by iamlucky13 » Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:38 am
Boomer12k wrote:This guy had it right 1800 years before Copernicus. If people had believed him, we would have been ahead of the game...If the Church had listened to Galileo, we would have been ahead of the game there too....it is too bad...
This guy deserves more than just a crater named after him....maybe A MOON...not just a crater....maybe a planet....hey, how about we name an EXOPLANET after him in another star system...that would be fitting....
It's certainly remarkable, and a pity his name isn't better known, but wasn't very useful since he was unable to show how his idea better described the universe than the geocentric model.
As far as Galileo, keep in mind he wasn't going up merely against the Church here. If he hadn't managed to piss off several individuals in the Church, in fact, it probably would have been his biggest ally, as quite a few high-ranking clergymen found his arguments, and those of Copernicus before him, quite compelling.
However, Galileo was challenging the entire world, educated and uneducated alike.
In his day, every person knew just from getting up in the morning and looking outside that the sun moved around the earth. It was a daily experience, reinforced from birth, and with the exception of a few well-educated and very open-minded individuals, the most obvious interpretation was assumed to be the right one.
We can get just a teeny, tiny hint of the depth of conviction that Galileo was up against with a modern example: People everywhere were outraged when the IAU recategorized Pluto as a dwarf planet. Even 5 years after the fact, it's easy to get people ranting about those "idiot astronomers" and their meddling. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has talked several times about hate mail he gets as a result of it.
Recategorizing Pluto was a change of a label and some textbooks.
Galileo was telling people their entire worldview was completely upside down.
[quote="Boomer12k"]This guy had it right 1800 years before Copernicus. If people had believed him, we would have been ahead of the game...If the Church had listened to Galileo, we would have been ahead of the game there too....it is too bad...
This guy deserves more than just a crater named after him....maybe A MOON...not just a crater....maybe a planet....hey, how about we name an EXOPLANET after him in another star system...that would be fitting....[/quote]
It's certainly remarkable, and a pity his name isn't better known, but wasn't very useful since he was unable to show how his idea better described the universe than the geocentric model.
As far as Galileo, keep in mind he wasn't going up merely against the Church here. If he hadn't managed to piss off several individuals in the Church, in fact, it probably would have been his biggest ally, as quite a few high-ranking clergymen found his arguments, and those of Copernicus before him, quite compelling.
However, Galileo was challenging the entire world, educated and uneducated alike.
In his day, every person knew just from getting up in the morning and looking outside that the sun moved around the earth. It was a daily experience, reinforced from birth, and with the exception of a few well-educated and very open-minded individuals, the most obvious interpretation was assumed to be the right one.
We can get just a teeny, tiny hint of the depth of conviction that Galileo was up against with a modern example: People everywhere were outraged when the IAU recategorized Pluto as a dwarf planet. Even 5 years after the fact, it's easy to get people ranting about those "idiot astronomers" and their meddling. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has talked several times about hate mail he gets as a result of it.
Recategorizing Pluto was a change of a label and some textbooks.
Galileo was telling people their entire worldview was completely upside down.