbited the Earth. This was the view of the Catholic Church through the period of the astronomer Galileo’s life from 1564 to 1642.
During the period of the Renaissance, there was an explosion in the understanding of our Universe, and this was the case in the field of astronomy. People were beginning to question the Earth-centred model of our Universe; they were driven to do this by new scientific observations. The earliest mentions of a sun-centred solar system came from the Greek Aristarchus in around 270 BC, but although there was good evidence for the theory, it remained largely unexplored for over a millennium. In 1543 Copernicus published his work pushing forward the sun centred theory. He was aware of the hostile reaction which was likely to arrive, and he wrote a disclaimer that his work was purely mathematical. Anticipating a Catholic backlash, he made a dedication to the Pope in the front of his work. It was Galileo who took things further through his telescopic observations, and this persistent exploring was soon to bring him into conflict with established religion.
Galileo was at the cutting edge of human understanding when he published a work on planetary orbits early in the 17th century, and he must have been aware that his studies were in collision with orthodox Catholic principles. When the Catholic Church discovered his work, they brought their full force down on the apparently heretical Galileo. In 1615 the Church, through the Spanish Inquisition, forced Galileo to denounce his findings and forced him never to teach what he had discovered. But his work went on. Nearly 20 years later in 1633, Galileo again published his findings on the observed orbits of the planets and again the Spanish Inquisition was called into action. But they refused even to look through Galileo’s telescope, as they thought the devil could create illusions with such an instrument. To avoid being burnt at the stake Galileo again denounced his own work and he was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. Astonishingly, it wasn’t until 1992 that the Catholic Church, through Pope John Paul II, made a formal apology to Galileo and withdrew their accusations of heresy, and agreed that yes, the Earth does indeed revolve around the sun.
This story illustrates a recurring phenomenon in human behaviour – the persecution of truth. Galileo was viewed as a heretic simply because he questioned the current thinking of a large religious organisation, and threatened their institutional ego. As when a personal ego is threatened, the Church couldn’t cope with the possibility of looking foolish, so instead they took the more convenient option and went on the attack against the source of truth; in this case it was Galileo.
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.”
Galileo
Ironically, the raw truth is that it was Galileo who was becoming closer to God, and it was the Church who was being heretical. Since God and Truth are one and the same thing; in making his observations of the true nature of the planets, Galileo was looking at the truth – in effect he was looking at God! When he recorded his findings, he was in fact recording the words of God.
We learn through this example that religion is not infallible. In fact dogmatic religions make many mistakes, and it is not blasphemous to point this out. Where two different religions say two opposing things, then by plain logic, one or both of them must be wrong. For example, Buddhists say it is not okay to eat meat: Islam says it is. They cannot both be correct. One or both of them must be wrong.
But eventually, the Catholic Church found the courage to change. By finally accepting the truth, they allowed God in and they grew spiritually. It is only because change is seen as weak that we get ourselves into problematic situations. If we realise change is strength, and maybe make change some kind of religion in itself, we can navigate our lives with a lot less struggle.
“There are truths in this world that are ugly and humiliating,
and this is why people prefer diets of illusions.”
Friedrich Nietzsche