> tadchem wrote:

>> On Sep 2, 10:49 am, Jerry Kraus yahoo.com> wrote:

>

>>>Modern scientists tend to misinterpret the recent rehabilitation of
>>>Galileo Galilei as indicating that Church admits that they were wrong
>>>to prosecute him, at the time.  This is most certainly not the the
>>>case.  All the Church is saying is that Galileo was not a bad person,
>>>and that his writings, even his satires of the Church,  no longer pose
>>>any social threat.

>

>> Power Politics 101:

>

>> The first priority of those in power is to preserve that power, which
>> requires intolerance of novelty and the development of reactionary
>> positions on matters of policy. Acts of liberalism only serve those
>> out of power.  Once power has been acquired, those "acts" of
>> liberalism become a smoke screen of empty (or nearly so) promises -
>> lip service to preserve loyalty among the masses.

>

>> As the most powerful political force in western civilization at that
>> time, the Church of Rome could ill-afford Galileo's novel ideas,
>> especially as they directly contradicted established Church Doctrine.

>
> It's been a while since I read "The Sleepwalkers" by Arthur Koestler,
> but as I recall, the senior church leaders were initially very receptive
> to Galileo's ideas, but in his arrogance he decided that he should have
> the right to lead discussion on spiritual issues as well as physical
> matters.
>
> He also had some problems with attempting to use the existence of tides
> as evidence in support of his motion - but as it became clear that his
> explanation would only give 1 tide per day he used scorn and insult to
> hide the fact that he was (in that instance at least) using a very weak
> argument.
>
> I can't remember exactly how that affected things, but I suspect that
> when he used bluster, insult and scorn against some of his clerical
> opponents he lost the sympathy of the church leaders as a result. One of
> the cardinals who he had been particularly vicious against more of less
> forced the church to take action.
>
> If anyone wants to know a bit more about the development of the work of
> Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo it's well worth finding the Koestler book.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -