Trial Of Galileo

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Trial of Galileo

Q1

In 1633, Father Vincenzo Maculani da Firenzuola as appointed by the Pope Urban VIII began his duty as the inquisitor and started the trial of Galileo Galilei. The charges that were placed on Galileo were the fact that he believed that the revolution of the earth is around the Sun, not the other way around. It was standard practice that during the trial that the accused was to be secluded and imprisoned during the trial (Linder). Galileo refused to accept the Church's orthodoxical view that the earth lay in the centre of the universe and was an immovable object. This is because the church believed in the notion that the Sun revolved around the earth and as that was written in the scripture it could never be disputed. Even though there were a plethora of scientists even before Galileo, who had a belief that the earth was not the centre of the universe.

In order to survive the trials, Galileo said that he did not believe in the Copernican view, but on the other hand, continued his writing on this subject. This was mainly done in order to promote discussion on the topic rather than show it out to be as a belief. He showed this in his workings and people reading his books started to get swayed by his arguments (Linder). Another reason why the church puts Galileo on trial for heresy was that the people that had supported the Ptolemaic system were starting to realize that thinking was not even defendable. As they did not want to accept defeat of any sort, they started taking action to curb the influence of Galileo. Furthermore, there was a total of three charges placed on Galileo that got him in trouble. These were the belief that the sun was the middle of the universe, his ideas in the book took away God's spender and the culmination of these two things led to the charge that Galileo defied the 1616 decree set against him.

The significance of this trial is that there were even more scientist that had started working more heavily on this idea. Bradly was the one who supported Galileo's view in his book the aberration of light. His discovery led to the church accepting the Copernican view and led to them, allowing for the publication of the works of Galileo. Furthermore, the trial of Galileo was such a tumultuous time that it lingered in the mind of many intellectuals. A commission was developed in order to look into the controversy between the Copernican and the Ptolemaic view.

Q2

In essence, Galileo never had any problem with religion and used most of his scientific knowledge in pursuit of proving religious beliefs. His conflict emerged when his supporting of the Copernican science went against the Aristotelian science belief of the church. Galileo had always worked on expressing his biblical views and his scientific views that supported Copernicus. He wrote all this down in his letter to the Duchess of Tuscany (Linder). The sad part is that the same letter became the basis of his first trial. The primary problem that was found by researchers was that the Aristotle science was going out of fashion, but the church unseemly stood attached to it. This led to the delusion that both Aristotle and the Christine teachings were the same thing. Also, as there was distinguishment between philosophy and science, for the church if Aristotle was considered wrong, it can be thought that Christianity was wrong. Furthermore, reformation also played a huge part in Galileos views on the interaction between science and religion. Due to the rise of Protestantism the church had lost a considerable amount of influence and power. So a list of different books were laid out that were prohibited to Catholics, including those that challenged traditional scripture.

In fact, Galileo was a very god-fearing man and this was prevalent from his reaction to s first sighting through his telescope. Galileo saw the Milky Way, mountains and valleys of the moon, which were all relevant to his Copernican beliefs. Just as a good catholic, he offered as much as praise as he could to God and for being benevolent enough for allowing him to be the first-ever person to unravel those marvels that have been hidden for centuries (Linder). He believed that it was God’s will that allowed him to be strong and determined enough to be able to make something that opened the secrets of the universe to him. Furthermore, in his letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, he offered a strong defence against the church orthodoxy and its prevailing nature. In his words, he said that the same God who gave humanity abilities such as sense, intellect and reason, did just not give us these so we could forego their use. That same god wanted humanity to attain knowledge using those senses. Furthermore, he would not want humanity to let go of things such as sense and reason in the matter regarding the physical reality. It is that reality that is approachable by our eyes and minds through experience or demonstrations.

Q3

Galileo had some of the most immense contributions to the advancement of science. This is one of the reasons why he was called the father of modern science. His contribution ranges in various disciples of modern science. Another famous contribution was affirming the theories of Copernicus and proving to the world that the earth is not the centre of the solar system. He based this theory on certain facts such as that there were moons in orbit around Jupiter (Linder). This gave him the idea that the earth cannot be the sole centre of the solar system. Moreover, as there is no perfect immutable realm of celestial due to the surface of the moon being rough, he discredited another one of Aristotle's theories. His theories regarding solar rotation due to the presence of shifting sunspots also were another one of his discoveries. His discoveries had led to his persecution at the hands of the church.

The Galileos law of falling bodies is one of the most important contributions of Galileo to modern physics. According to the law presented by him the speed of a falling object is the same no matter the shape or the weight of an object. Using his experiments he was able to counter the view of Aristotle, who stated that heavier objects fall faster whereas lighter objects fall slower. It was also Galileo that developed the idea of inertia which in the future became the basis for one of the laws of motion of Newton.

References

Linder, Doug. "The Trial Of Galileo: An Account." Law2.umkc.edu. N.p., 2002. Web. 25 Sept. 2019.