{"id":993,"date":"2007-09-08T12:22:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-08T12:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2007\/09\/08\/letter-to-danielian\/"},"modified":"2007-09-08T12:22:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-08T12:22:00","slug":"letter-to-danielian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2007\/09\/08\/letter-to-danielian\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Danielian"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just received a letter, forwarded by The Guardian, from a Dr Danielian, who takes me to task for maintaining in letter (go here<\/a> and scroll down) to The Guardian that, contrary to what another letter<\/a> had suggested, Galileo and Bruno were hauled before the Inquisition for their scientific views.<\/p>\n

Here’s my response. I’ll add to it in the next post, as exactly how some Catholics try to justify the view that the Church was not concerned with Bruno’s and Galileo’s scientific views is worth unpacking…<\/p>\n

Dear Dr Danielan<\/p>\n

I just received your letter to The Guardian<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my letter.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say I agree with you, though. The issue I addressed, remember, was whether Galileo and Bruno were hauled before the Inquisition for their scientific views, or merely their theological views. I rejected the claim that it was only their theological views that were of concern to the religious authorities.<\/p>\n

I pointed out that, as even Koestler says, Galileo was indeed condemned for his scientific views, in particular, for repeating the claim that Copernicus\u2019 system was not just a useful hypothesis but literally true (a claim he had already been warned by the Church not to repeat).<\/p>\n

You agree, I see. But then you agree that his scientific views were indeed of concern to the Church, do you not? True, you add that Galileo had no proof. Perhaps. But that\u2019s irrelevant to the point being discussed.<\/p>\n

Second, you maintain Bruno\u2019s scientific opinions were of no concern to the Church, and quote Koestler in your support.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you are unaware, but Vatican documents now confirm the opposite. Go to: http:\/\/asv.vatican.va\/en\/doc\/1597.htm, where you will find this:

In one of the last interrogations before the execution of the sentence (maybe in April 1599), the Dominican friar was questioned by the judges of the Holy Office on his cosmogony conception, supported above all in the \u201cLa cena delle Ceneri\u201d(Ash-Wednesday Dinner) and in the \u201cDe l\u2019infinito universo et mundi\u201d. Even then, he defended his theories as scientifically founded and by no means against the Holy Scriptures (left side, from the first line: Circa motum terrae, f. 287, sic dicit: Prima generalmente dico ch\u2019il moo et la cosa del moto della terra e della immobilit\u00e0 del firmamento o cielo sono da me prodotte con le sue raggioni et autorit\u00e0 le quali sono certe, e non pregiudicano all\u2019autorit\u00e0 della divina scrittura […]. Quanto al sole dico che niente manco nasce e tramonta, n\u00e9 lo vedemo nascere e tramontare, perch\u00e9 la terra se gira circa il proprio centro, che s\u2019intenda nascere e tramontare [… ]). (Circa motum terrae, f. 287, sic dicit: Firstly, I say that the theories on the movement of the earth and on the immobility of the firmament or sky are by me produced on a reasoned and sure basis, which doesn\u2019t undermine the authority of the Holy Sciptures [\u2026]. With regard to the sun, I say that it doesn\u2019t rise or set, nor do we see it rise or set, because, if the earth rotates on his axis, what do we mean by rising and setting[\u2026]).<\/span><\/p>\n

Note Bruno was questioned on his \u201ccosmogony conception\u201d. And he defended his theory as \u201cscientifically founded\u201d.<\/p>\n

Koestler was no doubt unaware of these documents. I also ask, where is the evidence to support your claim that Bruno was not<\/span> hauled before the Inquisition for, among other things, his scientific views?<\/p>\n

So, I stand by my claim that Bruno and Galileo were hauled before the Inquisition for their scientific views (which is not say that their theological views were not of concern too).<\/p>\n

All best wishes<\/p>\n

Stephen Law<\/p>\n

PS. I guess you may agree with Ratzinger, who thinks \u201cThe process against Galileo was reasonable and just\u201d. Is it your view that the Church did little wrong in the Galileo affair?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just received a letter, forwarded by The Guardian, from a Dr Danielian, who takes me to task for maintaining in letter (go here and scroll down) to The Guardian that, contrary to what another letter had suggested, Galileo and Bruno were hauled before the Inquisition for their scientific views. Here’s my response. I’ll add […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galileo","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}