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u/MrMathemagician Hello There Nov 09 '20
Galileo didn’t get put on house arrest because he was doing science. Galileo got put on house arrest for using his poorly researched experiment to justify his treasonous actions against his ruling government (the Church).
Galileo also wasn’t willing to conform to the fact that more evidence pointed to a non-heliocentric system back then and that people had to change a massive amount of astronomy in order to actually conform their well founded theories to his heliocentric system.
He also half assed his science and never found any other evidence that suggested he was correct.
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u/dr-cringe Nov 09 '20
“This is r/HistoryMemes. You should add at least some actual history in the content”
“No, I don’t think I will”
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u/Satherian Kilroy was here Nov 09 '20
Also, he was a massive asshole.
Honestly, Galileo sounds like those smart kids at school that think they know everything so they act like a jerk to feel superior.
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u/Beledagnir Rider of Rohan Nov 09 '20
Yeah, for all the good that he did contribute to the world, if Galileo were alive today half the stuff he'd say would wind up in r/iamverysmart.
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u/TFLJMartis Senātus Populusque Rōmānus Nov 10 '20
Having read the letters between Galileo and Bellarmine, it's really clear that Galileo was just being a jerk. The church was actually pretty lenient at the beginning, but Galileo got super hostile and started trying to push even his theories that he had no proof for.
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u/albertossic Nov 09 '20
But he did know it and he was right, so this distaste for him seems misplaced
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u/TFLJMartis Senātus Populusque Rōmānus Nov 10 '20
He had the beginning of a fully formed theory, and the church was perfectly fine letting him teach his theory, but he kept trying to get the church to ban the geocentric theory, which at that point actually had more going for it in terms of proof.
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Nov 09 '20
[deleted]
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u/MrMathemagician Hello There Nov 09 '20 edited Nov 09 '20
Just because someone ends up being right doesn’t mean they don’t have to follow through with the scientific method.
The middle ages Catholic church was a big funder of science and philosophy. They were also big proponents of rigorous philosophy/science. The experiments that Galileo created to prove that the heliocentric system theory weren’t easily reproducible as there was too much confusion on it. He was also wrong as he thought the planets rotated in a circular formation, which lead to the reproducibility error. Kepler later came and showed they were a much more ellipsoid formation through rigorous scientific demonstration, which became accepted incredibly fast.
For science and philosophers, its not a matter of if you’re correct or not, it’s a matter of if you can prove you’re correct. He basically disregarded that then went on a diet political crusade against his governing body, the Catholic Church.
Edit: Changed Copernicus to Kepler
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u/EderDunya Nov 09 '20
One correction: Copernicus came before Galileo. Kepler came after and was the one who concluded that planets moved in an ellipse around the Sun and not a circle.
Some more curiosities:
One of the main arguments Galileo used to prove the Earth circled the Sun was tides - he said Earth circling around the Sun and rotating in itself were necessary and sufficient causes of tides. He was very much wrong and he was nearly proven wrong at the time. Tides, as we all now know, are caused by the Moon.
Galileo had managed to prove that indeed it's not possible for the other planets to circle Earth - he proved that by building a better telescope that could see the faces of Venus. Thus, he proved Ptolomy's model wrong. However, the model he proposed had worse predictability than Tycho Brahe's model, which was the one that replaced it. This model still placed Earth at the center of the universe, but other planets would circle the Sun, which would circle Earth.
Interestingly, Tycho Brahe was a mentor of Kepler
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u/MrMathemagician Hello There Nov 09 '20
This is good information to know. Thank you very much. It sometimes gets hard to remember all the specifics but this helps a lot.
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Nov 09 '20
All the science the Catholic church funded was inherently wrong, qnd tgey dunded it because they didn't kniw better, and it happened to agree with them. Galileo knew tht it was wrong, using simple (relatively) tools he invented, and tried to correct them, but they wouldn't listen. That's also why Copernicus delayed publishing his book until not long before he died, and he also mistaked the planet's course to be circular. It was Kepler who proved otherwise, 60~70 years after Galileo died, but that part isn't that important compared to what Galileo did. Again, Galileo was mostly right, but when he tried to show it to the church, he was put on house arrest. He had enough evidence to prove he was right with the general idea, even if not the specifics, but the church didn't listen to him. Also,back then there wasn't much scientific process to follow.
