History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in ChristendomWhite, Andrew Dickson
Religion
History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
White, Andrew Dickson
Religion and science -- History
"Animals, which move, have limbs and muscles; the earth has no limbs
or muscles, therefore it does not move. It is angels who make Saturn,
Jupiter, the sun, etc., turn round. If the earth revolves, it must also
have an angel in the centre to set it in motion; but only devils live
there; it would therefore be a devil who would impart motion to the
earth....
"The planets, the sun, the fixed stars, all belong to one
species--namely, that of stars. It seems, therefore, to be a grievous
wrong to place the earth, which is a sink of impurity, among these
heavenly bodies, which are pure and divine things."
The next, which I select from the mass of similar works, is the
Anticopernicus Catholicus of Polacco. It was intended to deal a
finishing stroke at Galileo's heresy. In this it is declared:
"The Scripture always represents the earth as at rest, and the sun and
moon as in motion; or, if these latter bodies are ever represented as at
rest, Scripture represents this as the result of a great miracle....
"These writings must be prohibited, because they teach certain
principles about the position and motion of the terrestrial globe
repugnant to Holy Scripture and to the Catholic interpretation of it,
not as hypotheses but as established facts...."
Speaking of Galileo's book, Polacco says that it "smacked of
Copernicanism," and that, "when this was shown to the Inquisition,
Galileo was thrown into prison and was compelled to utterly abjure the
baseness of this erroneous dogma."
As to the authority of the cardinals in their decree, Polacco asserts
that, since they are the "Pope's Council" and his "brothers," their
work is one, except that the Pope is favoured with special divine
enlightenment.
Having shown that the authority of the Scriptures, of popes, and of
cardinals is against the new astronomy, he gives a refutation based on
physics. He asks: "If we concede the motion of the earth, why is it that
an arrow shot into the air falls back to the same spot, while the earth
and all things on it have in the meantime moved very rapidly toward
the east? Who does not see that great confusion would result from this
motion?"
Next he argues from metaphysics, as follows: "The Copernican theory of
the earth's motion is against the nature of the earth itself, because
the earth is not only cold but contains in itself the principle of cold;
but cold is opposed to motion, and even destroys it--as is evident in
animals, which become motionless when they become cold."
Finally, he clinches all with a piece of theological reasoning, as
follows: "Since it can certainly be gathered from Scripture that the
heavens move above the earth, and since a circular motion requires
something immovable around which to move,... the earth is at the centre
of the universe."(66)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account