The Galileo Myth

Everyone's heard the story of how Galileo was wrongly condemned by the Church for proposing scientific claims that contradicted the Bible. The problem with this story is that it was mostly made up in the 1800s and the Catholic Church, while not always right, has always supported scientific study.

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Music by J.P. Garilli

[jlankford]

As a biologist and devout Christian, I try to keep in mind that all scientific knowledge has not been found. As scientists, we are always lacking some of the facts. Scientists do the best they can with what they've got. Also I don't understand all divine revelation; though I study scripture, language, the Apostolic fathers, Church history, etc. So in the end, I try to have an open mind yet lean conservative when religion and science clash.

[Aviatr]

Amen. I get tired of people accusing Catholics as anti-science. Great video.

[johnflorio]

I’m a Catholic and a physicist. Science and faith are complementary, not contradictory.

[qaiseratif]

Thanks a lot brother for clearing years long doubts.
Have been watching your videos for a month during quarantine.
I am a Pakistani protestant Christian who was groomed in pentecostals.
I always had doubts about catholics many of which have been cleared by just watching your videos.
Your videos have encouraged me to research more about catholicism.
Thanks for this great work.

[YoungGoc]

My professor taught the entire Astronomy class that the Catholic Church burned Galileo at the stake. I didn't say anything, and I believed him at the time. I wonder how many classes he has told that Galileo was burned at the stake?

[mensetens]

Nicolas Copernicus was a canon, by the way.
After Galileo's trial, he was given a slap on the wrist. He was confined to 'house arrest' in his comfy little villa in Arcetri and told to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week. His wondrous, loving and beloved daughter, a nun, asked for and received permission to say them for him, so he didn't even have to do that, and Galileo did some of his most important work on gravity during these last ten years there in Arcetri.
And before his trial, Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino wrote to Paolo Foscarini a letter that included,
_Third, I say that if there were a true demonstration that the sun is at the center of the world and the earth in the third heaven, and that the sun does not circle the earth but the earth circles the sun, then one would have to proceed with great care in explaining the Scriptures that appear contrary; and say rather that we do not understand them than that what is demonstrated is false_
All truth is God, whose word is truth. As a result, Christians should, must, engage in science.The Church built observatories after Galileo; its research went on. Can anyone say, 'Gregor Mendel'?

[vlad]

Many upset comments on this video.

Thank you for sharing your perspective brother, but more importantly, thank you for the way you handled this comment section.

A masterclass in sympathy.
I salute you.

[SOC-sjvr]

I think the depiction of Galileo’s Two Chief World Systems (which was requested by the Pope) is valid- but I think you also need to look at his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, where he explores in faith the scientific argument that the earth revolves around the sun, and even attempts to reread certain scriptural passage according to the Patristic model at the time.

Certainly, after being silenced for a couple decades, Galileo lacked tact. But you have to read him in the context of a human life and it’s clear that Galileo remained a faithful Catholic, and to portray him as something else actually further emphasizes the divide you are seeking to minimize.

[Irisheddy]

Saint Albert the Great. Saint Albert (or St. Albertus Magnus) is the patron saint of scientists and was the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas.

[Ignasimp]

Great video! As a catholic scientist and teacher myself I found it very well explained.

[apocalypticfurball]

If you don't believe in God, you are going to have a very difficult time with quantum physics.

And the one thing I have found in pursuing my (pre-med) Biology degree is that Catholic social teaching is the only model that accurately reflects the realities of microbiology and human physiology.

Like seriously, TOB is completely reflective of sexual physiology. Or, actually, it's the other way around.

[jxdirsdt]

I'm a catholic and I love science. It goes hand in hand honestly for me. Great video! God bless you❤

[Irisheddy]

The more I learn of physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.

Albert Einstein

[theromanbaron]

What’s super cool is I found this today when my Priest talked about this in Catechism. Today is the Feast Of St. Robert Bellarmine, and he was helping the Pope, and Gallelio. In history we actually know that they slipped a document into Gallelios File and was condemned. All he was told to do was repent over errors he made from the Book of Genesis, and thanks to Pius XII, we know that the Bible is free from any error.

Your videos are awesome,
My prayers with you.

(Btw, I still have to send my other comment from the other video where we were debating about Leo XIII and freedom of speech and all! 😬)

[YeomanLocksly]

Galileo did have mathematical evidence that all planets revolved around the sun, but its so hard to explain that it is usually omitted. He studied the phases of the moon and the phases of Venus. He measured the angles of the phases and they could have only occurred if both revolved around the sun. It probably took him a whole month to figure it out. Likewise Galileo conducted experiments to show how the Earth still moves without anything falling off. While Galileo was not tortured he recanted when he was shown the instruments.

[thehussarsjacobitess]

The fact that the Galileo matter is the 'strongest' case that they can push forward is also telling. No wonder Dan Brown was so disappointed by the history that he had to make up a ridiculous holocaust of scientists in one of his novels. The truth wasn't scary enough.

[Darth_Vader]

As a believer in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and as a cradle Catholic, I LIKE Science, because WITHOUT Science we wouldn't be able to get our modern medicines like Antibiotics.

[Vpy]

Thanks for this wonderful video brother. This is what I always felt :

Bible - the story of God's relationship with humans, morality and His plan for human salvation
Science - observation of the world that God created and our ways of explaining what we perceive of it
I don't understand how these two can be at odds !!

[JohnMartinHedlund]

1992, 359 years later, the Catholic Church finally admits Galileo's theory that the Earth moves around the Sun was right. At a ceremony in Rome, before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II officially declared that Galileo was right. The formal rehabilitation was based on the findings of a committee of the Academy the Pope set up in 1979, soon after taking office. The committee decided the Inquisition had acted in good faith, but was wrong.

[philipmorrison]

, Galileo was not a martyr for science. And, of course, if someone tries to argue thay, one only has to bring up people like Copernicus, Kepler, Digges, Maestlin, Rothmann, and Brahe, all of whom believed in models of the cosmos that were not considered orthodox, and all of them escaped the fire, and indeed weren't even pursued by the Inquisition.