An analogy of Galileo to modern religious controversy, don't read if you are offended by opposing views?

Question

An obvious answer, posing a threat to what was considered divine truth. It did have reason behind it. The sun from Earth looks small, and appears to circle us every day. Now he could come up with all the evidence he wanted but a true man of faith holds firmly that the word of God is truth, plus it was seemingly obviously contrary to popular knowledge, so he went to jail. Now nearly 500 years later anyone who agrees with the church from that time is obviously wrong no matter what looks true and is either ill informed or a stubbornly ignorant person. Religion was obviously a knowledge suppressor at this point and bigotted peoples views so they couldn't even consider hard evidence. Does this sound similar to a current arguemeant about creation and the origin of species (hint)? Doesn't it seem just a matter of time until another outdated theory is shot down no matter how much false reason it has? If you disagree still then I just ask you to keep an open mind, I don't want to convert you.

I don't want to tell you God doesn't exist (even though I very strongly think so) that isn't the purpose here. I want you to be OPEN MINDED. I used caps to catch the attention of anyone who felt like skipping this, no harm intended, just encouraging thought on the subject.

Obviously Galileo's heliocentric theory was wrong and orbits are imperfect elipses but that makes the analogy more valid. He was wrong about some details but overall was much closer to the truth than the point.

Much closer to the truth than the church was*

Got my words mixed up, typing too fast.

Another correction, heliocentric theory isn't wrong, I'm getting my words all mixed up, I mean his belief in perfect circular orbits. I know helio - sun centric - center, thats true, I need to slw down typing.

"In the pantheon of the scientific revolution, Galileo takes a high position because of his pioneering use of quantitative experiments with results analyzed mathematically. There was no tradition of such methods in European thought at that time; the great experimentalist who immediately preceded Galileo, William Gilbert, did not use a quantitative approach"

Julia, at least wikipedia seems to think he DID justify his theory, and the church literally forbid his teachings, doesn't seem very interested in it. Not trying to be condescending, tone doesn't come across right in typing sometimes.

Answer 1

The problem with religion is, it is an extremely narrow minded way of looking at things. Each religion and 'religion' has it's own tenants and dogmas... some more oppressive and onerous than other... but all religions have one thing in common... keeping the masses in line and soaking the faithful for their money to keep the religious leaders in a lifestyle their flock can't afford.

Religions are self serving entities that prey on the weak and the weak minded by filling their heads with false hopes and promises. These religions will do ANYTHING to keep the faithful blind to the truth... they will do ANYTHING to keep theirselves in power at the expense of the faithful.

When the Spanish came to the New World, they brought the Priests... Franciscan and Jesuit... to back up the military in their attemps to enslave the local Indians... the military would subdue them and the Priests would fill their heads with all that nonsense about Geezus and how the conquered needed to accept their Spanish Masters because it's what God and Geezus wanted.

Stalin said that "Religion is Opium for the Masses"... and, like Opium, it leave the user mind numb and stuperous and to merely follow orders because they don't have the ability to think for theirselves.

IT IS BETTER TO HAVE A BRAIN AND NO RELIGION THAN TO HAVE A RELIGION AND NO BRAIN.

The religious leaders fear that the faithful may wake up some day and realize what a crock of it that religion really is... then those same leaders would be out of a job. Remember... it was the RABBI's who had Geezus (assuming he actually lived) killed... it wasn't the Romans and it wasn't Pontius Pilot although they got the rap... they were just the vehicle of destruction, it was the Religious Leaders who were the cause of that destruction.

Answer 2

Oh dear ... yet another person affected by the popular misconceptions surrounding Galileo and the Church.

Galileo didn't get into trouble because of his theory on heliocentrism, by itself.

He got into trouble because the Church merely asked him to prove his theory before teaching it as fact -- something that is entirely reasonable to request, and something that Galileo refused to do.

Actually, many in the Church were quite interested in Galileo's theories. The Church was the primary patron of science and learning back then, so why wouldn't it be?

We know now, of course, that Galileo was correct in that the earth moves around the sun. But at that time, he had not yet PROVEN it.

