WHAT WOULD GALILEO DO? 

By Duncan 

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

I stopped at the light behind an older minivan with an unusual bumper sticker. The sticker had a blue background and white letters. 

I moved closer to the van to ensure I read the bumper sticker correctly. “What would Galileo do?” Shouldn’t that read, “What did Galileo do?” 

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

If you are scratching your head and thinking, I know the name (Galilileo), but I can't put my finger on it. What did Galileo do or didn’t he do? Allow me to refresh your memory. My story about Galileo is as good as anybody's story. So, let me give it a shot. 

History is interesting. As my Personal and Very Close Friend, Jack Maynard is want to say, 

“You know why they spell the word history that way? Because it is mostly about Men. “His” (him) Tory (Latin for story.) His Story!”

Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s a bore. I had a teacher in high school who approached history class a little differently. 

Mr. Clifford Reece - History Teacher. 

Mr. Reece would bring the daily newspaper to class. For the first half of the class, he would read the headlines and talk briefly about current events. Then he would say, 

“The things that happen today will be history tomorrow.” 

Then, in the second half of the class, we would revert to the prescribed history books the public school system required. Mr. Reece was a conservative, well-dressed man with a sense of fashion. 

From his demeanor, I knew we would never be buddies. But back then, I never wanted to be friends with any of my teachers. It was a teacher-student relationship.  

Mr. Reece was a no-smoking, no-joking kind of guy. He was the learned one, and I was the one who was required to absorb the information like a sponge. Then he would give those damn tests, and my sponge would go dry. Why was it important to memorize all those dates? 

I digress. Let’s talk about my experience. I had to ask myself a couple of questions to understand anything about early history. This part may or may not be interesting, but I had to review it for myself. 

What does B.C.E. Mean? 

What does B.C. mean?  

AD: What does that mean? 

B.C.E.: Before Common Era / Before Current Era / Before Christian Era:

C.E.:    Abbreviation for Common Era (In the year of the Lord) 

B.C.:    Abbreviation for Before Christ

AD:      Abbreviation for Anno Domini (Latin) The year of the Lord. 

Once I had this refresher. I realized we had been keeping track of things for a long time.  

Egypt is about 6,000 years old. 

Greece is about 3,000 years old.

Rome began to achieve power 500 years B.C. and lost power around 300 AD.

The Catholic Church became Rome's religious and political power in about 300 AD.  

Islam started around 622 CE (The year of the Lord.)

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

The story of Galileo is simple. The pictures of Galileo above should give you a clue. In or around 1632 (Give or take a few years), Galileo discovered, looking through a primitive telescope he made, that the Earth rotated around the sun. As Galileo said, “The earth moves.” 

Historians, scholars, and the Roman Catholic Church at that time believed and taught that the sun revolved around the earth. 

For anyone to suggest the church was wrong was considered heresy. And heresy means an opinion or belief opposite to Catholic Church doctrine. If you are accused of heresy, it can be punishable by death.  

Galileo published a paper, or was it a book, in 1632. The church called him to Rome for an inquisition. After four days of back-and-forth, the church leaders didn’t believe Galileo had any credible evidence of the Earth moving around the sun. Galileo was well known by the Pope and others in the political audience, so they offered him a deal.  

Galileo gives the reasons as to why the earth moves.

The qualifiers delivered their unanimous decision. The proposition that the Sun is stationary at the center of the universe is "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the Holy Scripture"; the proposition that the Earth moves and is not at the center of the universe "receives the same judgment in philosophy; and regarding theological truth, it is at least erroneous in faith.”

Recount what you have written and say, Galileo. You must now say, “The Earth is the center of the universe.” If you don’t, your punishment will be death. Galileo had a decision to make. 

WHAT WOULD GALILEO DO?

Galileo chose life over death. He recounted, “The Earth is the center of the universe. The sun revolves around the Earth.” 

The Inquisition decided to go light on Galileo and sentenced him to house arrest for the rest of his life. On his way out of the Inquisition, he mumbled under his breath, 

“All the same, it moves.”  

However, it was not until October 31, 1992, that Pope John Paul II publicly and formally cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing, based on the findings of a committee he had set up in 1979 to investigate the matter. 

Well, no one has ever accused the Catholic Church of being too hasty.