Church and Science

In 1616 Galileo was forbidden by the church to publishing anything additional on the subject of Copernican ideas. Simply put, he had stated and tried to prove that the sun was the center of the universe instead of the Earth. To the uneducated eye this looks like another fight between religion and science, faith vs. intellectualism. With research one can find that this could not be further from the truth. In truth, science and religion are a lot closer than most people know.

Both Copernicus and Galileo were professed Roman Catholics. When Galileo discovered mountains on the moon and moons around Jupiter it was not only celebrated but confirmed by Jesuits. The pope encouraged Galileo to study the Copernican theory but asked that he would not teach it as anything more than a theory until there were facts to call it truth. When Galileo published The Starry Messenger and stated the theory to be fact prematurely he was no longer allowed to publish the subject further.

The sun being the center of the universe instead of the earth caused some conflict with interpretation of scripture. Modern secularism likes to exaggerate the church desire to eliminate science that contradicts their interpretation of the bible but it simply is not true. Throughout history the church, as well as the pope of Galileo’s time have a record of allowing their human, imperfect, interpretations of scripture to change while still holding the Bible to be divine and perfect.

Science and religion go hand in hand. Thirty-five craters on the moon are named for Jesuit scientists and mathematicians. J. L. Heilbron of the University of California-Berkeley is quoted saying:

The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial aid and support to the study of astronomy for over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning during the Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other institutions.

Obviously the men involved in the church are not perfect, but neither are the men outside the church. Both have been wrong in their theories and actions, but one thing is for sure and that is that the church is not against science.

Works Cited

Bulliet et el., The Earth & its Peoples 4th Dolphin ed., v. 2, pp. 446-461, 584-596

Thomas Woods, Jr, “The Church and Science” in How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization ch. 5