[MD] Galileo and the church

[John Carl]

Arlo, Marsha, Mark and Platt,

First off, Mark hit the nail on the head with his assessment of "the
academy" as an arm of the church in those days, so separation of the
two hadn't occurred yet and thus it is a bit more complicated than my
brief but challenging thesis simplistically portrayed.  So my kudos to
Mark.

And kudos to Marsha, for turning me on to this guy (Wallace) in the
first place for he does have a lot of very interesting insights.  He
intersperses his insights, with practice in actual meditation and I
think that has been very helpful and interesting as well.  A little
reading,  a little meditating, a nice way to spend one's time.

However, Arlo, one very clear point Wallace makes is that the priests
and religious factions within the church were enthusiastic about the
discoveries of Galileo. Dining at their houses and showing them his
telescope.  It was the entrenched bureaucratic  factions in the
academic arm of the church which opposed Galileo because his ideas
overthrew the existing power structures.  "It is better that this man
perish, than our whole system be overthrown" was the cry of these
academics and learned men and if that sounds familiar to you, then
perhaps you recall it was the same justification which got the
Pharisees to bring Christ up on charges before Pilate, and for that
matter,  against Socrates in his day.  I think you can see the
pattern.  These intellectuals, because they stand at the pinnacle of a
social hierarchy, are always the most opposed to dynamic change, even
when it runs plainly counter to empirical evidence.  For what
empirical evidence could possibly sway one against one's own
self-interest?  Some of these academics even refused to even consider
looking for themselves, convinced that some sort of optical illusion
trickery must be in play.

The priests and religiously-oriented, were not afraid to change their
minds and look for themselves and see.

Now, that this happened in the past is one interesting fact, but the
more interesting fact to my mind, is that the characterization of
Galileo's opposition has been portrayed as coming from the religious,
rather than the academic arms of the church then and that this
characterization has been perpetrated  by the modern academic arm in
such a plainly self-serving manner, in what is obviously a very old
pattern of conflict.