Who should try and give the answer to… -How planets move ? -What the bible is saying ? -How the universe was made?

Usually, science and religion never bother with each other, because they deal with totally different topics – the physical, vs. the spiritual. But occasionally, there may be a clash... because each thinks the topic belongs to them… In the 16 th century, the Church thought it had the answer to all these questions: what the bible means, how the planets move, how the earth was made. Galileo, showed them that they didn’t.

To describe what Galileo discovered To explain why Galileo was silenced by the Church To evaluate if the story of Galileo suggests that the Church is against science Galileo Galilei was a Catholic 1560’s He received a very good education in a Catholic monastery, by monks, and then went to University. He became a great scientist. One of his daughters became a nun. So he did not have a problem with the Church. But he was never afraid to disagree – either with the Church, or with other scientists. Watch the video to find out what was Galileo’s revolutionary new idea. From 7mins - 9:30

In Galileo’s day, everyone believed the science of Aristotle, from Ancient Greece. Aristotle had taught biology, physics, geometry. He taught that the earth was the centre of the universe. Many famous philosophers and most astronomers also believed this. The Bible also seems to say that the earth is fixed at the centre of the universe: Galileo insisted that it wasn’t. He said the SUN was at the centre. But he did not really have any correct proof for his theory (powerful telescopes had not yet been invented) … The Church was upset that he seemed to be contradicting the Bible. It told him to take back his ideas, to speak no more about them, and put him under house arrest, for the rest of his life. “The LORD fixed the earth firmly in its place, it can never be moved”. Ps 104 “Joshua said to the sun “Sun, stand still”. And the sun stood still.” Josh 10:12 1.Explain what Galileo’s theory was. 2.Why did people at that time believe all the planets including the sun went around the earth? 3 reasons. 3.Why did the Church refuse to believe him? Explain what one of the Bible quotes taught. (PEE) 4.What happened to Galileo in the end? Why do you think this happened? **How would the Church have to change the way it understood the bible, if it was going to accept Galileo’s ideas?

Back in 350AD, 1000 years ago, a great Saint of the Church, St. Augustine, had taught.. “The Gospel does not say that the Lord will send you the Holy Spirit to teach you about the course of the sun and moon.’ For the Lord willed to make them Christians, not mathematicians.“ The Church should have known better than to try and insist that the Bible was good science and reliable astronomy. So why did the Church react in such a defensive way? At the time, a group of Christians called Protestants, led by Martin Luther, were breaking away from the Church, saying they had the right to interpret the Bible anyhow they liked, without listening to Church teaching. The Church felt this would lead people to believe the wrong things, and end up in hell. So they were very much against anybody who said they had their own views on the Bible. They arrested, tortured and killed such people. Galileo could have been seen as one of these “heretics”… He was lucky to only receive house arrest… So - was the Church really anti-science? Or was it only reacting to the Protestant threat of the time? Draw a table with reasons to show if the Church was or was not anti-science in this situation. Explain your view.

Draw the 2 kinds of theory – Galileo’s and Aristotles’.