> Rod Speed
gmail.com> wrote>>> BobW
roadrunner.com> wrote>>>> John Larkin
highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote>>>>> QuantumDot
ohnoyoudont.co.za> wrote>>>>>>> "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by
>>>>>>> this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
>>>>>>> -- Jonathan Swift
>>>>>> This quote is usually self-applied by fools and kooks.
>>>>>> Those who are truly insightful are also wise enough
>>>>>> not to apply it publicly to themselves.
>>>>> It's not true anyhow. Shakespeare; Feynman;
>>>>> Einstein; Kovacs; Kelvin; all revered in their time.
>>>>> Can anybody name a real genius who was attacked by all available dunces?
>>>> Galileo.
>>> One of the Great Myths of modern times was that Galileo was
>>> persecuted for describing the truth of the planets. He was in
>>> fact lightly punished for being a tactless boor who could label
>>> a friend he knew since childhood as an simpleton to advance
>>> point (even if that was not what he meant to do). Unfortunately
>>> for Galileo, that man he had known since childhood was the
>>> pope, so Galileo was placed under house arrest in a luxurious
>>> papal palace. It was not what he said, but how he said it.
>> How odd that Bruno got burnt at the stake.
>>> Galileo's troubles was nearly fifty years after the papacy
>>> started to sponsor astronomical research, in a big way.
>> And didnt like what that sponsoring produced.
>>> The best way to describe Galileo is that, while he
>>> was scientifically brilliant, he was sorely lacking in
>>> the people skills needed for academic infighting.
>> He did manage to do pretty well in that regard, avoided getting burnt at
>> the stake and ended up with a reasonably comfortable existence instead.
> It was not odd that Bruno got burnt at the stake.
Pity about his silly line that 'It was not what he said, but how he said it'
> From Wikipedia, his heresies were:
> * Holding opinions contrary to the Catholic Faith
Galileo did that.
> and speaking against it and its ministers.
And that.
> * Holding erroneous opinions about the Trinity, about Christ's divinity and Incarnation.
> * Holding erroneous opinions about Christ.
> * Holding erroneous opinions about Transubstantiation and Mass.
> * Claiming the existence of a plurality of worlds and their eternity.
> * Believing in metempsychosis and in the transmigration of the human soul into brutes.
> * Dealing in magics and divination.
> * Denying the Virginity of Mary.
Clearly was what he said, not how he said it.
> It was not the catholic church that burnt him at the stake.
Wrong again.
> He was convicted as a heretic and surrendered to the local secular authority for sentencing.
And the roman catholic church knew damned well what that sentance would be.
> His heresy was equated with treason by the secular authoirities and he was punished as a traitor.
Wrong.
> That he was also a mathematician and philosopher had little to do his heretical opinions.
But clearly he wasnt punished for how he said what he said, but for what he said.
