Yet, in the end, Gallileo has been proven right and the Catholic Church has been forced to issue a formal apology. Galileo spent the last eight and a half years of his life under house arrest. In the case of Galileo, the science deniers triumphed for a time over the science. Galileo is, after all a father of astrophysics. 2Īll this come to mind because WC recently finished reading Livio’s Galileo and the Science Deniers, the first biography of Galileo written by an astrophysicist. It isn’t mentioned, according to biographer Mario Livio, until the 1757 book, The Italian Library, by Giuseppe Baretti, written over 100 years after Galileo’s death. Galileo’s protege and first biographer, Vincenzo Viviana wrote his biography between 1655-1656, and did not mention of the phrase. But Galileo thought that where there was an apparent contradiction between observed facts and the Bible, the contradiction arose from misunderstanding the Bible. Found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” 1 it’s pretty unlikely he would have said anything sounding like heresy in front of his Inquisitor, even muttering. He respected the authority of the Catholic Church. He just thought that the Bible was a lousy science book. It turns out that mutter probably didn’t happen. Legend has it that after he recanted, while still in the presence of the Inquisitor, he muttered, “ E pur si muove“ (“And yet it moves”), meaning the Earth did orbit the Sun. Catholic Church dogma said the Sun orbited the Earth. He was forced to recant his theory that the Earth orbited the Sun. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was tried by the inquisition, charged with suspicion of heresy. Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Justus Sustermans, circa 1640
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