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Father of modern science, Galileo challenged the church 400 years ago
26-08-2009
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When Galileo Galilei first turned his simple telescope toward Jupiter, the moon and then the sun nearly 400 years ago, it's not difficult to imagine how amazed he was. Known as the father of modern science, Galileo meticulously recorded the motions of the four largest satellites of Jupiter and drew images of Earth's moon that showed it to be much more geographically complex than the smooth sphere others imagined. The sun, he concluded, actually revolved; the motion of sunspots proved it.
Galileo's discoveries in 1609 and 1610 -- the result of making improvements to a device invented by Johannes Lipperhey, a German spectacles maker working in the Netherlands -- led to an explosive growth in astronomy.
At a deeper level, it caused humans to reconsider their place in the universe and forced the Catholic Church to confront what it held sacred in its understanding of God's creation.
"The great thing about the discoveries is that they really did change the way we look at the universe," said Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, an American working on the staff of the Vatican Observatory headquartered in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, near Rome.
"The biggest lesson for people of faith today is to realize that everything we know is true, but the universe is far more complicated than we believe," he told Catholic News Service.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20090825.htm
