Galileo: Reason and Rejection

seen and taking a picture of a black hole. I wanted to specifically talk about the aerodynamics Akaino source and the lies that these paleontologists have been feeding you for your entire lives. He says he genetically edited human embryos not just for research, but for implantation, leading to the world's first births of genetically alter humans baby girls born in China from embryos designed to be resistant to HIV. In a minute, Oh hi there, Welcome to twenty nineteen,

a time when quadruped robots can open doors. Researchers are working on printing body parts. Burgers not made out of meat tastes just like meat, and some people believe NASA's use of composite images proves that Earth is not round. I'm Eve Steph Code, and this is unpopular a podcast about the people in history who did not let the threat of persecution keep them from speaking truth to power more often than I probably should. I wonder how my

ancestors would react to modern technology. I mean, I am at in someone who only knew oil lamps, pressing buttons on a PlayStation, making simulated people move on a gigantic screen, or my great great great great grandmother, who likely once were shackles around her ankles watching me use a smartphone to call a lift to pick me up, just me,

no restrictions. I know that not everyone in the world has the privilege of accessing such technology, and I know that this kind of situation has been the gag and many a poorly executed comedy. I just think the reason I think about this so much is so I remember not to take how far humankind has advanced for granted, and so I hold onto that youthful awe that can dissipate so easily in a world that can be super harsh at times. Nobody snapped their fingers and created my microwave.

I'm grateful for the years of research, experimentation, and design people put in to create a multitude of technologies that allow me to warm my leftovers up in less than three minutes. I realize how much science cushions my comfortable life, and I pay my respects by daydreaming about raising my forebears from a did to come revel in all with me. I know people way back in the day couldn't fathom something like social media or robot vacuums unless they were

like nostro damis or something. It's hard to see past the current situation. It's impossible to know what knowledge science will bring us in the future, and thanks to our hubris, it's not easy to imagine that something we believed to be utterly and undeniably true about the world could be

completely wrong. Being wrong after you thought you had it all figured out is like dropping your ice cream cone on the hot summer day before you even got one lick in, or buying a pair of pants you thought hat pockets, only to find out they were fake pockets. Cognitive dissonance kicks in when our beliefs are challenged. We want to be right. We need to be right to reduce the discomfort of that dissonance. Suppose an individual believes

something with his whole heart. Suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief and he has taken irrevocable actions because of it. Finally, supposed that he has presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence that his belief is wrong. What will happen. The individual will frequently emerge not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor for convincing and converting other people to his view.

Psychologist Leon Festinger, Henry W. Reikan, and Stanley Shackter wrote that in the book When Prophecy Fails, this sentiment can be applied to so so any things that are happening in the world right now. Science denialism not the least of them. Conviction is one hell of a drug. We're more likely to believe information that confirms the beliefs we already hold, and we reject information that contradicts our beliefs. We feel first, and we reason later, and often that

reasoning is just affront for rationalizing our beliefs. We may be intelligent beings capable of things no other creature has been before, unique among known life forms. But we are not immune to irrational thoughts and being unable to swallow our pride. These are the flaws in our grand design. Galileo Galilei was up against when he rejected the officially held belief that the Sun revolved around Earth and Earth

was the center of the universe. Instead, he said Earth revolved around the Sun. He wasn't the first person to support the heliocentric model. Aristarchus of Samos was the first to suggest that Earth rotates on an axis and revolves around the Sun in the BC years, and in the publication six Books concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs, Nikolaus Copernicus proposed that the planets revolved around the Sun,

which is at the center of the universe. But even though scientists knew Earth was not at the center of the universe, the Catholic Church would have none of it when Galilea was vocal about helio centrism in the seventeenth century. Galileo is one of the most well known and celebrated scientists ever, and his run in with the Church is a mythicized affair that many people have encountered in some form or another. It's worth looking back at the heliocentrism

contry or see. Not so we can laugh at how ignorant the church was, but so we can consider how we react to information that opposes are deeply held beliefs, and what it means to be the kind of person who's willing to question those beliefs. Galileo was literally confined for his dissent, a kind of poetic illustration of the ways we can be closed minded in self limiting. Galileo story is a reminder that sometimes we have to make enemies in our pursuit of truth. After the break, we'll

meet the man who helped advance the scientific revolution. M. Galileo was born on February fifteenth, fifteen sixty four in Pisa, Italy. His mom was Julia Almonati, and his father a musician named Vincenzo Galilei. After Galileo and his family moved to Florence in the early fifteen seventies, Galileo began to study for the priesthood and considered joining the Order, but he switched paths, deciding to study medicine. At the University of Pisa.

