The legacy of galileo galilei

[lemonbeam]

Conference Discusses Scientist’s Continuing Influence

By Edward Pentin

ROME, DEC. 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Four hundred years after he invented the first telescope, Galileo Galilei’s legacy lives on, continuing to influence how the world views science and how science views the world and, of course, the universe.

The extent of his impact on the scientific world and the Church was examined in great detail at a fascinating Rome conference this week, held by the Pontifical Lateran University.

Entitled “1609-2009: From Galilei’s Telescope to Evolutionary Cosmology – Science, Philosophy and Theology in Dialogue,” the three-day meeting brought together a star line-up of speakers including two Nobel Laureates for Physics, cosmologists, theologians and philosophers. It comes at the end of an International Year of Astronomy, held to celebrate Galileo’s 1609 invention.

The conference logically began by clearing up the myths that still surround Galileo and his relationship with the Church. Dr. Owen J. Gingerich, a former research professor of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University, laid out the history of the controversy.

He swiftly ruled out the most famous and seemingly irrefutable accusation: that Galileo was tortured by the Church. The Italian astronomer was sent a letter, Gingerich said, which stated he was to be “interrogated for vehement expression of heresy” and that included “legally being shown the instruments of torture.”

But Gingerich said Galileo “was certainly not tortured and I suspect also not shown the instruments of torture, but he was on his third interrogation when he realised there was to be no discussion, that he wasn’t going to be able to argue that the Copernican system should be taken seriously.” He therefore was willing to “confess in any way that was required, put under house arrest and sent back to Florence.”

Read more: zenit.org/article-27735?l=english