“Big Brother is watching you,”—similar to the government portrayed in the well-known dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell, the Catholic Church had thorough control over every aspect of the lowly commoner. Ever since the alleged issue of The Donation of Constantine in the 8th century giving the papacy power of the western Roman Empire, the local church held power over the commoner from preaching to education to local politics (Vauchez 445). With the ability to manipulate the education that commoners were receiving, the church was able to integrate religion into their teachings. The influence was especially substantial regarding natural phenomena such as the concept of gravity or sicknesses, as commoners were taught that they were simply the
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Under Copernicus’s influence, he came to prove the heliocentric theory with his telescopic observations, in particular, that of Venus. Through his telescope, he observed that Venus, like the Moon, also had phases; yet, these phases could only be explained if Venus was travelling around the Sun. This eventually allowed him to conclude that Venus was not circulating the Earth, but the Sun instead, leading him to use these observations to prove Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory (Scherrer). By further providing evidence in support of heliocentrism, Galileo’s efforts directly contributed to the emergence of Deism. However, Galileo’s story does not just end here. Galileo was soon found “vehemently suspected of heresy” by the Inquisition, and was kept under house arrest until his death. Ironically, it was during his time in custody where he wrote his final publication, Two New Sciences. Forbidden to talk about the topic of earth’s motion, he elaborated rather on the laws of motion, which provided proof to help later scientists in continuing his work, namely Isaac Newton. Not only did Galileo catalyze the emergence of Deism of his time through his telescopic observations, but paved the way for future research to justify the presence of natural laws and to reject the existence of a God who intervenes with human
Under Copernicus’s influence, he came to prove the heliocentric theory with his telescopic observations, in particular, that of Venus. Through his telescope, he observed that Venus, like the Moon, also had phases; yet, these phases could only be explained if Venus was travelling around the Sun. This eventually allowed him to conclude that Venus was not circulating the Earth, but the Sun instead, leading him to use these observations to prove Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory (Scherrer). By further providing evidence in support of heliocentrism, Galileo’s efforts directly contributed to the emergence of Deism. However, Galileo’s story does not just end here. Galileo was soon found “vehemently suspected of heresy” by the Inquisition, and was kept under house arrest until his death. Ironically, it was during his time in custody where he wrote his final publication, Two New Sciences. Forbidden to talk about the topic of earth’s motion, he elaborated rather on the laws of motion, which provided proof to help later scientists in continuing his work, namely Isaac Newton. Not only did Galileo catalyze the emergence of Deism of his time through his telescopic observations, but paved the way for future research to justify the presence of natural laws and to reject the existence of a God who intervenes with human