Censorship And Scripture By Galileo

Galileo struggled with censorship and religious critics for his works which conflicted significantly with medieval teachings. One argument Galileo made to demonstrate the compatibility of Copernicanism with scripture is based on the practices of medieval theologians. He argues that past theologians have interpreted Aristotelian teachings on astronomy to better align with scripture, so there should be no reason he cannot do the same. Galileo attempted to describe his viewpoint as “divinely inspired.” In his letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo points out that some things about God in the Bible are obscured yet people are supposed to take the astronomy in scripture literally. Galileo also attempts to explain why the Bible describes the solar system as it does. …show more content…
He also asserts that nature is immutable so in order to understand it, we must observe it and use necessary demonstrations; God would not give us our senses and reason in order for us not to use. In this way, banning Copernicanism would involve banning people from looking at the stars and banning those that seek to understand our solar system. Galileo also makes the statement that the Bible should not be the main authority for physical and scientific matters. Another argument that Galileo makes is based on dogmatic principles. People who are taught a certain perspective or disagree with an opposing theory are more close-minded. In general people are more willing to find fallacies, ignore, or neglect to properly learn a different proposition before making