DBWI: St Galileo Galilei had been charged with hersesy

Some of you may have heard that some scholars are claiming to have found a document written by St Galileo Galilei called "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems".

The evidence that it is his seems quite real, they believe he wrote it a few years before the much celebrated feast with Pope Urban VIII when his revolutionary views on planetary motion were discussed and proclaimed right and true.

It seems this document he wrote but did not publish was in open mockery of the Holy Church, and any layman reading it can see that if it had been published he would of been in big trouble. So much so that I think he would of been branded a heretic and obviously never been canonized.

How would the holy arts of science and understanding Gods great creation have been hampered by this?
 
I think the Catholic Church can take a joke or two. It wasn't like the man burned crosses and sacrificed goats to Satan or something.

That being said, Galileo would still be remembered as a scientist, regardless of his positions regarding the church.
 
Yeah, I don't think this would make much of a difference to science. I know what the unitary spirit theory says, but there is science outside the Catholic realms. But imagine what something like this could do to the reputation of the church. (Maybe not just one trial, but a succession of such trials, too)

Come to think of it, the shape of higher education could be affected. A hierarchical decision on unresolved scientific matters purely in a scriptural basis would be the Christian equivalent of closing the gates of ijtihad. That didn't do the Islamic wqorld any favours, either. Science would have to be practised outside the church. And of course, without the funds and manpower available to the institution, general scientific education would be badly lacking. Can you imagine the damage someone like Fr. d'Holbach would have done outside Holy Orders?
 
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