Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts In the 17th century the Church rejected Galileo’s theory that the earth revolves around the sun. Now this theory has become an established fact, the Church has had to accept it. But in the 7th century the Church rejected another personality; the Prophet Mohammad, may peace be upon him. His prophethood too has become an established fact, but when is the Church going to accept it? Galileo (1564-1642) was the great Italian scientist who founded dynamics. It was he who first discovered the importance of acceleration and established the law of falling bodies. He was also one of the first to construct a telescope with which he made several important discoveries. Three hundred and fifty years ago he wrote a book entitled Dialogue Concerning Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic and Copernican, in which he discussed the two theories concerning our planetary system. In this book, he supported Copernicus in his theory that the earth is round, not flat, and that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than the sun around the earth. The Roman Church considered this theory to be against Christian doctrine. It is not included in either the Old or the New Testament that the sun revolves around the earth: this theory had only been included in the expositions of Christian doctrine compiled by saints on their own. Since the Church believed that the saints’ explanations of the Scriptures were as holy as the Scriptures themselves, it declared Galileo a heretic. The Church had so much power in those days that it set up parallel ecclesiastical courts in various Catholic countries of the European continent, notably Spain and Italy. Galileo’s case was brought before an ecclesiastical court, which sentenced him to life imprisonment. This put an end to science in Italy for many centuries. This was the dire consequence of considering the saints’ expositions as holy as the divine text.