Bad Science Page 14
The key to this theory was that in order for a mere mountain to block the sun, the sun had to be relatively small, so Kosmas conveniently calculated that the sun was actually only a little more than a thousand miles in diameter (significantly less than the actual 865,400 miles). And so in this manner, Kosmas continued through a dozen volumes, shooting down pagan theories and constructing his own politically correct replacements.
To his slight credit, on at least one occasion he did come up with a correct assumption, albeit for a terribly incorrect reason. The Earth, he declared, is most definitely not in the center of the universe. It could not be at the center, Kosmas asserted with confidence, because it is so heavy it must have sunk to the bottom.
A High Stake Gamble
Giordano Bruno was born in Italy in 1548. He joined the Dominican order, but because of a propensity for having his own opinions and daring to voice them, he was accused of heresy and left the order at the age of twenty-eight. For the next decade and a half, Bruno traveled across Europe learning, speaking, and publishing his thoughts. All the while, members of the Inquisition in Italy anxiously awaited the return of their hometown boy.
Among Bruno’s outrageous beliefs were his assertions that the stars were actually other suns spanning the infinite reaches of space, and the entire universe was composed of the same matter. As if that wasn't bad enough, he firmly believed in the heliocentric theories of Copernicus, and said so in a voice so loud they could hear him in Rome.
And as if to prove how foolish he was, Bruno returned to Italy. Arrested, tried, and convicted, he was imprisoned in the dungeon of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome for six years. Refusing to recant, he was finally treated to a barbecue, Inquisition-style, in the year 1600. While his heretical beliefs of astronomical theories were not the only crimes for which he was burned at the stake, they most certainly fueled the fire from which scientists such as Galileo no doubt smelled the smoke.
A defiant Giordano Bruno on trial
before the Inquisition.Bronze
relief by Ettore Ferrari (1845-1929),
Campo de’ Fiori, Rome.
A Banner’s Day
One of the most heinous crimes against humanity is for the powerful few to deny the subjugated many access to knowledge.
Submitted for your disapproval:
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or list of prohibited books—a handy little tool of the Inquisition, designed under the guise of piety to keep minds closed and collection boxes open and overflowing.
Two of the blackest dates for science were February 24, 1616, the day that Pope Paul V and the Inquisition decided that heliocentric theories were heretical, and March 5, the day Copernicus’ De revolutionibus (printed 73 years earlier) was placed on the Index. (Actually, the book wasn’t strictly forbidden. The Church would allow it to be reprinted once it was “corrected,” i.e., once the facts were sufficiently perverted. To all the printers’ credit, no one chose to publish an altered version.)
A 1564 version of
the dreaded Index.
Copernicus’ book wasn’t the only one to be banned. He was to be in good company, as Kepler’s Epitome and Galileo’s Dialogues were also placed on the odious Index. Father Foscarini, a Carmelite, also got in hot holy water with his Lettera, a book in which he tried to reconcile certain passages in the Bible with a moving Earth—a very dangerous subject for anyone, let alone a clergyman.
In 1620, the Church printed Monitum Sacrae Congregationis ad Nicolai Copernici lectorem. In addition to enumerating what needed to be deleted and changed in Copernicus’ book, the document makes the blanket statement that “all other books teaching the same thing” (heliocentrism) were also to be forbidden. As a result, by the middle of the 17th century, the Index began to resemble a “Who’s Who in Astronomy.”
If all this sounds like a foolish practice by a single Pope and a few ignorant Inquisitors, it should be noted that it wasn’t until the 1835 edition of the Index that the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo were finally removed from the forbidden list! And the Index itself wasn’t abolished until 1966!
Fortunately, the Inquisition couldn’t reach everyone, nor could it hold the Earth in the center of the universe, no matter how many books it banned or how many people it persecuted. But it certainly wasn’t from a lack of trying…
“The view that the sun stands motionless at the center of the universe is foolish, philosophically false, utterly heretical, because contrary to Holy Scripture. The view that the earth is not the center of the universe and even has a daily rotation is philosophically false, and at least an erroneous belief.”
Holy Office, Roman Catholic Church, 1616
To See, Or Not to See…
It is difficult to defend a theory when there is no visible proof available. When such proof exists, however, the task of convincing nonbelievers should be childishly simple—unless, of course, those you are trying to convince are childishly obstinate. One of Galileo’s first bouts with just such people who refused to take off their blinders was in Pisa in the year 1598.
Aristotle had taught that bodies fall at different rates according to their weight (the heavier the object the faster it falls), although it seems he never bothered to test that theory. Reason was supposed to be superior to experimentation. No one else seems to have tested it either for almost two thousand years, and everyone accepted Aristotelian theories as incontrovertible laws.
Enter Galileo, who did conduct experiments and found that bodies fell at the same rate regardless of their weight. His colleagues at the University of Pisa discounted the idea as being absurd and completely against common sense. According to a popular story, (the authenticity of the story is disputed although Galileo’s experiments and the controversies they provoked are certain) Galileo was determined to prove his assertions and utilized the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa to do so.
