June 18, 2019 • 23 mins
Galileo wrote the following in his 1615 letter to the Grand Duchess Christina: "But I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them." Galileo was convinced the sun was near the center of the universe. Other people (ahem, the Catholic Church), not so much. As we are still fully aware of today, it can be pretty rough to get people onboard with new scientific knowledge -- and to get them to give up what they've always known.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Isn't it true you have a science degree from Yale
Bachelor of Arts degree? Is it a political science degree? Science?
So how do you get a Bachelor of Arts in
a science Well, it's liberal arts education and degree. It's
a bachelor Okay, so it's not really science. So I
think it's somewhat appropriate that somebody with a pseudoscience degree
(00:22):
is here pushing pseudoscience in front of our committee today.
You have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have
seen and taking a picture of a black hole. I
wanted to specifically talk about the aerodynamics Akaino source and
(00:42):
the lies that these paleontologists have been feeding you for
your entire lives. He says he genetically edited human embryos
not just for research, but for implantation, leading to the
world's first births of genetically alter humans baby girls born
in China from embryos designed to be resistant to HIV.
(01:12):
In a minute, Oh hi there, Welcome to twenty nineteen,
a time when quadruped robots can open doors. Researchers are
working on printing body parts. Burgers not made out of
meat tastes just like meat, and some people believe NASA's
use of composite images proves that Earth is not round.
(01:38):
I'm Eve Steph Code, and this is unpopular a podcast
about the people in history who did not let the
threat of persecution keep them from speaking truth to power
more often than I probably should. I wonder how my
ancestors would react to modern technology. I mean, I am
(01:59):
at in someone who only knew oil lamps, pressing buttons
on a PlayStation, making simulated people move on a gigantic screen,
or my great great great great grandmother, who likely once
were shackles around her ankles watching me use a smartphone
to call a lift to pick me up, just me,
no restrictions. I know that not everyone in the world
(02:23):
has the privilege of accessing such technology, and I know
that this kind of situation has been the gag and
many a poorly executed comedy. I just think the reason
I think about this so much is so I remember
not to take how far humankind has advanced for granted,
and so I hold onto that youthful awe that can
(02:45):
dissipate so easily in a world that can be super
harsh at times. Nobody snapped their fingers and created my microwave.
I'm grateful for the years of research, experimentation, and design
people put in to create a multitude of technologies that
allow me to warm my leftovers up in less than
three minutes. I realize how much science cushions my comfortable life,
(03:09):
and I pay my respects by daydreaming about raising my
forebears from a did to come revel in all with me.
I know people way back in the day couldn't fathom
something like social media or robot vacuums unless they were
like nostro damis or something. It's hard to see past
the current situation. It's impossible to know what knowledge science
(03:33):
will bring us in the future, and thanks to our hubris,
it's not easy to imagine that something we believed to
be utterly and undeniably true about the world could be
completely wrong. Being wrong after you thought you had it
all figured out is like dropping your ice cream cone
on the hot summer day before you even got one
(03:54):
lick in, or buying a pair of pants you thought
hat pockets, only to find out they were fake pockets.
Cognitive dissonance kicks in when our beliefs are challenged. We
want to be right. We need to be right to
reduce the discomfort of that dissonance. Suppose an individual believes
(04:14):
something with his whole heart. Suppose further that he has
a commitment to this belief and he has taken irrevocable
actions because of it. Finally, supposed that he has presented
with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence that his belief is wrong.
What will happen. The individual will frequently emerge not only unshaken,
(04:35):
but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs
than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new
fervor for convincing and converting other people to his view.
Psychologist Leon Festinger, Henry W. Reikan, and Stanley Shackter wrote
that in the book When Prophecy Fails, this sentiment can
(04:58):
be applied to so so any things that are happening
in the world right now. Science denialism not the least
of them. Conviction is one hell of a drug. We're
more likely to believe information that confirms the beliefs we
already hold, and we reject information that contradicts our beliefs.
We feel first, and we reason later, and often that
(05:21):
reasoning is just affront for rationalizing our beliefs. We may
be intelligent beings capable of things no other creature has
been before, unique among known life forms. But we are
not immune to irrational thoughts and being unable to swallow
our pride. These are the flaws in our grand design.
