When did the Catholic Church acknowledge Gallileo was right?

[1ke]

Do you agree or disagree that the earth circles the sun, not the other way around?

You miss the point. Heliocentrism postulated the sun, fixed and stationery, at the center of the universe while geocentrism postulated Earth, fixed and stationary at the center of the universe. Neither of these things is true.

 

[Evan]

Here is a secular account of the Galileo myth posted on the International planetarium society’s web site.

ips-planetarium.org/?page=a_appledoorn1990

From the page:

Unfortunately, history does not support such a picture. Galileo may not have been guilty of heresy, but he was guilty of several other things: (l) some of his scientific “facts” were wrong; (2) he claimed to have proof when no proof existed; (3) he was unaware of Kepler’s exposition of planetary motion, though Kepler’s book was in his own bookcase; and (4) he had made enemies—bitter enemies—quite needlessly.

Nor was the Roman Church the main villain in the piece. Galileo’s real enemies were the university professors. They, quite understandably, resented Galileo’s outright rejection of their revered Aristotle, whose concepts constituted almost everything they taught. And they fumed at their inability to answer Galileo’s arguments rationally. For twenty years they debated him and lost. Eventually, when Galileo embraced Copernicism, they were able to enmesh the clerics in their battle.

 

[billy15]

Many people have already given some adequate answers, especially Evan above me.

Unfortunately, history does not support such a picture. Galileo may not have been guilty of heresy, but he was guilty of several other things: (l) some of his scientific “facts” were wrong; (2) he claimed to have proof when no proof existed; (3) he was unaware of Kepler’s exposition of planetary motion, though Kepler’s book was in his own bookcase; and (4) he had made enemies—bitter enemies—quite needlessly.

All four of those points are true. And that fight he picked with the wrong Pope, turns out Galileo was actually really good friends with Pope Urban VIII… but Galileo was very pig headed and very full of himself. For whatever reason, he had a knack of making enemies, even with some of his best friends.

I haven’t seen this link posted yet, but Catholic sci-fi author Michael Flynn posted a VERY exhaustive, intelligent, well-sourced, and quite funny treatise on the whole subject. Take some time to read it, because it leaves no stone unturned, and you’ll see that Galileo was indeed never “right”. Yes, St. John Paul II apologized for this, because there were things that Galileo said that were right… but he had no scientific evidence to prove his claims. The Catholic Church, specifically St. Robert Bellarmine, wanted to use the scientific method… Galileo did not.

Again, this essay is exhaustive, but if you want to understand why heliocentrism was such a big deal, and why Galileo’s role in all this has been misunderstood since the Enlightenment, look no further than the following link:

The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown by Michael Flynn: tofspot.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-great-ptolemaic-smackdown.html

Table of Contents (9 sections):tofspot.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-great-ptolemaic-smackdown-table-of.html

 

[Frankenfurter]

The irony is that they were both wrong (the Church theologians and Galileo).

 

[Gorgias]

The irony is that they were both wrong (the Church theologians and Galileo).

No, the irony is that the Church has admitted that their approach was mistaken, but those who are anti-Church haven’t admitted that Galileo was mistaken. :sad_yes: