TLK Valentine
I've already read the books you want burned.
- Apr 15, 2012
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Trying to pin some Eurocentrism here is silly. The Europeans were the only Heliocentrists on Earth at that stage. While the Catholic Church did condemn it, this was far from a foregone conclusion, and one they tacitly regretted - Copernicus' works were placed on the index of banned works, but an exception was made for calendrical determinations, ie. they knew he was right, but it had become politically inexpedient to say so, after Galileo's public trial. That trial was more a witchhunt by his enemies, than an attempt to muzzle science or propogate theology.
Sounds like the Church needed to save face -- by burying what even they knew was right.
What a shrewd political move... don't you think?
Only about 50-70 years later did everyone agree Heliocentrism was valid, due to Kepler and Newton, and only confirmed observationally in the 18th and 19th centuries; but at the time of the trial, it was still debatable scientifically if this was the case.
True, true -- the main scientific obstacle to heliocentiricism was the lack of supporting mathematics -- Brahae tried to fix that; Kepler succeeded.
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