(05:47):
Galileo Galilei was up against when he rejected the officially
held belief that the Sun revolved around Earth and Earth
was the center of the universe. Instead, he said Earth
revolved around the Sun. He wasn't the first person to
support the heliocentric model. Aristarchus of Samos was the first
(06:09):
to suggest that Earth rotates on an axis and revolves
around the Sun in the BC years, and in the
publication six Books concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs,
Nikolaus Copernicus proposed that the planets revolved around the Sun,
which is at the center of the universe. But even
(06:29):
though scientists knew Earth was not at the center of
the universe, the Catholic Church would have none of it
when Galilea was vocal about helio centrism in the seventeenth century.
Galileo is one of the most well known and celebrated
scientists ever, and his run in with the Church is
(06:52):
a mythicized affair that many people have encountered in some
form or another. It's worth looking back at the heliocentrism
contry or see. Not so we can laugh at how
ignorant the church was, but so we can consider how
we react to information that opposes are deeply held beliefs,
and what it means to be the kind of person
(07:12):
who's willing to question those beliefs. Galileo was literally confined
for his dissent, a kind of poetic illustration of the
ways we can be closed minded in self limiting. Galileo
story is a reminder that sometimes we have to make
enemies in our pursuit of truth. After the break, we'll
(07:51):
meet the man who helped advance the scientific revolution. M.
Galileo was born on February fifteenth, fifteen sixty four in Pisa, Italy.
(08:13):
His mom was Julia Almonati, and his father a musician
named Vincenzo Galilei. After Galileo and his family moved to
Florence in the early fifteen seventies, Galileo began to study
for the priesthood and considered joining the Order, but he
switched paths, deciding to study medicine. At the University of Pisa.
(08:36):
It was his father's wish that he studied medicine, but
he soon fell in love with math, and he once
again changed courses and began to study philosophy and mathematics.
In fifteen eighty nine he became the chair of mathematics
at the University of Pisa, but by fifteen ninety two
he had fallen out of favor with his colleagues for
(08:56):
supporting the Archamedian approach to motion rather than Aristotle's notions.
That meant he believed the speed of falling bodies is
proportional to their density, rather than their weight, as Aristotle proposed.
Of course, this would not be Galileo's last foray into
the land of objection and subsequent rejection. In two he
(09:20):
was appointed mathematician at the University of Padua, where he
stayed until fifteen ten. While at Padua, Galileo did experiments
on the speed of falling objects, gave lectures on geometry
and astronomy, invented a device for raising water, invented a
mathematical instrument called a sector, experimented with the pendulum, and
(09:41):
discovered the parabolic path of projectiles. It was also during
this time when Galileo found out about the invention of
the telescope, began making his own improvements on the device
and started observing the skies. Through these increasingly powerful telescope hopes,
Galileo saw that the surface of the Moon was rough
(10:03):
and had mountains and valleys. He observed Jupiter's four largest moons.
He observed how many more stars were visible with the
telescope than without it. Armed with these discoveries, Galileo published
Sidios Nunchus, or The Sidereal Messenger in English, a treatise
based on his observations. In sixteen twelve, galileos treatise Discourse
(10:32):
on Floating Bodies was published after he wanted debate against
Aristotelian physicist Little Vico de le Columbe at a dinner
the Grand Duke of Tuscany hosted. The treatise details galileos
Archimedian views on floating bodies, as well as his telescopic
observations of sun spots, the phases of Venus, the odd
shape of Saturn, and the periods of Jupiter's satellites. The
(10:57):
next year, the Academia de Lyncha bush Galileo's pamphlet Letters
on Sun spots. Jesuit mathematician Christoph Shiner had said and
his Three Letters on Solar Spots that sun spots were
satellites of the Sun, maintaining Aristotle's views on the perfection
of heavenly bodies. But Galileo fired back at Shiner, using
(11:19):
his observations and full page copper plate engravings to show
that sun spots do not revolve around the Sun, but
are on or near the surface of the Sun. By
supporting the idea that the Sun and heavens are corruptible,
Galileo was once again rejecting Aristotle's cosmology. Other scientists and
theologians were already advocating theories that opposed Aristotles, like Giordano Bruno,
(11:46):
an Italian character who, among many other controversial views, rejected
the idea that Earth is at the center of the
universe and believed that the universe is infinite. He was
burned at the stake in sixteen hundred after a heresy
trial that was likely more related to his religious and
philosophical beliefs than his astronomical ones. Anyway, by this point
(12:10):
it was clear that Galileo favored Copernican theory. He had
likely preferred it for decades, but Galileos mentioned of the
Copernican system at the end of his last letter, is
considered by many to be his first endorsement of the theory.
