> On Sep 10, 3:42 pm, "Dan Drake" dandrake.com> wrote:
>

>> Again, there is no historical evidence whatever of an intent on Galileo's
>> part to insult the Pope, except an assertion by the Inquisition. If you
>> knew of any, you might condescend to tell us of it rather than debating
>> epistemology.

>
> "Pope Urban VIII personally asked Galileo to give arguments for and
> against heliocentrism in the book, and to be careful not to advocate
> heliocentrism. He made another request, that his own views on the
> matter be included in Galileo's book. Only the latter of those
> requests was fulfilled by Galileo. Whether unknowingly or deliberate,
> Simplicius, the defender of the Aristotelian Geocentric view in
> Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was often caught in
> his own errors and sometimes came across as a fool. This fact made
> Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems appear as an advocacy
> book; an attack on Aristotelian geocentrism and defense of the
> Copernican theory. To add insult to injury, Galileo put the words of
> Pope Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicius. Most historians agree
> Galileo did not act out of malice and felt blindsided by the reaction
> to his book.[80] However, the Pope did not take the suspected public
> ridicule lightly, nor the blatant bias. Galileo had alienated one of
> his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to
> Rome to defend his writings."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

> "Simplicius" means simpler, stupider, dumber, by the way.

> Whether Galileo intended to insult the Pope, or simply was tactless
> and foolish enough to insult the Pope, is a moot point.  Clearly,
> Galileo insulted the Pope.