When students and teachers at the university all gathered at the base of the tower to witness Galileo’s experiment, they no doubt thought they were in for a good laugh. However, the joke was to be on them, and Galileo would deliver it with the impact of a lead balloon. Climbing to the top of the tower, Galileo perched two round weights on the edge, one weighing one pound, the other ten pounds (some accounts say the second weight was as much as one hundred pounds).
If Aristotle was correct, the ten pound weight would reach the ground ten times faster. Pushing the two weights over the edge simultaneously, they fell at the same speed and struck the ground at the same instant, their combined sound ringing an end to the Aristotelian world. Or so it should have been.
Rather than thanking Galileo for opening their eyes with this momentous discovery, they refused to believe what they themselves had seen and heard. They became angry with this upstart mathematician, and exerted considerable efforts to try to explain why the experiment was not valid. The persistent ignorance of the faculty and inhabitants of Pisa eventually drove Galileo to resign from the university before his three year post was completed.
By the time Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter through observations conducted in Padua from January 7 through January 13 of 1610, constant practice had led him to treat the ignorance of his so-called peers with resignation and good humor. Many disputed his claims about the moons, even those who viewed them. Then there were those, including a Professor of Philosophy at the university, who simply refused to even look through the telescope! Galileo’s reaction to this refusal appears in a letter to Johannes Kepler.
“Oh, my dear Kepler, how I wish that we could have one hearty laugh together! Here, at Padua, is the principal professor of philosophy whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass, which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? What shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly!”
Those who had argued against the Copernican system had stated that if the Earth moved around the sun, the Moon couldn't possibly stay with the earth. Galileo’s discovery of th
e moons that orbited the moving planet of Jupiter destroyed that argument, and those who obstinately chose to cling to the past had one more reason to hate Galileo. One astronomer in Florence, Francesco Sizzi, refused to believe in the Galilean satellites and stated that raising the number of heavenly bodies from seven to eleven would create nothing less than total havoc.
According to Sizzi, since the seven days of the week were named after the seven heavenly bodies, the addition of four new bodies would ruin the calendar! He also driveled on about the almost magical quality of the number seven, citing examples such as the seven openings in the head and the seven precious metals (of alchemy). Sizzi also stated that, “Moreover, the satellites are invisible to the naked eye, and therefore can have no influence on the earth, and therefore would be useless, and therefore do not exist.”
Even one of Kepler’s students, Martin Horkey, claimed that Galileo’s observations of the moons were nothing more than optical illusions, and that Galileo was interested in money, not truth. Kepler severely chastised Horkey and compelled him to retract those statements. But when even former friends began to criticize his discoveries, Galileo finally lost his good humor and left Padua. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a near-fatal mistake, for when he left the independent Venetian Territory, he moved to Florence—deep in the heart of Inquisition Territory.
The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.
Galileo
Insult and Injury
Today, there are many 12 Step Programs for treating addictions and numerous personal problems. While such programs boast an encouraging success rate, they pale in comparison with the remarkable success of the old 5 Step Program—sponsored by the Inquisition and guaranteed to get results, or else.
One of the greatest crimes against science, reason, and humanity was perpetrated upon Galileo by the Inquisition, forcing him to recant his heretical heliocentric beliefs put forth in his Dialogues on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems. The work gingerly suggests that the Copernican system makes for a good hypothesis, but never concludes which system is correct. But even this was enough ammunition for his enemies, who were able to stir up sufficient trouble to have Galileo summoned to Rome.
(It should be made clear that unlike Giordano Bruno, who was burned for his heliocentric beliefs and criticisms of the Church, Galileo was a devout Catholic his entire life, and despite his advanced age, when summoned, he dutifully obeyed. His downfall, in the eyes of the Inquisitors was not that that he didn’t love the Church, but that this love was perverted by his love of science and truth, and in those days there could be only one winner.)
The five steps for extracting a recantation were simple and terrifyingly effective. The first step involved bringing the accused (i.e., the obviously guilty) heretic to the court of the Inquisition and threatening him. If that didn’t work, the heretic was brought to the door of the torture chamber and threatened again. After being allowed to think about his possible fate for a while, step three found the heretic being brought inside the torture chamber for a grand tour of all the instruments and devices. Explicit details of how they functioned were no doubt carefully explained.
If the stubborn heretic still failed to see the light of truth, he was then stripped and tied to the rack during step four. The final step involved what the Inquisition termed the “rigorous examination,” i.e., inflicting so much pain the poor victim would say or sign anything. (Whatever happened to “Do unto others...”?)
This is what one of the most brilliant men in the history of the world faced for five agonizing months in the year 1633. At the age of seventy, Galileo was imprisoned in Rome and constantly threatened with step five. It’s remarkable that his will and health held out that long. When, after these many months, mere threats failed to work, Galileo was brought to the chambers of the Inquisition where no one heard word of him for three days.