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish mathematician and astronomer. He proposed
(12:32):
that the Sun was near the center of the universe,
that Earth and the other planets orbited around the stationary Sun,
that Earth turns on his own axis daily, and that
Earth's motion explained other planets retrograde motion. His book detailing
his theory on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spears was
published in fifteen forty three, and the Catholic Church banded
(12:55):
it in sixteen sixteen, decades after copernicus Is death. Between
that time, many people dismissed the theory on grounds of religion,
prevailing notions on the physics of motion and shared disbelief,
while others accepted heliocentrism, like German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Despite
(13:18):
growing support for theories that the Sun was at the
center of the Solar system, the Catholic Church maintains the
view that Earth was static and at the center of
the universe, based on interpretations of the Bible. To refute
those troops was to go against the scripture, So Galileo
(13:44):
tried to keep his support for Copernicanism on the downlow
at first, but around six he started getting a lot
more vocal about the theory. To no one's surprise, the
Church did not respond well to Galileo's smart, but totally
offensive in bold challenges. When we come back from the break,
(14:04):
we'll see the lengths the Church went to to condemn Galileo,
and we'll ask the question, how do we as individuals
treat heretical and revolutionary thought. We do not know everything.
(14:30):
We are always learning more about ourselves and the universe,
always adding layers of information to our knowledge base. Because
we are imperfect and not omniscient, we are constantly getting
things wrong, assuming or concluding their right, then course correcting
later when we find our error. But even though we
(14:50):
know we're fallible and will make mistakes, we still have
a hard time letting go of the old and embracing
the new when we have mental and emotional hang ups
on a subject. For example, evolving knowledge about gender identity
and the complexities of biological sex is something people all
over the world are struggling to come to terms with
(15:11):
the vaccines cause autism debate is hot despite the fact
that current research shows there is no link between the two,
and there are many climate change skeptics, even though the
scientific consensus is that human activities is one of the
biggest drivers of global warming and that it will affect
the globe in major ways in the coming centuries. Scientific
(15:34):
inquiry and knowledge have progressed a lot since Galileo's days,
so I know it seems like denying scientific evidence nowadays
is something only a fool would do, But I'd argue
that this reaction can make sense when we consider the
ever changing nature of human knowledge. Having to adjust to
radical new thought can turn out to be just too
(15:56):
much for our stability, craving myoptic natures. Plus, people have
little trust in the individuals and organizations providing the science,
a distrust that's often wrapped up in politics and years
of some sort of institutional mistreatment. I am not defending
uninformed science denial. I am defending the usefulness of questioning things,
(16:19):
even when it makes us look silly, feel uncomfortable, or
garner hate. That questioning just isn't equal across the board.
If we'd listened to everyone who had unorthodox views and charisma,
we'd be in pretty bad shape. Skepticism is nourishing in moderation,
not when it is abused and rooted and thoughtless faceless rejection.
(16:44):
We're intelligent. We can be nuanced enough to resort neither
to instant dismissal nor approval of logically sound unorthodox thought.
In six thirteen, Galileo wrote a letter to his student
Benedetto Castelli about the contradictions between Copernican theory and Biblical passages.
(17:07):
A couple of years later, a Dominican friar named Nicolo
Laurini filed a complaint with the Inquisition regarding Galileo's Copernican views,
sending it along with an inaccurate copy of the letter.