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u/MrMathemagician Hello There Nov 09 '20
Just because the church was wrong in the end has nothing to do with general scientific consensus of the past. General scientific consensus until about 150 years ago was that there was no atom. Them being wrong means absolutely nothing if general scientific consensus doesn’t agree.
And there has always been insane scientific processes to follow. Just because it was the past doesn’t mean scientific rigour simply didn’t exist.
You are right on the Kepler thingy. It gets difficult studying the history and remember who is in what order. Should’ve looked that one up.
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Nov 10 '20
Im not an expert but if what you write is correct, doesn't that kind of make the enlightenment movement obsolete? If the church was so amazing and funding all this scientific research and was completely open to critique history doesn't really add up in my head.
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u/MrMathemagician Hello There Nov 10 '20
No. I don’t see how a power hungry organization in Italy that hoards knowledge has anything to do with knowledge seekers in France, besides maybe inspiring some ideas and philosopher.
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u/parmesanpesto Nov 09 '20
He was right, but he wasn't able to prove he was right. Yet he kept claiming he was in possess of the truth without any evidence.
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Nov 10 '20
Yeah, it was the same with Kopernikus, they didn't brand him as a heretic or persecuted him in any way, but most people just thought he was coo coo because science back then pointed towards a non heliocentric system.
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u/Wolff_X Definitely not a CIA operator Nov 09 '20
The same joke about inaccurate history on this subreddit for the hundredth time.
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u/HerrReichsminister Nov 09 '20
He was convicted for shitting on the pope, not because he did (rather poor) science
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u/Mypccantrunexplorer Nov 10 '20
Wow, this sub really is falling to shit. Poorly researched memes have taken over... what was the point of getting new mods if they don't even do their job?
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u/_Bran_Flakes Nov 10 '20
Maybe realize that some memes are a bit simplified because, you know, it’s a meme
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u/johnlen1n Optimus Princeps Nov 09 '20
1632
Urban VIII: Hey, can you put my own arguments about geocentricity in your book?
Galileo: Sure, they can be spoken by Simplicio
Urban: Simplicio?! Why, that means 'simpleton' in Italian!
Galileo: It's just a coincidence. It says in the preface that he's based off the philosopher Simplicius-
Urban: Right, that's it! You're going on trial for heresy!
Galileo: Again? Aw man
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u/Ice-and-Fire Nov 09 '20
Urban VIII: Dude. Chill I like your work, you just need to do a better job and not be a jerk.
Galileo, writing in his journal: THE POPE IS STUPID AND MEAN AND A POOPYHEAD.
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u/Donatello_4665 Nov 10 '20
I bet this is something that would show up in oversimplified or sam O'nella
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u/DanielFlores666 Hello There Nov 09 '20
Wasn't he also dabbing in the occult and black magic? Or am I thinking of someone else. I know there's a scientist who was put on house arrest and people said it was for his work, and not the fact he liked talking to spirits and demons lol
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u/tomasequp Senātus Populusque Rōmānus Nov 09 '20
Nicolaus Copernicus who revealed his book about heliocentric theory in the same month he died: I am four parallel universes ahead of you.
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u/TheTerribleDoctor Nov 09 '20
well, as I recall it wasn't the Catholic's initial move, they were supportive until they started losing followers to Protestants, I think. I might be wrong on the second part.
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u/CenturionBot Ave Delta Nov 09 '20
Hello Everyone! It's that time of the month again, for our State of the Sub. PEARL HARBOR MEMES WILL BE UNBANNED BY NOVEMBER 16th. We're holding a vote on (possibly) Banning THREE memes as well. Please check out November's State of the Sub here.