Then on June 24, 1633, Galileo emerged with a signed statement which read that he would “altogether abandon the false opinions that the sun is the center” of the universe and that with “a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I abjure, curse, and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally every other error and sect contrary to the Holy Church.”
There is some dispute as to whether Galileo was actually tortured on the rack. He was sworn to secrecy and never spoke of what transpired during those three days. One would like to believe that the Inquisition would not torture an old man for his scientific theories, but let’s be realistic—it would have hurt Galileo a lot more than it would have hurt them! Some historians point out that after his “examination,” Galileo suffered from a hernia, one of the classic results of being stretched on the rack. But regardless of whether the torture was physical or mental, the effects were nonetheless agonizing.
Despite the horrors he endured and the house arrest under which he would spend the remaining eight years of his life, Galileo’s mind could not be imprisoned. He continued to work, not only discovering the libration of the Moon, but writing a work on his laws of motion, Discourses on Two New Sciences, of Mechanics and of Motions; arguably his greatest achievement.
After suffering years of illness and blindness, Galileo died at the age of seventy-eight. As a final insult, the Inquisition wanted to deny him burial. Afraid, no doubt, that the truth might rise from the grave and expose their cruel ignorance for all eternity.
They Didn’t Call Them Dark For Nothing
After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was an intellectually dim period of history that certainly didn’t give astronomers anything to write home about. With the wisdom of the ancient Greeks and Arabs not scheduled to reemerge for centuries, would-be scholars of the Dark Ages turned to the Father of Tabloid Science, Pliny the Elder. Born in the year 23 A.D., Pliny’s only surviving work is his Historia Naturalis, a lengthy work composed of volumes of virtual nonsense.
He recorded for posterity the “fact” that horses can become pregnant by the west wind, spitting into a snake’s mouth will kill it, and, to his credit, that intercourse is a cure for almost every ailment. In addition to reporting about such things as spontaneous sex changes and animals displaying human abilities, Pliny focused his keen eye on the universe. Within the pages of his great monument to science, this tireless seeker of knowledge declares that the universe is essentially a confused mess, obeying no mathematical laws, and completely beyond our ability to ever measure. And what did the mysteries of the Earth, stars, and planets matter anyway; it was obvious that God had no interest in them, so why should we?
Riding the tidal wave of Pliny’s intellectual stimulus, generations of Europeans huddled in fear of comets, the aurora borealis, and eclipses. Those few who had some spark of curiosity used it to try to interpret the terrible meanings behind these obvious portents of doom. And let’s face it, just about any time in the Dark Ages you predicted disease, famine, or bloodshed, you were probably going to be right.
Six hundred years after Pliny, people like Bede and Gregory of Tours were still mired in the ignorance of their predecessor, maintaining that the heavenly bodies were of no real importance, and still firmly believing in magic and omens. Isidore, Bishop of Seville, in an amazingly feeble and pointless attempt at establishing a “scientific” cosmology, declared that the entire universe was a symbolic representation the church. How many nights did he burn the midnight oil calculating that one?
Unfortunately, such ideas did not begin to face scientific or mathematical scrutiny until the twelfth century, when ancient texts began to be translated into Latin. It is truly an astonishing feat that for over a thousand years, no serious observational data was compiled, no useful instrumentation was developed, and the collective Western intellect was content to sit in the murky backwaters of superstition.
However, it was the fresh ocean waters that would ultimately snap Europe out of the doldrums. When the importance of the celestial realm for accurate navigation was recognized, the scientific ranks sprang to attention—lured not
by the invigorating scent of salt air, but by the seductive smell of commerce.
Can’t Make Them Think
By the year 1800, the persecution of astronomers and much of the fear and ignorance surrounding the science was finally a thing of the past. While great strides were being made in all areas, however, some people chose to stick with the past, and there are those who still do to this day.
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, there have always been those who believed our world was round, not flat. Many times throughout history such people were in the minority, but one would think that by the beginning of the 19th century, the issue would have been settled once and for all. Not so. Certainly in our present age, when astronauts have taken pictures of our plump, spinning Earth, there can't be anyone who still clings to the concept of a flat world. Not so, again.
In the early 1800s, a society was formed in the United States and England that not only maintained that the Earth was flat, but that the sun revolved around us. The North Pole is at the center of this flat Earth and the continents and oceans stretch out around it. Framing the world is Antarctica; not a separate continent surrounded by water as was generally believed, but running along the outermost edges of the Earth in a long, frozen strip.
Early in the 20th century, when explorers like Amundsen, Scott, and Byrd claimed to have reached the South Pole or crossed the continent, members of the Flat Earth Society (then known by its original name, the Zetetic Society) declared that the explorers had been confused and had merely traveled along the perimeter of the Earth.
What of the Apollo Moon landings? A hoax, of course, Flat Earthers contend. How could anything NASA says be true when it is clear that the Moon is only 32 miles wide and no more than 2,500 miles away? As for the sun, it is a little larger than the Moon and orbits us only 700 miles beyond the orbit of the Moon. So despite an overwhelming body of scientific evidence, including countless photographs, there are still those today, who only see exactly what they want to see.