The Inquisition was an institution in the Catholic Church whose
job it was to eradicate heresies. Galileo ended up going
(17:27):
to Rome to defend his views in reputation, but in
sixteen fifteen, carmen Lite friar Bolo Antonio Foscarini published a
book in which he argued that Copernican theory is compatible
with Holy scripture. The next year, a committee of Inquisition
consultants declared Copernican theory heretical. Boscarini's book and other Copernican
(17:49):
texts were banned or suspended until corrected. Cardinal Bellarman, who
had warned Foscarini to treat Copernican theory as just a hypothesis,
all so told Galileo not to hold, defend, or discuss
the theory. But by sixty four Pope Urban the seventh
had given Galileo permission to write a book about the
(18:10):
theories of the universe, but the Pope said Galileo could
only treat Copernican theory as a mathematical proposition. The book,
Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems Ptolemaic and Copernican,
was structured as a discussion between two men, and printing
was completed in sixteen thirty two, but the Pope convened
(18:32):
a special commission to examine the book, and the commission
found that Galileo had not treated the theory hypothetically. Galileo
was called to Rome in sixteen thirty three to go
in front of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. He
was charged with teaching and defending the Copernican theory that
the Sun is at the center of the universe and
the Earth moves, which had been deemed heretical. In his
(18:55):
first appearance before the inquisition, Galileo refused to confess to
any wrongdoing, since the inquisitors didn't have much of the
case against him without a confession, Galileo basically took a
plea bargain for a lesser sentence in exchange for admitting
he had given the heliocentric model defender a stronger case
in his book, but he claimed he didn't do so
(19:16):
because he believed the theory. Rather, he did so to
show off his debating chops. Galileo was never under a
threat of execution or tortured, likely because of his poor
physical condition. Instead, Galileo was declared vehement Lee suspect of
(19:39):
heresy on June twenty three. After his sentence was fred,
he had to recite and sign an abjuration which said,
in part, I have been judged vehement Lee suspect of heresy,
that is, of having held and believed that the Sun
is the center of the universe and immovable, and that
(20:00):
the Earth is not at the center of same, and
that it does move. Wishing, however, to remove from the
minds of your eminences and all faithful Christians. This vehement
suspicion reasonably conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere
heart and unfeigned faith. I curse and detest the said
errors and heresies, and generally all in every error, heresy,
(20:23):
and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. In the end,
Galileo's book Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems was
banned and he was sentenced to three years of weekly
penitential prayer and imprisonment. At the discretion of church inquisitors,
his sentence was commuted to house arrest, and in late
(20:43):
sixty three he returned to his villa and Art three
near Florence, where he spent the rest of his life.
People objected to his arrest, and some attempted to free him,
but to no avail. During this time, Galileo finished his
last book, Discourses on the Two New Sciences. He kept
(21:03):
working until his death in sixteen forty two. The Dialogue
concerning the two Chief role systems Ptolemaic and Copernican remained
on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden books until eighteen thirty five.
In eighteen twenty two, the College of Cardinals said that
the publication of works treating of the motion of the
(21:24):
Earth and the stability of the Sun in accordance with
the opinion of modern astronomers is permitted. In nineteen seventy nine,
Pope John Paul the Second said that Galileo had suffered
injustices at the hands of the Church, and in nineteen
ninety two the pope admitted that theological advisors had made
(21:45):
heirs in Galileo's case, but he did not apologize for
the church's treatment of Galileo until two thousand. People in
the Church were not the only ones to denounce Galileo.
Other scientists in lay people discredited his cosmological views and
deemed him dishonorable. The Galileo affair has been researched and
(22:08):
theorized to death. Yes, Galileo made a ton of major
contributions to science and took risks, and his name lives
on for that reason. But the enduring fascination with the
controversy surrounding his defense of heliocentrism shows how much we
care about people who push the envelope to try to
make society better and smarter, especially when it has to
(22:32):
do with flashy space theories. We make a lot of
mistakes before we get the clarity of hindsight. We don't
need to trust everybody, but we can try not to
burn rebels at the stake before we even give them
a chance to speak. We'll be back next week with
(22:55):
another episode of Unpopular m. H our producer is Andrew Howard,
Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers. If
you're not already subscribed, you can make sure you never
(23:17):
miss an episode by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcast,
the iHeart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcast.
