It was also personal and political, not just scientific or religious. There were, of course, people that were opposed to Galileo publishing because of his models (whether for religious or scientific reasons), but there were also (and perhaps more critically) people that were against his model being published because of Galileo.
Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
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Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#22Earth-Centric model was actually scientifically better at that time. With Occam's razor you would prefer it. - Even church agreed that Earth is not static, but is rotating. - Nobody observed star parallax, major proof for Copernican model was missing until 19th century. - Ptolemaic model with its epicycles provided better predictions. - Copernican model is also wrong, planets are orbiting around center of gravity, wh…
Just to be pedantic, the barycenter of the Solar System [0] is "sometimes" outside the Sun, but is also often within the limb of the Sun. [0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_system_barycen...
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#23For example, Fr. Paul Gudin, a Jesuit priest, was a mathematician and astronomer. He was interested in and supportive of the work of Johannes Kepler and provided him with a telescope when Kepler was experiencing financial difficulties[+].
[+] http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/guldin.h...
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#24I find that modern revisionism to make religion seem less villainous is fairly common nowadays. I don't know where this is coming from or why its on social media so frequently, but its concerning. I think splitting hairs to make the Church look good is a questionable narrative and a form of feel good politics for certain religious people and certain types of habitual contrarians the internet is so fond of. I imagine we're witnessesing a pendulum shift towards more religiosity considering how the west has swung the other way for so long.
Regardless, its still wrong and the hundreds years of fighting to secularize science and to progress past religiously acceptable models wasn't done because Locher was a bad guy, but because the Pope and and the religious establishment was, regardless of the individual merits of the many monks and priests, who ultimately had to tow the party line regardless of their own findings, mathematical skills, or opinions. Blasphemy was certainly a serious charge back then. The wonderful thing about secular science is that there's no serious punishment for being wrong or going against the grain, flawed as it may be. The worst you can expect is being punched by Buzz Aldrin and even then you really have to earn that.
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to be pedantic, the barycenter of the Solar System [0] is "sometimes" outside the Sun, but is also often within the limb of the Sun. [0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_system_barycen...
Interesting. Does the barycenter then have a barycenter over time?
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to be pedantic, the barycenter of the Solar System [0] is "sometimes" outside the Sun, but is also often within the limb of the Sun. [0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_system_barycen...
Interesting. Does the barycenter then have a barycenter over time?
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#27Earth-Centric model was actually scientifically better at that time. With Occam's razor you would prefer it. - Even church agreed that Earth is not static, but is rotating. - Nobody observed star parallax, major proof for Copernican model was missing until 19th century. - Ptolemaic model with its epicycles provided better predictions. - Copernican model is also wrong, planets are orbiting around center of gravity, wh…
> With Occam's razor you would prefer it. > - Ptolemaic model with its epicycles provided better predictions. These two statements are contradictory.
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#28Earth-Centric model was actually scientifically better at that time. With Occam's razor you would prefer it. - Even church agreed that Earth is not static, but is rotating. - Nobody observed star parallax, major proof for Copernican model was missing until 19th century. - Ptolemaic model with its epicycles provided better predictions. - Copernican model is also wrong, planets are orbiting around center of gravity, wh…
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to be pedantic, the barycenter of the Solar System [0] is "sometimes" outside the Sun, but is also often within the limb of the Sun. [0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_system_barycen...
Interesting. Does the barycenter then have a barycenter over time?
Re: Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious
#30The whole metaphor of "discovery" in science is incorrect. You don't suddenly "see" the truth once you get better telescopes or a new imaging method. Everything you see is an accurate depiction of universal laws, as filtered through the distorting layers of our own internal models. Every new "discovery" in science must be slowly generated, models emerging and feuding for generations, before future scientists have enough research to look back on the past and deem some visionaries and others crackpots.