It was his father's wish that he studied medicine, but he soon fell in love with math, and he once again changed courses and began to study philosophy and mathematics. In fifteen eighty nine he became the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa, but by fifteen ninety two he had fallen out of favor with his colleagues for supporting the Archamedian approach to motion rather than Aristotle's notions.

That meant he believed the speed of falling bodies is proportional to their density, rather than their weight, as Aristotle proposed. Of course, this would not be Galileo's last foray into the land of objection and subsequent rejection. In two he was appointed mathematician at the University of Padua, where he

stayed until fifteen ten. While at Padua, Galileo did experiments on the speed of falling objects, gave lectures on geometry and astronomy, invented a device for raising water, invented a mathematical instrument called a sector, experimented with the pendulum, and discovered the parabolic path of projectiles. It was also during this time when Galileo found out about the invention of the telescope, began making his own improvements on the device

and started observing the skies. Through these increasingly powerful telescope hopes, Galileo saw that the surface of the Moon was rough and had mountains and valleys. He observed Jupiter's four largest moons. He observed how many more stars were visible with the telescope than without it. Armed with these discoveries, Galileo published Sidios Nunchus, or The Sidereal Messenger in English, a treatise

based on his observations. In sixteen twelve, galileos treatise Discourse on Floating Bodies was published after he wanted debate against Aristotelian physicist Little Vico de le Columbe at a dinner the Grand Duke of Tuscany hosted. The treatise details galileos Archimedian views on floating bodies, as well as his telescopic observations of sun spots, the phases of Venus, the odd

shape of Saturn, and the periods of Jupiter's satellites. The next year, the Academia de Lyncha bush Galileo's pamphlet Letters on Sun spots. Jesuit mathematician Christoph Shiner had said and his Three Letters on Solar Spots that sun spots were satellites of the Sun, maintaining Aristotle's views on the perfection

of heavenly bodies. But Galileo fired back at Shiner, using his observations and full page copper plate engravings to show that sun spots do not revolve around the Sun, but are on or near the surface of the Sun. By supporting the idea that the Sun and heavens are corruptible,

Galileo was once again rejecting Aristotle's cosmology. Other scientists and theologians were already advocating theories that opposed Aristotles, like Giordano Bruno, an Italian character who, among many other controversial views, rejected the idea that Earth is at the center of the universe and believed that the universe is infinite. He was burned at the stake in sixteen hundred after a heresy trial that was likely more related to his religious and

philosophical beliefs than his astronomical ones. Anyway, by this point it was clear that Galileo favored Copernican theory. He had likely preferred it for decades, but Galileos mentioned of the Copernican system at the end of his last letter, is considered by many to be his first endorsement of the theory.

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish mathematician and astronomer. He proposed that the Sun was near the center of the universe, that Earth and the other planets orbited around the stationary Sun, that Earth turns on his own axis daily, and that Earth's motion explained other planets retrograde motion. His book detailing his theory on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spears was published in fifteen forty three, and the Catholic Church banded

it in sixteen sixteen, decades after copernicus Is death. Between that time, many people dismissed the theory on grounds of religion, prevailing notions on the physics of motion and shared disbelief, while others accepted heliocentrism, like German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Despite growing support for theories that the Sun was at the center of the Solar system, the Catholic Church maintains the view that Earth was static and at the center of

the universe, based on interpretations of the Bible. To refute those troops was to go against the scripture, So Galileo tried to keep his support for Copernicanism on the downlow at first, but around six he started getting a lot more vocal about the theory. To no one's surprise, the Church did not respond well to Galileo's smart, but totally

offensive in bold challenges. When we come back from the break, we'll see the lengths the Church went to to condemn Galileo, and we'll ask the question, how do we as individuals treat heretical and revolutionary thought. We do not know everything. We are always learning more about ourselves and the universe,

always adding layers of information to our knowledge base. Because we are imperfect and not omniscient, we are constantly getting things wrong, assuming or concluding their right, then course correcting later when we find our error. But even though we know we're fallible and will make mistakes, we still have a hard time letting go of the old and embracing the new when we have mental and emotional hang ups

on a subject. For example, evolving knowledge about gender identity and the complexities of biological sex is something people all over the world are struggling to come to terms with the vaccines cause autism debate is hot despite the fact that current research shows there is no link between the two, and there are many climate change skeptics, even though the scientific consensus is that human activities is one of the biggest drivers of global warming and that it will affect

the globe in major ways in the coming centuries. Scientific inquiry and knowledge have progressed a lot since Galileo's days, so I know it seems like denying scientific evidence nowadays is something only a fool would do, But I'd argue that this reaction can make sense when we consider the ever changing nature of human knowledge. Having to adjust to radical new thought can turn out to be just too

much for our stability, craving myoptic natures. Plus, people have little trust in the individuals and organizations providing the science, a distrust that's often wrapped up in politics and years of some sort of institutional mistreatment. I am not defending uninformed science denial. I am defending the usefulness of questioning things, even when it makes us look silly, feel uncomfortable, or garner hate. That questioning just isn't equal across the board.