We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular
(23:39):
m
Isn't it true you have a science degree from Yale
Bachelor of Arts degree? Is it a political science degree? Science?
So how do you get a Bachelor of Arts in
a science Well, it's liberal arts education and degree. It's
a bachelor Okay, so it's not really science. So I
think it's somewhat appropriate that somebody with a pseudoscience degree
(00:22):
is here pushing pseudoscience in front of our committee today.
You have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have
seen and taking a picture of a black hole. I
wanted to specifically talk about the aerodynamics Akaino source and
(00:42):
the lies that these paleontologists have been feeding you for
your entire lives. He says he genetically edited human embryos
not just for research, but for implantation, leading to the
world's first births of genetically alter humans baby girls born
in China from embryos designed to be resistant to HIV.
(01:12):
In a minute, Oh hi there, Welcome to twenty nineteen,
a time when quadruped robots can open doors. Researchers are
working on printing body parts. Burgers not made out of
meat tastes just like meat, and some people believe NASA's
use of composite images proves that Earth is not round.
(01:38):
I'm Eve Steph Code, and this is unpopular a podcast
about the people in history who did not let the
threat of persecution keep them from speaking truth to power
more often than I probably should. I wonder how my
ancestors would react to modern technology. I mean, I am
(01:59):
at in someone who only knew oil lamps, pressing buttons
on a PlayStation, making simulated people move on a gigantic screen,
or my great great great great grandmother, who likely once
were shackles around her ankles watching me use a smartphone
to call a lift to pick me up, just me,
no restrictions. I know that not everyone in the world
(02:23):
has the privilege of accessing such technology, and I know
that this kind of situation has been the gag and
many a poorly executed comedy. I just think the reason
I think about this so much is so I remember
not to take how far humankind has advanced for granted,
and so I hold onto that youthful awe that can
(02:45):
dissipate so easily in a world that can be super
harsh at times. Nobody snapped their fingers and created my microwave.
I'm grateful for the years of research, experimentation, and design
people put in to create a multitude of technologies that
allow me to warm my leftovers up in less than
three minutes. I realize how much science cushions my comfortable life,
(03:09):
and I pay my respects by daydreaming about raising my
forebears from a did to come revel in all with me.
I know people way back in the day couldn't fathom
something like social media or robot vacuums unless they were
like nostro damis or something. It's hard to see past
the current situation. It's impossible to know what knowledge science
(03:33):
will bring us in the future, and thanks to our hubris,
it's not easy to imagine that something we believed to
be utterly and undeniably true about the world could be
completely wrong. Being wrong after you thought you had it
all figured out is like dropping your ice cream cone
on the hot summer day before you even got one
(03:54):
lick in, or buying a pair of pants you thought
hat pockets, only to find out they were fake pockets.
Cognitive dissonance kicks in when our beliefs are challenged. We
want to be right. We need to be right to
reduce the discomfort of that dissonance. Suppose an individual believes
(04:14):
something with his whole heart. Suppose further that he has
a commitment to this belief and he has taken irrevocable
actions because of it. Finally, supposed that he has presented
with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence that his belief is wrong.
What will happen. The individual will frequently emerge not only unshaken,
(04:35):
but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs
than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new
fervor for convincing and converting other people to his view.
Psychologist Leon Festinger, Henry W. Reikan, and Stanley Shackter wrote
that in the book When Prophecy Fails, this sentiment can
(04:58):
be applied to so so any things that are happening
in the world right now. Science denialism not the least
of them. Conviction is one hell of a drug. We're
more likely to believe information that confirms the beliefs we
already hold, and we reject information that contradicts our beliefs.
We feel first, and we reason later, and often that
(05:21):
reasoning is just affront for rationalizing our beliefs. We may
be intelligent beings capable of things no other creature has
been before, unique among known life forms. But we are
not immune to irrational thoughts and being unable to swallow
our pride. These are the flaws in our grand design.
