In Defense of the Truth:Galileo Speaks Out Against the Teachings of the Church

   

Depiction of Galileo defending himself in front of the Inquisition By Unknown painter in 19th century

…and be able to:

1. Identify Galileo and Copernicus

2. Distinguish between the Heliocentric and the geocentric theories

3. Restate the view points of the Church and Galileo

4. Explain why Galileo spoke out against church doctrine and later recanted

5. Argue for or against both the church or Galileo

6. Judge for yourself whether or not an idea should be denied even though you know it to be true.

After this lesson, you should know:

1. what living under church rule was like

2. how world views were changing and the sacrifices people went through to challenge those views.

3. How the Scientific Revolution set the basis for the Enlightenment, the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

Imagine you know for a fact that something is true but no one believes you; you are even arrested for believing it. To get out of trouble do you deny what

you know to be true?

•Ptolemy and Aristotle backed the Geocentric view of the universe.

•Catholic Church taught this theory since it could be backed up by passages from the Bible.

Joshua 10 (Verse 13): And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

Psalm 19 (Verse 1) The heavens declare the glory of God;and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Psalm 104 (Verse 5) Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be

removed for ever. Isaiah 40 (Verse 22): It is he that sitteth upon the circle ofthe earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

• Copernicus—first one to challenge medieval system– On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543) – Destroyed idea of spheres, put stars at rest, imagined a

huge universe– Where was heaven? God?– Criticized by Protestants

• Kepler—Proved Copernicus right with his three laws of motion (1619)– Elliptical orbits– Planets change speed– Time to orbit sun related to distance

Galileo's telescope

•Using the telescope Galileo saw the moons’ surface was rough not smooth, he saw spots on the sun, and through observations of the planets he concluded that Copernicus’ Heliocentric view was the correct view of the universe.

•Galileo wrote a book discussing the arguments for and against both the Geocentric and Heliocentric theories.

http://www.nd.edu/~hps/Ottavio%20Leoni%20(Italia%201578-1630),%20Galileo%20Galilei%20florentino

Galileo’s Drawing of Moon Real photo of Moon

Can you pick out the similarities?

Which one would you think the church would dislike?

•The Church forced Galileo to recant his belief in the Heliocentric Theory.

•Church felt Galileo was supporting Copernicus’ theory in his book Dialogue Concerning Two Chief Systems & was imprisoned for heresy.

Dialogue from the Trial of Galileo by the InquisitionPlease use what you know of the trial of Galileo to add sentences that describe what is

going on in the picture. Please make sure your sentences are relevant to the event.

Dialogue from the Trial of Galileo by the InquisitionPlease use what you know of the trial of Galileo to add sentences that describe what is

going on in the picture. Please make sure your sentences are relevant to the event.

Wake me up when

this guy is in jail.

Oh-oh-oh, Galileo will be easy to convict.

I was just trying to make reasonable arguments for both theories.

Hasn’t this guy ever read the Bible?

What are looking at, you want a piece of

this.