Science and Religion Three-Way Blog

Galileo and his trial are mysterious things, just as all historic people/events are. While he seems very arrogant and selfish in literature and lectures, I cannot judge him as if he is some fictional character in a novel. However, I do believe that he could have presented his work concerning the stars in a better and more amiably was to infuse it into the society of his day. From a human perspective, I think that the Church’s response to Galileo is understandable, as he might have treated them wrongly at one time of another.
Galileo had a right theory, but he presented it in the wrong manner. I cannot say I admire Galileo as I mistakenly did before. I have greatly changed my views from the beginning of the year as I am more informed now. In my first journal entry, I only mentioned Galileo in this sentence: “I . . . admire Galileo for dying with confidence and pride, comforting his disciples and embracing death.” Clearly, I was ignorantly confusing Galileo with Socrates. This is because he seems to be driven by wrong motivations. Again, I cannot judge him, I can only speculate. However, it seems that throughout his life, he cared more about promoting Galileo than the Truth about the natural world. For example, according to Professor Anderson, Galileo accused Grassi of plagiarism and maliciously attacked him. If Galileo were more concerned about science, would not he be joyful in more publications of Truth? Perhaps if Galileo had been more concerned with science than his ego, his findings might have been accepted and infused into the social and scientific community with much more grace and ease.
Some people are angry at the Church and point fingers at it during the trial of Galileo to say that science and religion are in warfare. However, in light of human nature, the fact that the people of the Church aligned themselves against him is understandable as a selfish and sharp tongue causes strife in all people. The reason behind their condemnation of his teachings was perhaps they saw Galileo as selfish and judged whatever he might teach as wrong. The fact that Galileo’s theory was right is luck as no one had complete proof of the Copernican system until 1728 when the aberration of starlight was seen. This was 86 years after his death, according to Professor Anderson. Yet the people of the Church did not have this proof during Galileo’s trial and I do not believe that people should think “this means war!” for science and religion.
I think that if he went about showing his theory in different manner, he might have conveyed Truth in a better way, doing a service to both his and future generations. Yet I cannot say that I unraveled the mystery of this man and/or his trial.