(05:47):
Galileo Galilei was up against when he rejected the officially
held belief that the Sun revolved around Earth and Earth
was the center of the universe. Instead, he said Earth
revolved around the Sun. He wasn't the first person to
support the heliocentric model. Aristarchus of Samos was the first
(06:09):
to suggest that Earth rotates on an axis and revolves
around the Sun in the BC years, and in the
publication six Books concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs,
Nikolaus Copernicus proposed that the planets revolved around the Sun,
which is at the center of the universe. But even
(06:29):
though scientists knew Earth was not at the center of
the universe, the Catholic Church would have none of it
when Galilea was vocal about helio centrism in the seventeenth century.
Galileo is one of the most well known and celebrated
scientists ever, and his run in with the Church is
(06:52):
a mythicized affair that many people have encountered in some
form or another. It's worth looking back at the heliocentrism
contry or see. Not so we can laugh at how
ignorant the church was, but so we can consider how
we react to information that opposes are deeply held beliefs,
and what it means to be the kind of person
(07:12):
who's willing to question those beliefs. Galileo was literally confined
for his dissent, a kind of poetic illustration of the
ways we can be closed minded in self limiting. Galileo
story is a reminder that sometimes we have to make
enemies in our pursuit of truth. After the break, we'll
(07:51):
meet the man who helped advance the scientific revolution. M.
Galileo was born on February fifteenth, fifteen sixty four in Pisa, Italy.
(08:13):
His mom was Julia Almonati, and his father a musician
named Vincenzo Galilei. After Galileo and his family moved to
Florence in the early fifteen seventies, Galileo began to study
for the priesthood and considered joining the Order, but he
switched paths, deciding to study medicine. At the University of Pisa.
(08:36):
It was his father's wish that he studied medicine, but
he soon fell in love with math, and he once
again changed courses and began to study philosophy and mathematics.
In fifteen eighty nine he became the chair of mathematics
at the University of Pisa, but by fifteen ninety two
he had fallen out of favor with his colleagues for
(08:56):
supporting the Archamedian approach to motion rather than Aristotle's notions.
That meant he believed the speed of falling bodies is
proportional to their density, rather than their weight, as Aristotle proposed.
Of course, this would not be Galileo's last foray into
the land of objection and subsequent rejection. In two he
(09:20):
was appointed mathematician at the University of Padua, where he
stayed until fifteen ten. While at Padua, Galileo did experiments
on the speed of falling objects, gave lectures on geometry
and astronomy, invented a device for raising water, invented a
mathematical instrument called a sector, experimented with the pendulum, and
(09:41):
discovered the parabolic path of projectiles. It was also during
this time when Galileo found out about the invention of
the telescope, began making his own improvements on the device
and started observing the skies. Through these increasingly powerful telescope hopes,
Galileo saw that the surface of the Moon was rough
(10:03):
and had mountains and valleys. He observed Jupiter's four largest moons.
He observed how many more stars were visible with the
telescope than without it. Armed with these discoveries, Galileo published
Sidios Nunchus, or The Sidereal Messenger in English, a treatise
based on his observations. In sixteen twelve, galileos treatise Discourse
(10:32):
on Floating Bodies was published after he wanted debate against
Aristotelian physicist Little Vico de le Columbe at a dinner
the Grand Duke of Tuscany hosted. The treatise details galileos
Archimedian views on floating bodies, as well as his telescopic
observations of sun spots, the phases of Venus, the odd
shape of Saturn, and the periods of Jupiter's satellites. The
(10:57):
next year, the Academia de Lyncha bush Galileo's pamphlet Letters
on Sun spots. Jesuit mathematician Christoph Shiner had said and
his Three Letters on Solar Spots that sun spots were
satellites of the Sun, maintaining Aristotle's views on the perfection
of heavenly bodies. But Galileo fired back at Shiner, using
(11:19):
his observations and full page copper plate engravings to show
that sun spots do not revolve around the Sun, but
are on or near the surface of the Sun. By
supporting the idea that the Sun and heavens are corruptible,
Galileo was once again rejecting Aristotle's cosmology. Other scientists and
theologians were already advocating theories that opposed Aristotles, like Giordano Bruno,
(11:46):
an Italian character who, among many other controversial views, rejected
the idea that Earth is at the center of the
universe and believed that the universe is infinite. He was
burned at the stake in sixteen hundred after a heresy
trial that was likely more related to his religious and
philosophical beliefs than his astronomical ones. Anyway, by this point
(12:10):
it was clear that Galileo favored Copernican theory. He had
likely preferred it for decades, but Galileos mentioned of the
Copernican system at the end of his last letter, is
considered by many to be his first endorsement of the theory.
