Thursday, October 23, 2014

We interrupt the propagation of anti-religious historical falsehoods for the following important announcement

Even otherwise intelligent atheists commonly can be commonly found portraying the Galileo affair as a confrontation between religion and science. This myth has been refuted repeatedly, but that doesn't stop them from repeating it again, and again, ...
Most people understand the trial of Galileo Galilei as a key example of religious bigotry clashing with the advance of science and the textbook case of "Medieval" ignorance and superstition being superseded by reason and science.  In fact, the whole rather complex affair was not the black-and-white "science vs religion" fable of popular imagination and the positions of both Galileo and of the various churchmen involved were varied and complex. 
... and again.

Read more here.

7 comments:

KyCobb said...

So the truth is that when the Church had power it put Galileo on trial about his publications and convicted him due to politics. Good to know.

Singring said...

It never ceases to amaze me how some Catholics think convicting someone for spurious theological or political reasons somehow ' makes it all better'. In their minds, apparently, that solves the problem entirely. Let's all bevglad the church has no power to persecute people for any reason anymore.

Martin Cothran said...

Right. We've got the secular state to do it now.

And who said that persecuting Galileo for his unproven scientific claims "makes it all better"?

Anonymous said...

If Galileo were to return today and become a man made climate change denier, people like Singring would be the first to convict him for heresy.

KyCobb said...

Except instead of being prosecuted, deniers get big checks from Big Oil.

Anonymous said...

deniers BIG OIL We have a winner

Martin Cothran said...

KyCobb,

And warmers don't get big academic grants from large donors?