Galileo on religion and science Essay

Explain Galileos attempt to make science and morality matched, with particular reference to methods of justification. How successful is he? Use Kuhns legal panorama of incommensurability to investigate Galileos attempt to reconcile the propositions of science and religious belief.There go away always be a battle between organized religion and science, it is a rightfulness universally acknowledged. Galileo attempted to make the two matched by suggesting that the truth can only be sought out if the capriciousness under consideration can be accurately tested and if the argue view can be founded as false. Galileos goes into depth intimately the truth of scripture and the sciences, intertwined with the reason of man, in his letter to Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. earlier on in the letter Galileo, infers from St Augustine that the set apart Ghost did non stand for to teach how heaven goes rather how hotshot goes to heaven. Galileo interprets this as the vestigial basis for the customary people to believe that man should not misgiving themselves with science and that it is against the Bible, and in that respectfore blasphemous. Furthermore this misconception is continued, as Galileo believes that the common people realize the truth in the Bible is mostly to do with angiotensin-converting enzymes salvation and other physical topics such as whether the sunbathe or Earth be mobile, ar irrelevant.From this Galileo leads on to discuss that physical problems atomic number 18 qualified to be solved by aesthesis-experiences and reason, as well(p) as the authority of scriptural passages highlighting that either ar valid to keep in line the truth. Galileo argues that paragon adroit man with the power of reason and logic, so that they would be able to discover and learn somewhat his creation. God did not sterilize bounds to human ingenuity so why should the church chatter them, by discrediting and prohibiting some of the greatest work of philosophers and scientists? Galileo had two types of physical propositions those that argon able to be subjected to tests and experiments and those that can only be conjectured closely and these are best left to faith and Holy account books. Galileo did not believe that everything in the universe was known to man, he believed that there were more truths to be discovered. He did not coincide that free-philosophizing should be shunned, because the Holy Ghost states that man cannot fall upon out the work that God hath done from beginning even to revoke.Galileo is not satisfied by this and urges others to not side with the common opinion of the scriptures, to the point where it blocks logic and reason, and eventually truth. He highlights this by using the Sun and the Earth the debate about the still Sun and the mobile Earth, as many obtain to believe it was most absurd to believe otherwise. This is because Nicholas Copernicus provided evidence for his claims w hich were reasonable and logical that it was plain as daylight. Galileo stresses the impressiveness of not bending the word of God to fulfil ones foolish fancies i.e. one should guard themselves against deliberately misinterpreting the Holy Scripture to suit their own end. The repeat of this (citing scripture to back up their skewed claims) will lead to the needed adoption of this discovering and consequently missing the unbent mean can the scriptural passages. This is what Galileo means when he refers to as the vulgar and common people, some judgment of convictions misinterpret the holy writings of the Bible to fulfil their foolish fancies.Because of this Galileo advocates the sizeableness for mankind to step away from information that just concerns salvation and to stretch their horizons most importantly, to not be afraid of the truth. By this he suggests that Holy Scripture and explanations of physical things have their own place in the globe and that man should keep an o pen mind to explore both, because both are valid sources of the truth. He goes on to say that God did not consider for his Word to be misinterpreted like this and the accredited meaning to be obscured, and this mannikin of abuse should not gain countenance and authority.However as Galileo stated it is more pleasant to gain a reputation for cognizance without experiments and research than it is to pursue science and produce evidence for these physical manifestations. Galileo is thankful to God because he does not allow the majority of these common family unit as stated supra to have all the authority, some intimate people too have authority. Galileo is not speaking blasphemy, he is suggesting there is a place for both Holy doctrine as well as scientific doctrine and he attempts to prove this.Galileo is concerned with obtaining the truth about the world we live in, whether religion provides an answer or science. This is explicit in the letter when he is discussing the celesti al bodies concerning the work of Copernicus. Galileo believes that it would be exclusively unjustified to banCopernicus work after it has been confirmed over the years, he puts it in my judgement to be a contravention of the truth if this were to occur. fundamentally Galileo believes if something is true, the basis of the truth either, religious or scientific is equally creditable. He further states that if scientific fact is unattainable, it essential be a thing of faith and religion where human reasoning cannot reach and there is no science but only opinion of faith the truth must be in the Scripture. This is present in the letter whether the stars are thrill or whether or not the heavens are spherical. Galileo believes that in the end that the science behind a phenomena will equate to the Scripture that describes it the true senses of the Bible will most certainly be found to agree with the proven fact.He further goes on to admit, that at first-year the two may seem complet ely different and closer testing is required. Galileo proves his point further by stating that two truths can never counterbalance each other ultimately, the religious and scientific, must both be compatible for something to be proven true. The matter of Galileos success is dependent largely on his era and the audience. Being a follower of God as well as a man of science and a philosopher, Galileo had to come to terms with both his beliefs and what his physical senses and reasoning told him about the world. He achieved this by describing that the facts produced by reasoning will equal the truth held in the Scripture both religion and science were correct. However, this was conditional the Holy Scripture should not be misinterpreted and the whimsicality under consideration should be tested through logic. Following this Galileo, believed that the understanding held by an individual of the Holy Scripture, chiefly relied upon how leaned such a person was and their capacity to underst and the true meaning of the biblical passages.Primarily Galileo could not disregard the Bible wholly firstly, as mentioned above he himself believed greatly in God and secondly the people of the time were immersed in the religion from infancy it was to them, common knowledge and the truth about the world. Given this Galileo had to find a solution to please both religious beliefs whilst allowing scientific inquiry and philosophising to occur. As he describe the vulgar and common people may shun his ideas, because they do not accept anything that is not Holy Scripture, and believe Galileo and other scientists and philosophers to be blasphemous. However Galileo attempts tomake sense of this by discussing that perhaps they misinterpreted the Bible and consequently the true meaning (which is compatible with science) is lost to them, that it is beyond their capacity to comprehend. It is remarked by Galileo people who are futile to understand both the Bible and the sciences far outnumber those who do understand perhaps this is Galileo commenting on his own success that he is only able to reach people if they understand the true meaning of Scripture and are capable of understanding the sciences.Galileo in his attempt to reconcile the propositions of both religion and science, it is evident that he employed Kuhns measures of perpetual incommensurability. The evidence acquired via observation is an insufficient basis for theory comparison, due to the inherent idea that perceptual experience is theory dependant. Basically, ones ability to develop a theory is based on their previous life experiences whether it be from factual physical events, emotional or spiritual events. All play a role in the development of a theory, which is formed based on how an individual sees the world and what they conclude about it. This in mind, it can be observed that Galileos religious upbringing and his adulthood, greatly influenced his views on religion and science.Galileo believed that Holy Scripture and the sciences were compatible it can be inferred from his letter (as antecedently discussed) that when human reasoning is unable to provide an answer than it must be left to faith. Extrapolating on this one may conclude that Galileo could be suggesting that the true meaning of science was written in the Bible and God gifted humans with the power to reason, to ultimately find out the truth of the world, of creation. It is this notion that people may find it hard to come to terms with because, it was believed that God did not want humans to discover the truth. However, Galileo questioned (as did many others) why past did God bestow reason and logic on humans? This ultimately drives Galileo in his quest to make religion and science compatible. This reflects the perpetual incommensurability of Kuhn that ones background will inevitably colour their perception, as demonstrated by Galileos attempt to reconcile religious faith and the sciences. wing listAll in text citat ions and all information about this essay were sourced from the following ATS2867, Thinking about Science Study melt down and Readings, Monash University, 1998 15-3051-66.