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish mathematician and astronomer. He proposed
(12:32):
that the Sun was near the center of the universe,
that Earth and the other planets orbited around the stationary Sun,
that Earth turns on his own axis daily, and that
Earth's motion explained other planets retrograde motion. His book detailing
his theory on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spears was
published in fifteen forty three, and the Catholic Church banded
(12:55):
it in sixteen sixteen, decades after copernicus Is death. Between
that time, many people dismissed the theory on grounds of religion,
prevailing notions on the physics of motion and shared disbelief,
while others accepted heliocentrism, like German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Despite
(13:18):
growing support for theories that the Sun was at the
center of the Solar system, the Catholic Church maintains the
view that Earth was static and at the center of
the universe, based on interpretations of the Bible. To refute
those troops was to go against the scripture, So Galileo
(13:44):
tried to keep his support for Copernicanism on the downlow
at first, but around six he started getting a lot
more vocal about the theory. To no one's surprise, the
Church did not respond well to Galileo's smart, but totally
offensive in bold challenges. When we come back from the break,
(14:04):
we'll see the lengths the Church went to to condemn Galileo,
and we'll ask the question, how do we as individuals
treat heretical and revolutionary thought. We do not know everything.
(14:30):
We are always learning more about ourselves and the universe,
always adding layers of information to our knowledge base. Because
we are imperfect and not omniscient, we are constantly getting
things wrong, assuming or concluding their right, then course correcting
later when we find our error. But even though we
(14:50):
know we're fallible and will make mistakes, we still have
a hard time letting go of the old and embracing
the new when we have mental and emotional hang ups
on a subject. For example, evolving knowledge about gender identity
and the complexities of biological sex is something people all
over the world are struggling to come to terms with
(15:11):
the vaccines cause autism debate is hot despite the fact
that current research shows there is no link between the two,
and there are many climate change skeptics, even though the
scientific consensus is that human activities is one of the
biggest drivers of global warming and that it will affect
the globe in major ways in the coming centuries. Scientific
(15:34):
inquiry and knowledge have progressed a lot since Galileo's days,
so I know it seems like denying scientific evidence nowadays
is something only a fool would do, But I'd argue
that this reaction can make sense when we consider the
ever changing nature of human knowledge. Having to adjust to
radical new thought can turn out to be just too
(15:56):
much for our stability, craving myoptic natures. Plus, people have
little trust in the individuals and organizations providing the science,
a distrust that's often wrapped up in politics and years
of some sort of institutional mistreatment. I am not defending
uninformed science denial. I am defending the usefulness of questioning things,
(16:19):
even when it makes us look silly, feel uncomfortable, or
garner hate. That questioning just isn't equal across the board.
If we'd listened to everyone who had unorthodox views and charisma,
we'd be in pretty bad shape. Skepticism is nourishing in moderation,
not when it is abused and rooted and thoughtless faceless rejection.
(16:44):
We're intelligent. We can be nuanced enough to resort neither
to instant dismissal nor approval of logically sound unorthodox thought.
In six thirteen, Galileo wrote a letter to his student
Benedetto Castelli about the contradictions between Copernican theory and Biblical passages.
(17:07):
A couple of years later, a Dominican friar named Nicolo
Laurini filed a complaint with the Inquisition regarding Galileo's Copernican views,
sending it along with an inaccurate copy of the letter.
