Galileo: The Battle Between Faith and Truth

Even though Galileo does use his telescope to gain more money and hoodwink the businessmen of the Senate, he also uses the telescope for other ends, such as examining the sky to help himself better understand the universe. However, while doing so, he stumbles upon an observation that threatens to shatter the universe according to the Church. He and Sagredo, a local Venetian scientist, find that there are actually moons orbiting Jupiter, meaning that the planets have broken out of their crystal shells (or where never actually in them in the first place). Sagredo begins to question the validity of this observation to which Galileo replies “Don’t stand there looking at me as if it weren’t true” (62) to which Sagredo replies “I suppose it is true. I’m afraid” (62). Sagredo’s reaction is incredibly important in understanding where humans stand when faced with the truth. All Sagredo’s life, he has been taught the crystal-shell theory and probably believed it whole-heartedly if he were a good Christian. However, when this faith in a perfectly ordered universe is threatened, he becomes frightened and disillusioned, much like pulling a rug out from under someone. He pleads with Galileo to forget his findings and to never publish them for the public to read, saying that no one will believe him and the Church will not accept his blasphemy, as evidenced by the burning of Giordano Bruno whose arguments against the existence of God brought about his demise. Galileo, instead, counters with the fact that observation of things which support the truth cannot be ignored. He pulls out a pebble and says “If anyone were to drop a stone and tell them it didn’t fall, do you think they would keep quiet? The evidence of your own eyes is a very seductive thing. Sooner or later everybody must succumb to it” (63). Galileo is shown here to be the true philosopher and the ultimate empiricist whose ideas will eventually be vindicated through the truth. Is this, however, the whole story? Absolutely not.

In the beginning of Galileo, we are shown a picture of the scientific Galileo, the Galileo of history books, as he tutors Andrea, the child of a friend, regarding the movements of the planets. Andrea brings Galileo a present from the court of Naples which is what Galileo recognizes as “a map of the sky according to the wise men of ancient Greece” (47). Instead of it being a model of the heliocentric solar system that we know exists today, it is a configuration of eight rings representing crystal shells all wrapped around the stationary earth. Even though this may seem odd, all empirical observations point to the earth being a stationary body around which all heavenly bodies orbit, as the conversation between Andrea and Galileo shows us. Andrea points out that, although the map may seem foolish and outdated, it stands to reason that all bodies do, in fact, revolve around the Earth, si

Some topics in this essay:
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