I thought I was quite clear.
The Church leaders had accepted
as dogma the belief system of the pagan (i.e. non-Christian) philosophers,
Aristotle and Ptolemy, which had become the worldview
of the then scientific establishment. The result was that Church leaders were using the knowledge of the day to interpret Scripture, instead of using the Bible to evaluate the knowledge of the day.
They simply took the word of the scientific leaders of the day, who were the scientific leaders at that time.
They
clung to the ‘majority opinion’ about the universe and
rejected the ‘minority view’ of Copernicus and Galileo, even after Galileo had presented indisputable evidence based on repeatable scientific observations that the majority was wrong. Just as they do today in astronomy. Just as they do in evolution. believing that the "majority" is always correct.
They picked out a few verses from the Bible which they thought said that the sun moved around the earth, but they failed to realize that Bible texts must be understood in terms of what the author intended to convey. Thus, when Moses wrote of the ‘risen’ sun (
Genesis 19:23) and sun ‘set’ (
Genesis 28:11), his purpose was not to formulate an astronomical dictum. Rather he, by God’s spirit, was using the language of appearance so that his readers would easily understand what time of day he was talking about. And it is perfectly valid in physics to describe
motion relative to the most convenient reference frame, which in this case is the earth. We still say the sun sets and rises - even if we understand this is not a scientifically accurate description of what is occurring.
They hand-picked verses that seemed to support their view, in-line with the major scientific beliefs at the time, taking their meanings out of context that the versus were meant to convey. Their beliefs were no different than the belief of the majority of science of the time.
I agree and disagree. I agree they were wrong - but they were simply backing the "majority" belief of the scientific community at the time. People that made their living in the universities teaching the incorrect scientific views of Aristotle and Ptolemy. They abandoned the scriptures for
pagan beliefs - and so of course ended up on the wrong side in the scientific battle that took place. The scientific community which supported the church in their wrong persecution of Galileo.
Poor Galileo was simply the "minority" voice, ignored by the very same people that claimed they followed science - the universities and teaching centers of the time. No different than today in astronomy or evolution.
Just as I no more blame Christian's or non-Christian's for believing that the scientific majority today is correct when it comes to astronomy and evolution. I've heard this logical fallacy argument so many times - but the majority believes...... Well, they simply believed the "majority", so to try to blame only the Church is another argument of logical fallacy.
I only blame them when they refuse to even consider the "minority" view - just as the church and the learning centers of the time did then. But the "majority" of astronomers
believe - so the "minority" is ignored. The "majority" of biologists
believe - so the "minority" is ignored. So in our time and age of reason - this is different how????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair
"Galileo's contributions caused difficulties for theologians and natural philosophers of the time, as they contradicted scientific and philosophical ideas based on those of Aristotle and Ptolemy and closely associated with the Catholic Church. In particular, Galileo's observations of the phases of Venus, which showed it to circle the sun, and the observation of moons orbiting Jupiter, contradicted the geocentric model of Ptolemy and supported the Copernican model advanced by Galileo."
"
Jesuit astronomers, experts both in Church teachings, science, and in natural philosophy, were at first skeptical and hostile to the new ideas; however, within a year or two the availability of good telescopes enabled them to repeat the observations. In 1611, Galileo visited the Collegium Romanum in Rome, where the Jesuit astronomers by that time had repeated his observations. Christoph Grienberger, one of the Jesuit scholars on the faculty, sympathized with Galileo’s theories, but was asked to defend the Aristotelian viewpoint by Claudio Acquaviva, the Father General of the Jesuits. Not all of Galileo's claims were completely accepted: Christopher Clavius, the most distinguished astronomer of his age, never was reconciled to the idea of mountains on the Moon, and outside the collegium many still disputed the reality of the observations. In a letter to Kepler of August 1610, Galileo complained that some of the philosophers who opposed his discoveries had refused even to look through a telescope: My dear Kepler, I wish that we might laugh at the remarkable stupidity of the common herd. What do you have to say about the principal philosophers of this academy who are filled with the stubbornness of an asp and do not want to look at either the planets, the moon or the telescope, even though I have freely and deliberately offered them the opportunity a thousand times? Truly, just as the asp stops its ears, so do these philosophers shut their eyes to the light of truth."
It was the philosophers that refused to look - the claimed leaders of science. The Jesuit priest accepted his ideas after repeating the observations themselves, but the head of them was stuck in his Fairie Dust system of beliefs and so ordered them to oppose him. They wrongly did so, as did the philosophers who would not even look.
"At this time, Galileo also engaged in a dispute over the reasons that objects float or sink in water, siding with Archimedes against Aristotle. The debate was unfriendly, and Galileo's blunt and sometimes sarcastic style, though not extraordinary in academic debates of the time, made him enemies."
I sympathize so well with him, being my style is the same.
"During this controversy one of Galileo's friends, the painter, Lodovico Cardi da Cigoli, informed him that a group of malicious opponents, which Cigoli subsequently referred to derisively as "the Pigeon league," was plotting to cause him trouble over the motion of the earth, or anything else that would serve the purpose. According to Cigoli, one of the plotters had asked a priest to denounce Galileo's views from the pulpit, but the latter had refused. Nevertheless, three years later another priest, Tommaso Caccini, did in fact do precisely that, as described below."
It wasn't the Church that started the trouble - but the very ones that claimed to follow science - they simply got the Church to agree with them and do their dirty work for them.