The Inquisition was an institution in the Catholic Church whose
job it was to eradicate heresies. Galileo ended up going
(17:27):
to Rome to defend his views in reputation, but in
sixteen fifteen, carmen Lite friar Bolo Antonio Foscarini published a
book in which he argued that Copernican theory is compatible
with Holy scripture. The next year, a committee of Inquisition
consultants declared Copernican theory heretical. Boscarini's book and other Copernican
(17:49):
texts were banned or suspended until corrected. Cardinal Bellarman, who
had warned Foscarini to treat Copernican theory as just a hypothesis,
all so told Galileo not to hold, defend, or discuss
the theory. But by sixty four Pope Urban the seventh
had given Galileo permission to write a book about the
(18:10):
theories of the universe, but the Pope said Galileo could
only treat Copernican theory as a mathematical proposition. The book,
Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems Ptolemaic and Copernican,
was structured as a discussion between two men, and printing
was completed in sixteen thirty two, but the Pope convened
(18:32):
a special commission to examine the book, and the commission
found that Galileo had not treated the theory hypothetically. Galileo
was called to Rome in sixteen thirty three to go
in front of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. He
was charged with teaching and defending the Copernican theory that
the Sun is at the center of the universe and
the Earth moves, which had been deemed heretical. In his
(18:55):
first appearance before the inquisition, Galileo refused to confess to
any wrongdoing, since the inquisitors didn't have much of the
case against him without a confession, Galileo basically took a
plea bargain for a lesser sentence in exchange for admitting
he had given the heliocentric model defender a stronger case
in his book, but he claimed he didn't do so
(19:16):
because he believed the theory. Rather, he did so to
show off his debating chops. Galileo was never under a
threat of execution or tortured, likely because of his poor
physical condition. Instead, Galileo was declared vehement Lee suspect of
(19:39):
heresy on June twenty three. After his sentence was fred,
he had to recite and sign an abjuration which said,
in part, I have been judged vehement Lee suspect of heresy,
that is, of having held and believed that the Sun
is the center of the universe and immovable, and that
(20:00):
the Earth is not at the center of same, and
that it does move. Wishing, however, to remove from the
minds of your eminences and all faithful Christians. This vehement
suspicion reasonably conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere
heart and unfeigned faith. I curse and detest the said
errors and heresies, and generally all in every error, heresy,
(20:23):
and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. In the end,
Galileo's book Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems was
banned and he was sentenced to three years of weekly
penitential prayer and imprisonment. At the discretion of church inquisitors,
his sentence was commuted to house arrest, and in late
(20:43):
sixty three he returned to his villa and Art three
near Florence, where he spent the rest of his life.
People objected to his arrest, and some attempted to free him,
but to no avail. During this time, Galileo finished his
last book, Discourses on the Two New Sciences. He kept
(21:03):
working until his death in sixteen forty two. The Dialogue
concerning the two Chief role systems Ptolemaic and Copernican remained
on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden books until eighteen thirty five.
In eighteen twenty two, the College of Cardinals said that
the publication of works treating of the motion of the
(21:24):
Earth and the stability of the Sun in accordance with
the opinion of modern astronomers is permitted. In nineteen seventy nine,
Pope John Paul the Second said that Galileo had suffered
injustices at the hands of the Church, and in nineteen
ninety two the pope admitted that theological advisors had made
(21:45):
heirs in Galileo's case, but he did not apologize for
the church's treatment of Galileo until two thousand. People in
the Church were not the only ones to denounce Galileo.
Other scientists in lay people discredited his cosmological views and
deemed him dishonorable. The Galileo affair has been researched and
(22:08):
theorized to death. Yes, Galileo made a ton of major
contributions to science and took risks, and his name lives
on for that reason. But the enduring fascination with the
controversy surrounding his defense of heliocentrism shows how much we
care about people who push the envelope to try to
make society better and smarter, especially when it has to
(22:32):
do with flashy space theories. We make a lot of
mistakes before we get the clarity of hindsight. We don't
need to trust everybody, but we can try not to
burn rebels at the stake before we even give them
a chance to speak. We'll be back next week with
(22:55):
another episode of Unpopular m. H our producer is Andrew Howard,
Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers. If
you're not already subscribed, you can make sure you never
(23:17):
miss an episode by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcast,
the iHeart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcast.
We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular
(23:39):
m
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Yves Jeffcoat
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