Galileo on religion and science Essay

Ex unfinished Galileos attempt to make science and pietism congruous, with particular reference to methods of justification. How successful is he? Use Kuhns nonion of incommensurability to investigate Galileos attempt to reconcile the propositions of science and religion.There will always be a battle between religion and science, it is a truth universall(a)y acknowledged. Galileo attempted to make the two compatible by suggesting that the truth can exactly be sought forth if the nonion under consideration can be accurately tested and if the opposing view can be founded as false. Galileos goes into depth just round the truth of scripture and the sciences, intertwined with the causality of man, in his letter to Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Early on in the letter Galileo, infers from St Augustine that the Holy Ghost did not intend to find out how heaven goes rather how one goes to heaven. Galileo interprets this as the underlying basis for the common peop le to believe that man should not concern themselves with science and that it is a happen uponst the Bible, and thereof blasphemous. Furthermore this misconception is continued, as Galileo believes that the common people get a line the truth in the Bible is largely to do with ones salvation and other sensible things such as whether the Sun or Earth are mobile, are irrelevant.From this Galileo leads on to discuss that physical problems are able to be solved done sense-experiences and reason, as healthy as the authority of scriptural passages highlighting that either are valid to contain the truth. Galileo argues that God gifted man with the powerfulness of reason and logic, so that they would be able to discover and learn about his creation. God did not set bounds to human ingenuity so why should the church service impose them, by discrediting and prohibiting some of the greatest work of philosophers and scientists? Galileo had two types of physical propositions those that ar e able to be subjected to tests and experiments and those that can only be conjectured about and these are best left-hand(a) to faith and Holy scriptures. 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 agree that free-philosophizing should be shunned, because the Holy Ghost states that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from beginning even toend.Galileo is not fulfill 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 ultimately truth. He highlights this by using the Sun and the Earth the debate about the still Sun and the mobile Earth, as many come to believe it was most absurd to believe otherwise. This is because Nicholas Copernicus provided evidence for his claims which were reasonable and logical that it was plain as daylight. Galileo stresses the wideness 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 adapt their own end. The repetition of this (citing scripture to back up their skewed claims) will lead to the inevitable adoption of this understanding and consequently missing the true close behind the scriptural passages. This is what Galileo means when he refers to as the vulgar and common people, sometimes misinterpret the holy writings of the Bible to fulfil their foolish fancies.Because of this Galileo advocates the importance for mankind to step away from information that just concerns salvation and to broaden 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 world and that man should keep an open mind to explore twain, because both are valid sources of the truth. He goes on to say that God did not intend for his Word to be misinterpre ted like this and the true meaning to be obscured, and this sort of abuse should not gain countenance and authority.However as Galileo stated it is more pleasant to gain a reputation for wisdom without experiments and research than it is to pursue science and flummox evidence for these physical observations. Galileo is thankful to God because he does not allow the majority of these common folk as stated above to have all the authority, some learned 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 ostensible in the letter when he is discussing the celestial bodies concerning the work of Copernicus. Galileo believes that it would be wholly 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. Basically Galileo believes if something is true, the basis of the truth either, ghostlike or scientific is equally creditable. He further states that if scientific fact is unattainable, it must be a thing of faith and religion where human abstract thought cannot reach and there is no science but only opinion of faith the truth must be in the Scripture. This is demonstrated in the letter whether the stars are animate or whether or not the area are spherical. Galileo believes that ultimately 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 the two may seem completely different and nestled scrutiny is required. Galileo proves his point further by stating that two truths can never contradict each other ultimately, the religious and scientific, mus t 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 notion 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 understand the true meaning of the Scriptural passages.Primarily Galileo could not disregard the Bible wholly firstly, as mentioned above he himself believed greatly in God and second the people of the t ime 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 upset to them, that it is beyond their capacity to comprehend. It is remarked by Galileo people who are unable 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 understandi ng 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(p) to the inherent idea that perceptual experience is theory dependant. Basically, ones ability to develop a theory is establish on their previous vivification experiences whether it be from actual 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 previously discussed) that when human reasoning is unable to provide an answer than it must b e 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 world 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 then 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.Reference listAll in text citations and all information about this essay were sourced from the following ATS2867, Thinking about Science reputation guide and Readings, Monash University, 1998 15-3051-66.