That's all the Church was asking. His refusal to do so was the reason why he got into trouble.

It was not, as popularly believed today, because he was "challenging divine truth."

In truth, he was breaking the laws of science by teaching as fact an unproven theory.

Besides, part of Galileo's heliocentric theory was that the sun (not the earth) was the center of the universe.

Neither are true. The sun is not, as Galileo postulated, the center of the universe. We know that now.

So ... if the Church had just blindly accepted Galileo's theory of heliocentrism as fact (something which many secularists today seem to insist it should have done), then the Church would have been endorsing a theory that was partially false.

Answer 3

Hannah's answer is good. But it's not just their previous policy. This year a gay dating site tried to advertise on CBS and was turned down. That shows it's not a change in policy as CBS claims, they're simply running the Tebow ad in a show of blatant favoritism. As for the claim that it's a positive story, that's also dubious at best. I'm happy for the guy that he's done well, but if he had turned out to be a murderer or crack head, are they saying she should have aborted? The entire ad amounts to an "biased sampling" fallacy. When people ask why the average person in the US can't reason very well, it is because of nonsense like that.

Answer 4

I agree that that appears to be the situation, however it will take a lot more evidence of evolution just as it took a lot more evidence of that sun-in-the-center thing to change anyone's mind and that seems reasonable to me. One should need some good evidence to change your mind about something so central to your religion. What doesn't seem reasonable is for people to try to say they "know" evolution is false, to try to keep people from finding more info, and even to say that just because it doesn't fit in the Bible, it is wrong, because other things that don't fit in the Bible (like a round planet) have been proven right. All I ask is for people to sit back and observe until there are some real answers, taking the current evidence into account and allowing for the distribution of that scientific evidence. You can distribute your religious "evidence" as you wish, but realize it is not based in scientific fact and you have to respect the science behind the current theory of evolution.

Answer 5

Did you know that the Catholic church has already publicly accepted evolution as a valid theory worthy of consideration? I guess they learned from their mistakes in sticking to their interpretations despite strong scientific evidence against taking certain parts of the Bible literally. This whole ID controversy seems to mainly just occur in the US as a political issue where people seem to think evolution contradicts their belief in God...if people would just keep an open mind when they first studied evolution then they'd realize that it makes sense and there is no reason to be concerned about it destroying their faith.

Answer 6

Galileo was convicted in the 17th century, but it wasn't until 1992 (more than 300 years!) when Pope John Paul II apologized for that condemnation -- "the earth does indeed revolve around the sun" -- but the Vatican acknowledgment of error had something of the self-exoneration of "We Remember" about it. The pope cited "a tragic mutual incomprehension" between the Inquisition and the scientist -- "as if there were errors on both sides!"

Answer 7

First off. All science at the time was based on religion and it was the other scientists of the time that got the Catholic Church (a business NOT the true church) to imprison him. So if you are goin to use history then use ALL of the history, NOT just what you like about it. Since this is true how can you ask us to be open minded when you are so closed minded?

Answer 8

It was the dark ages and the Catholic church was in charge of things so any independent thought was severly discouraged and if you did not conform to what they said, you were killed or if you were lucky maybe you could be tortured or jailed till you recanted and said you were wrong and they were right. Today they do not have the ultimate power but they will regain it soon and then watch out as you will see the same thing happen again. Anyone with the audacity to not go along with what they teach will go to prison, be tortured or killed. It happened before and it will happen again. History repeats itself. Read the bible prophecy and you will see for yourself.

Answer 9

it is not similar

the church erred in Galeo's day becasue they falsely asserted that the Bible taught against what Galieo said when the Bible did no such thing

not so in a creation discussion where what the Bible said is in fact an issue. In fact the church would err today if it gets intimidated and abandons what the bible says

they are quite different issues

Answer 10

the m,ain problem is how ppl understand evolution. Plus what you are asking is for ppl to trow away their belives coz everything for the religious ppl around the world is based on some creations stories. You prove creation wrong.. who religion is gone.
Its hard to accept them and specialy if we concider that religion this days is pure busness.