This is random, but would Martin Luther say the church was justified by making Galileo's books forbidden?

Question

I was just reading about Galileo and this question just came to thought for some reason. So what do you think?

Answer 1

This is an interesting question, and I did a little research --as I had never really thought about this idea before.

Some have felt that Luther was resistant to scientific progress, but I read one interesting paper which suggests that this reputation is not well-deserved. I am pasting a section of this paper below--perhaps you will find it interesting as well.

Without the Reformation, modern science would probably have developed in any event because of the ethos of rationality and the doctrine of creation conducive to it. The Reformation, however, hastened the development by criticizing scholasticism and by putting emphasis on the direct observation of nature. Luther has been called the Copernicus of theology while, on the other hand, Copernicus has been called the Luther of astronomy. Indeed, Thomas Sprat, an Anglican clergyman and an early member of the Royal Society, emphasized that there was a reformation, some would say revolution, in both philosophy and theology [3]. In natural philosophy or science, questions about nature were no longer answered primarily by quoting Aristotle and the Scholastics, but by turning to observation of and experimentation on nature itself. Similarly, after the Reformation, Protestants no longer answered questions in theology primarily by quoting scholastic philosophers and theologians, but by turning directly to the Bible. Luther interpreted Scripture by asking: what is the clear and straightforward meaning of the text? Scientists interpret nature in the simplest way using the minimum number of hypotheses.

Luther believed that the world was beginning a new age, which would bring not only a reform of religion but a new appreciation of nature. In his informal "Table Talk" he said,

We are at the dawn of a new era, for we are beginning to recover the knowledge of the external world that was lost through the fall of Adam. We now observe creatures properly .... But by the grace of God we already recognize in the most delicate flower the wonders of divine goodness and omnipotence [4].

In the last part of this statement, Luther paraphrased the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans (Rom. 1:20).

Luther was open to the authentic scientific advances of his age [5]. He appreciated the mechanical inventions of his day.

He accepted the use of medicine in treating disease and is quoted as having said [6],

It's our Lord God who created all things and they are good. Wherefore it's permissible to use medicine, for it is a creature of God.

To someone who said that it is not permissible for a Christian to use medicine, Luther replied rhetorically, "Do you eat when you are hungry?" According to Andrew White [7], this attitude of Luther made the Protestant cities of Germany more ready than others to admit anatomical investigation and dissection.

Luther accepted astronomy as a science, but rejected astrology as a superstition because it cannot be confirmed by demonstration. Astrology, according to Luther, is idolatry and violates the first commandment. He was both amused and distressed by Melanchthon's interest in astrology, a belief system that was widely accepted at the time [8]. Instead, for example, Luther was ready to accept the conclusion of the astronomers that the moon is the smallest and lowest of the "stars." He interpreted the Scripture that called both the sun and the moon "great lights" as accommodating itself to the appearance of the phenomena [9]. Had this principle of accommodation based on interpreting the Bible in a phenomenological way been maintained after Luther's death, the tragic conflict in the modern era between science and biblical literalism could probably have been avoided.
III. Luther and Copernicus

Luther has been severely criticized for an offhand remark that he made about Copernicus. For example, Hugh Kearny writes that Luther's attitude toward Copernicus's theory was similar to a savage looking at a watch that he did not understand [10]. Jerzy Neyman says that Luther's remark is the "crudest imaginable piece of dogmatism" [11]. Even the careful historian, Herbert Butterfield, called Luther's remark a "scathing condemnation" [12]. Thomas Kuhn, the respected historian and philosopher of science, says that "Protestant leaders like Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon led in citing Scripture against Copernicus and in urging repression of Copernicans"[l3]. A recent astronomy textbook [l4] states that "Luther attacked Copernicus." Andrew White writes that "all branches of the Protestant Church ... vied with each other in denouncing the Copernican doctrine as contrary to Scripture" [15]. These quotations and others serve to reinforce a common view that Christianity attempts to suppress scientific truth.

The famous (or infamous) remark of Luther was made in 1539. In the spring of that year, Georg Joachim Rheticus, a professor of mathematics at the University of Wittenberg, was granted a leave to visit Nicolaus Copernicus in Frauenberg, Poland to learn more about his new theory that the earth and planets revolve about the sun. At that time not very much was known about the new theory, except from hearsay. The purpose of Rheticus’s trip must have prompted discussion among the faculty and students of Wittenberg, especially in Luther's home [17].

Anthony Lauterbach, who dined with the Luthers, quotes the conversation pertaining to Copernicus as follows [l8]:

There was mention of a certain astrologer who wanted to prove that the earth moves and not the sky, the sun, and the moon. This would be as if somebody were riding on a cart or in a ship and imagined that he was standing still while the earth and the trees were moving. [Luther remarked] "So it goes now. Whoever wants to be clever must agree with nothing that others esteem. He must do something of his own. This is what that fellow does who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy upside down. Even in these things that are thrown into disorder I believe the Holy Scriptures, for Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth [Jos. 10:12]."

To put this remark in perspective, it was made four years before the publication of Copernicus's book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres [18].

Another version of the same conversation by John Aurifaber uses the expression "that fool" (Der Narr) instead of "that fellow" [l9]. It is the expression "that fool" which has led to the intemperate remarks about Luther mentioned earlier. Lauterbach's version of the "Table Talk" is generally more reliable than Aurifaber's version [20, 21]. Even if Luther had called Copernicus, who was not mentioned by name, a fool, that would have been a rather mild epithet coming from Luther. The "Table Talk" was based on notes taken by students of Luther. The notes were compiled and first published in 1566, twenty years after Luther's death [22]. Thus the remark cannot be construed as part of a concerted attack on Copernicus or Copernicans. The use of the word "astrologer" in the introductory remarks should not necessarily be interpreted as disparaging, since at that time the terms "astrologer" and "astronomer" were often used more or less synonymously.

Luther saw that Copernicus's view was indeed a revolutionary one. He could not accept it because it was contrary to his common sense and his interpretation of the Bible. That a person in a cart moving at constant velocity is at rest with respect to the cart, while trees are in motion with respect to him, is an example of what is now called Galilean relativity. By quoting Joshua [23] Luther, of course, did not refute Copernicus [24]. Johannes Kepler later applied Luther's own principle of biblical interpretation to the passage by saying that it only appeared that the sun stood still, but it would actually have been the earth [25].

Luther was a well educated man for his day. He had studied logic, psychology, spherical astronomy, metaphysics, mathematics and arithmetic, and was well acquainted with theories of music, perspective, natural and moral philosophy, politics, and economics, besides his biblical studies [26]. He accepted the geocentric view of the universe; but this was natural since the doctrines of Aristotle and Ptolemy dominated the intellectual climate of his day. He rejected some of the views of some of his professors at Erfurt. He denied that God resided in the outermost sphere, the twelfth heaven, because he believed that God is omnipresent. For the same reason he did not take literally the Scripture that the ascended Christ sat down at the right hand of the Father.

Luther's view of the Copernican theory was certainly not a reactionary one for his day. After all, there was no direct evidence for the Copernican theory in 1539..."

More at http://www.leaderu.com/science/kobe.html#attitude