If we'd listened to everyone who had unorthodox views and charisma, we'd be in pretty bad shape. Skepticism is nourishing in moderation, not when it is abused and rooted and thoughtless faceless rejection. We're intelligent. We can be nuanced enough to resort neither to instant dismissal nor approval of logically sound unorthodox thought. In six thirteen, Galileo wrote a letter to his student Benedetto Castelli about the contradictions between Copernican theory and Biblical passages.

A couple of years later, a Dominican friar named Nicolo Laurini filed a complaint with the Inquisition regarding Galileo's Copernican views, sending it along with an inaccurate copy of the letter. The Inquisition was an institution in the Catholic Church whose job it was to eradicate heresies. Galileo ended up going to Rome to defend his views in reputation, but in sixteen fifteen, carmen Lite friar Bolo Antonio Foscarini published a book in which he argued that Copernican theory is compatible

with Holy scripture. The next year, a committee of Inquisition consultants declared Copernican theory heretical. Boscarini's book and other Copernican texts were banned or suspended until corrected. Cardinal Bellarman, who had warned Foscarini to treat Copernican theory as just a hypothesis, all so told Galileo not to hold, defend, or discuss

the theory. But by sixty four Pope Urban the seventh had given Galileo permission to write a book about the theories of the universe, but the Pope said Galileo could only treat Copernican theory as a mathematical proposition. The book, Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems Ptolemaic and Copernican, was structured as a discussion between two men, and printing was completed in sixteen thirty two, but the Pope convened a special commission to examine the book, and the commission

found that Galileo had not treated the theory hypothetically. Galileo was called to Rome in sixteen thirty three to go in front of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. He was charged with teaching and defending the Copernican theory that the Sun is at the center of the universe and

the Earth moves, which had been deemed heretical. In his first appearance before the inquisition, Galileo refused to confess to any wrongdoing, since the inquisitors didn't have much of the case against him without a confession, Galileo basically took a plea bargain for a lesser sentence in exchange for admitting he had given the heliocentric model defender a stronger case in his book, but he claimed he didn't do so because he believed the theory. Rather, he did so to

show off his debating chops. Galileo was never under a threat of execution or tortured, likely because of his poor physical condition. Instead, Galileo was declared vehement Lee suspect of

heresy on June twenty three. After his sentence was fred, he had to recite and sign an abjuration which said, in part, I have been judged vehement Lee suspect of heresy, that is, of having held and believed that the Sun is the center of the universe and immovable, and that the Earth is not at the center of same, and that it does move. Wishing, however, to remove from the

minds of your eminences and all faithful Christians. This vehement suspicion reasonably conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith. I curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally all in every error, heresy, and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. In the end, Galileo's book Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems was banned and he was sentenced to three years of weekly

penitential prayer and imprisonment. At the discretion of church inquisitors, his sentence was commuted to house arrest, and in late sixty three he returned to his villa and Art three near Florence, where he spent the rest of his life. People objected to his arrest, and some attempted to free him, but to no avail. During this time, Galileo finished his last book, Discourses on the Two New Sciences. He kept

working until his death in sixteen forty two. The Dialogue concerning the two Chief role systems Ptolemaic and Copernican remained on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden books until eighteen thirty five. In eighteen twenty two, the College of Cardinals said that the publication of works treating of the motion of the Earth and the stability of the Sun in accordance with

the opinion of modern astronomers is permitted. In nineteen seventy nine, Pope John Paul the Second said that Galileo had suffered injustices at the hands of the Church, and in nineteen ninety two the pope admitted that theological advisors had made heirs in Galileo's case, but he did not apologize for the church's treatment of Galileo until two thousand. People in the Church were not the only ones to denounce Galileo. Other scientists in lay people discredited his cosmological views and

deemed him dishonorable. The Galileo affair has been researched and theorized to death. Yes, Galileo made a ton of major contributions to science and took risks, and his name lives on for that reason. But the enduring fascination with the controversy surrounding his defense of heliocentrism shows how much we care about people who push the envelope to try to make society better and smarter, especially when it has to do with flashy space theories. We make a lot of

mistakes before we get the clarity of hindsight. We don't need to trust everybody, but we can try not to burn rebels at the stake before we even give them a chance to speak. We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular m. H our producer is Andrew Howard,

Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers. If you're not already subscribed, you can make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcast, the iHeart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular m